Twilight Payment's Melbourne Cup win soured by horse death

[ASFN Admin]

== PLEASE NOTE, RACE ACTION IS MUTE == SHOWS: MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA (NOVEMBER 3, 2020) (HBA - Broadcasters: NO USE AUSTRALIA AND UK. NEWS PURPOSES ONLY. Digital: NO USE AUSTRALIA AND UK. NEWS PURPOSES ONLY) 1. AERIAL VIEW OF RACECOURSE 2. ANTHONY VAN DYCK BEFORE THE RACE 3. HORSES MAKE THEIR WAY TO START 4. START OF RACE 5. TWILIGHT PAYMENT LEADS THE RACE 6. VARIOUS RACE ACTION 7. TWILIGHT PAYMENT WINS THE RACE 8. JOCKEY JYE MCNEIL CELEBRATES 9. SLOW MOTION OF RACE FINISH 10. TWILIGHT PAYMENT ENTERS WINNERS ENCLOSURE 11. TROPHY CEREMONY 12. MCNEIL AND STABLE REPRESENTATIVE MARK POWER WITH THE MELBOURNE CUP STORY: Twilight Payment led from start to finish to claim the A$8 million ($5.63 million) Melbourne Cup in a stunning run on Tuesday (November 3), but the victory was soured by the death of last year's Epsom Derby winner Anthony Van Dyck. Eight-year-old gelding Twilight Payment held off runner-up Tiger Moth and a late charge from third-placed Prince of Arran to deliver jockey Jye McNeil a dream debut in "the race that stops the nation" at a closed Flemington Racecourse. But it was a sombre day for race organisers and the connections of Anthony Van Dyck, with the Aidan O'Brien-trained horse put down after breaking down late in the race. The five-year-old stallion, runner-up at last month's A$5 million Caulfield Cup, carried the top weight of 58.5kg on a hot afternoon at Flemington. "It is with sadness that we confirm that Anthony Van Dyck had to be humanely euthanised after sustaining a fractured fetlock during the running of the Melbourne Cup at Flemington," Racing Victoria's integrity chief Jamie Stier said. "The horse received immediate veterinary care, however he was unable to be saved due to the nature of the injury sustained." Anthony Van Dyck's death came two years after O'Brien's The Cliffsofmoher pulled up lame in the 2018 race and was put down on the track after vets found the horse had broken a shoulder. It is likely to heap further pressure on an industry rocked by a slew of horse deaths during recent Melbourne Cup carnivals. O'Brien's son Joseph claimed his second Melbourne Cup win, having prepared Twilight Payment, a 22-1 chance, three years after Rekindling won the 2017 race by edging out his father's Johannes Vermeer. Twilight Payment's win also secured local owner Lloyd Williams a seventh Melbourne Cup triumph. Five years after Michelle Payne became the first woman to ride a Melbourne Cup winner on rank outsider Prince of Penzance, Jamie Kah, the only female jockey in the race, rode third on Prince of Arran. The Charlie Fellowes-trained gelding Prince of Arran made the placings for the third year in a row, having been runner-up last year and third in 2018. Surprise Baby, trained by Paul Preusker, was an 11-2 pre-race favourite but finished 13th. Danny O'Brien-prepared King of Leogrance was scratched in the morning after being found lame by stewards, leaving a field of 23. ($1 = 1.4215 Australian dollars) 9Production: Andy Ragg)

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