A fine rendition of Advance Australia Fair filled the air at Flemington just before the Melbourne Cup.
They are already rehearsing La Marseillaise for next year.
Depending on how you look at it, Australia’s greatest race has either been elevated to a lofty, international status by the courageous victory of the French galloper Dunaden, or it has been hijacked.
For the second year in a row, the French won the Melbourne Cup.
Dunaden, a smallish, plain-looking bay horse with a fabulous will-to-win, led home one of the most multicultural finishes in a major race anywhere in the world.
At the end of the 3200m, Dunaden had a nose to spare over the English runner Red Cadeaux. Lucas Cranach from Germany was third and the defending champion Americain, also from France, was fourth.
Then came the English trio of Manighar, Lost In The Moment and Fox Hunt.
And then the pride of Australia – Niwot – who is named after a town in Colorado, in eighth place.
Well before Dunaden’s number went up, the 2011 Cup had broken new ground.
Eleven of the 23 runners are trained outside Australia, another six had begun their racing careers in other countries, three were bred in New Zealand and three in Australia.
Even before the winner returned to the paddock, the xenophobes were proclaiming disaster, much as they did 18 years ago when Vintage Crop gave the Cup some international credence, declaring the French would now own the race, just as they previously assumed the Irish would.
Dunaden’s trainer Mikel Delzangles agreed there would likely be a few more French trainers trying to do what he has done.
“But not too many, I hope. This is the most popular race in the world and for sure many French trainers will now understand it is possible to win it.”
While the Cup may have again gone abroad, its significance wasn’t lost on the winners.
Delzangles clearly understood what he was getting in to, as did winning jockey Christophe Lemaire who only picked up the Dunaden ride 24 hours before he sat on the horse when Australia’s only potential connection to the win, Craig Williams, failed in his bid to beat a suspension.
“When you are a jockey you know all the big races around the world, so I know about the Melbourne Cup,” Lemaire said.
“But I didn’t know how crazy it would be.
“I can feel the passion, the excitement, especially before the race when I stand in the paddock.
“Nowhere before do I feel it like this.”
In a multinational Cup, Dunaden fitted in perfectly as the multinational horse.
Trained and ridden by Frenchmen, he is owned by a Qatari sheikh whose racing affairs are managed by an Englishman.
And they have all promised to come back – with as many horses as they can find.
