Viewed was the winner of the 2008 Melbourne Cup.(credit:
nbraier)
The 2008 Melbourne Cup was one of the most thrilling ends to the race ever witnessed as Viewed held off a late charge from Luca Cumani’s Bauer to land a twelfth win in the race for trainer Bart Cummings.
Returning at odds of 46.50 on the TAB, Viewed will go down as the winner of one of the most nail-biting races of all time.
Blake Shinn pushed the winner to the head of affairs as the field turned for home and began to make their way up the famous stretch. Bauer, Cumani’s second string in the race, threw a late challenge down the outside, pushing him all the way to the line and it was a guessing game as to who had won.
The photo revealed that the five-year-old had landed the race by a nose for his legendary handler.
C’est La Guerre could not get any nearer to the front two as he finished two lengths back in third, while Master O’Reilly filled the final place back in fourth.
It was a hugely unsuccessful trip for Aidan O’Brien whose trio Alessandro Volta, Septimus and Honolulu had set a searching gallop, leading the field along for most of the way, before their challenges came to an end up the straight.
Bauer was trading at a low of 1.56 (Betfair) in running and it looked for the world that he was going to get up as he left the pack. However, it was not to be and pre-race favourite Mad Rush could only finish seventh for Cumani. The result meant that the trainer landed second in the race for the second year in a row.
A clearly emotional Shinn said: "I'm going to cry. I'm speechless. It was a lot of hard work along the way.
"It's important to get this horse into a good rhythm. I got there too early but when I pushed the button he showed a real turn of foot on this fast ground."