Caulfield Cup

While Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum’s Tawqeet attempts Australian racing history in Tuesday’s Melbourne Cup, the horse’s trainer David Hayes also chases a first in this part of the world.
Having won Sydney’s Group 1 The Metropolitan, Tawqeet returned to Melbourne to win the Group 1 Caulfield Cup and will now attempt to complete an unprecedented treble in next Tuesday’s Emirates Melbourne Cup.
Only Redcraze in 1956 came close, winning the The Metropolitan and Caulfield Cup but beaten into second place behind Evening Peal in the Melbourne Cup.
David Hayes chases his own slice of history also, attempting to become the first trainer to win Australian racing’s Grand Slam in the one year.
Golf and Tennis have their own Grand Slam with four majors and Australian racing has its own with the Golden Slipper, Caulfield Cup, W.S. Cox Plate and Melbourne Cup.
Since the introduction into the Australian calendar of the Golden Slipper in 1957, no trainer has managed to prepare the winners of all four races in the one year.
But Hayes attempts it next Tuesday having won the Golden Slipper (Miss Finland) and in the last two weeks the Caulfield Cup (Tawqeet) and W.S. Cox Plate (Fields of Omagh).
In the Melbourne Cup he will be represented by Tawqeet and Short Pause, while Defining and Jagger are borderline to secure a run.
Lee Freedman has come closest to achieving the feat, he didn’t have a runner in the Golden Slipper in 1992 but won the last three legs, the Caulfield Cup with Mannerism, the Cox Plate with Super Impose and Melbourne Cup with Subzero.