VIEWED - 2008 Bart declared that the internationals had such an advantage through their staying bloodlines. But in the end, it was Bart and his home-bred, five-year-old stallion Viewed, bursting clear from the pack half way up the straight and then holding off a late challenge from one of the internationals, a game little battler in Bauer, whose rump was in front of Viewed’s on the line – but not his nose. Although Viewed drifted from $31 to $41, with the minor placegetters Bauer and C’Est La Guerre both starting at $21, there was a buzz after the race which only accompanies a memorable and thrilling victory. When the photo finish was decided by the judge, the television cameras, the radio microphones and the newspaper tape recorders were thrust in Bart’s face and stayed with him as he made his way down the steps of the mounting yard. Damien Oliver’s victory salute on Media Puzzle in 2002 provided probably the most poignant image in the history of the great race. And Makybe Diva’s third victory in 2005 was an historic occasion that we all rejoiced in seeing – because we all knew we would probably never see it again. This one, Bart’s 12th, was different because the celebration was less about the circumstance or the moment. It was all about the man. He was indefatigable. In his eighties he was still doing things people in their 50s find too demanding – like rising before dawn, staying on your feet all day at the track, sparring with the media, celebrating at night and doing it all over again the next day and the next. There’s an argument to suggest that Bart’s last two Cup winners were his greatest training feats. Rogan Josh (1999), which he improved from a moderate WA galloper to a weight-for-age Mackinnon Stakes and Melbourne Cup victor, and Viewed which missed a vital lead-up run in the week before the Caulfield Cup and had been all but forgotten by the bookies.
Viewed and Blake Shinn out last the courageous efforts of Bauer and jockey Corey Brown to hand Bart his twelfth Melbourne Cup in 2008. (STR/AFP/Getty Images)
11
Made with FlippingBook Digital Publishing Software