Originally Posted by
peacheymagic
Maybe not my favourite race but probably the best performance I have seen on the big stage was Flashing Red's 2007 NZ cup win. The horse had basically been written off as he hadn't won any lead up races, his last win was the Auckland Cup back in March, he was 10 years old and was considered to be past his best consequently he was paying $23 on the tote.
He was running at the back of the pack for the majority of the race and then with about 1200 to go went 3 wide and remained there for the rest of the race, with 400m to go he was past by Monkey King and Tribute, at this stage im sure even his biggest fan didn't think he could win. The monkey had a great trip and put half a length on flashing red yet as the winning post got closer flashing red clawed his way back and ended up winning by a neck.
I remember being on track and couldn't believe my eyes and then heard the time 357.8 and Flashing Red had spent the majority of the last lap 3 wide, very rarely do horses win when doing this much work and never in a NZ cup should a horse be able to win after that sort of run, yet Flashing Red had done it as a 10yo and off 15m. What a phenomenal training effort, and to consider what Monkey King has gone on to do with the run he had for Flashing Red to be able to muster enough strength to surge past him really makes him a true NZ cup champion.