It’s worth a fraction of the Melbourne Cup but like the big race, only a select band can run in the spectacle that is the greys only race at the Flemington carnival.
On Thursday, the Chris Waller-trained Arinosa lived up to her $3.50 favouritism to take out the $100,000 event over 1400 metres with a surging finish to beat Dash For Viz ($14) by 1-3/4 lengths.
Arinosa winning the TCL 3D TV Plate at Flemington - photo by Race Horse Photos Australia (Steven Dowden)
“It’s special to win any race during Melbourne Cup week and for my owners this was their Melbourne Cup,” Waller said.
“It’s a dream for them. They were keen to get her here and we targeted the race.
“There are options for other horses but if you’ve got a grey horse, this is a great race to target.”
Waller set the race as the mission after Arinosa won at Rosehill in September.
“We gave her a bit of a break and got her ready for this,” he said.
“It’s also good that she beat the boys as well.”
Brenton Avdulla brought Arinosa to the outside in the straight with a sweeping run, giving her plenty of room.
Both the winner and the runner-up are by Dash For Cash, one of the best greys of the past few years.
Dash For Cash won the 2002 Australian Guineas and Futurity Stakes at Group One level and his last four starts produced second placings in four elite races.
It was a turnaround in luck for Waller after Dystopia was a close second in the Listed G H Mumm Stakes earlier in the day.
