Jockey Joao Moreira has come under serious fire for his nightmare ride on Melbourne Cup favourite Buckaroo.
In the aftermath of the $8.5 million race, the accusations have been flying, and the Brazilian hoop has been questioned for settling the horse a long way back and taking him wide (which was in stark contrast to the clever ride from Robbie Dolan on eventual winner Knight’s Choice).
In fact, data from the race showed that Buckaroo ran 15m more that Knight’s Choice, 3237m compared to 3222m.
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While that might seem insignificant, Buckaroo was given little hope from very early on.
Trainer Chris Waller again used Moreira after he rode Soulcombe to second in the 2023 Cup (despite missing the jump by three lengths and hitting traffic at the 700m mark).
And veteran commentator Gerard Whateley thought going with Moreira again was a big mistake.
“A three-kilo apprentice from Barrier 21 can hook a horse back to second last and swing widest on the turn, but you can’t win a Melbourne Cup doing it,” Whateley said on SEN.
“It’s one of the worst decisions in Melbourne Cup history not to replace Joao with James McDonald on Buckaroo. It played out graphically before us.
“He (Moreira) died wondering. He was never given a chance.”
Trainer Wayne Hawkes was watching the race as a neutral and could not believe what he was seeing.
“I think I nearly threw up myself and I’ve nothing to do with it,” Hawkes said.
“It shouldn’t have just won, it should have s–t it in. You got ‘Oh Joao’d’ last year, now you’ve been ‘Oh Joao’d’ again this year.
“That’s horrendous. It’s the worst car crash in the racing industry.
“Two years in a row (Moreira has blown it) … you should have won back-to-backs.”
Part-owner John O’Neill also expressed frustrations in the ride.
“I didn’t think the ride was much good,” O’Neill said SEN.
“He jumped and he said he got a bit of a check, then he had a look and tried to get in but couldn’t.
“He had to drop his hands because he wanted to save some ground.
“I think we all know that at 20th at the 800m it was all over, he couldn’t win.”
O’Neill said Waller wanted Buckaroo to be in the second half of the field and one off the fence.
“I’m sure he didn’t want him to be last. At the end of the day, Joao made a decision to go back,” he said.
“I think we all know, from a racing aspect it’s very difficult because you draw these gates, you draw in, you draw out, you make split-second decisions on things that either win or lose you a race.
“If you’re Joao, he’s a world-class rider, does he go back inside?
“We saw what we experienced last year with Soulcombe going back inside. Funnily enough the horses that ran first (Knight’s Choice), second (Warp Speed) and fifth (Absurde) have all gone back inside.
“There was reasonable pace and those were the stayers in the race that found the gaps as you can on the way through.
“For us it was a really disappointing and frustrating day. We got way too far back in my opinion.
“There’s no sour grapes here, I’m not a rider, and Joao made the call.
“If the horse had have been in the first half a dozen and we had have been where Interpretation was and we let go like he did from the back 1000m from home, would he have been three in front at the clock tower? I think so.
“Would he have hung on and won? I think so, but that’s in hindsight.”
Moreira said after the Cup that Buckaroo “didn’t have the best of runs because he actually went wide”.
“It was hard to get in and we had to travel a little bit wide,” he said.
“The distance probably just stretched him too much.
“In the last little bit he started to get tired. He couldn’t really run the distance.”
