The Big Dance is a race that will only take place on November 4, Melbourne Cup day … a little under four months away … but a $3 million prize-money carrot is a huge temptation for trainers to line up their best options early and try and qualify their horses for the Big Dance final at Royal Randwick.
There are no less than thirty-three qualifying races over a twelve-month period and, for a chance to make the final Big Dance field, a horse will gain eligibility by winning or finishing second in one of those eligible races. Once these runners are decided, all horses are placed in a ballot order and the top 20 horses according to their benchmark rating (including two exemptions from the Wild Card) will race for a share of the $3 million.
Trainer Matthew Dunn certainly has one race covered in the qualification stakes.
In terms of qualifying via the South Grafton Cup, it might have been a case of ‘been there, done that’ for Dunn … with the stable having won the race back-to-back in 2023 and 2024 with Cepheus … but Dunn hasn’t finished yet and he duly completed the hat trick of South Grafton Cup wins when Boy’s Night Out saluted at Grafton on Sunday at the start of a huge week that is the Grafton July Carnival.
Boy’s Night Out continued another trend for the Dunn South Grafton Cup winners … namely the oh so narrow margin of victory.
In 2023 Cepheus won by 0.18 lengths. In 2024 it was 0.15 lengths and on Sunday Boy’s Night Out got home in a blanket finish by 0,05 lengths, little more than the proverbial nostril.
And not for the first time Dunn had to repel big stable opposition to claim this latest victory.
Snapping at the heels of Boy’s Night Out in that pressurised finish were horses trained by Ciaron Maher, Annabel and Rob Archibald and Robert Heathcote who all finished less than half-a-length off the winner. In 2024 Cepheus only just beat out a Joe Pride runner and in 2023 it was a John O’Shea trained horse who Cepheus held narrowly at bay so, in essence, there have been no ‘gimmes’ here.
The Dunn hat trick of South Grafton Cup wins looks good. It looks even better when it is noted just how hard-earned a set of results it has been.
Whether Boy’s Night Out can kick-on from here is the next question that will be answered over the coming months.
To date, Dunn has had three runners in The Big Dance, a race which had its inaugural running in 2022.
His best result to date was the second place of Cepheus in the 2023 edition of The Big Dance. Impasse (2022) and Cranky Harry (2024) both finished unplaced in their tilts at the big race,
