Still battle-scarred
from Makybe Diva's popular Cox Plate victory, bookmakers at Randwick on
Tuesday backed up for another fight and most came out bleeding.
But it could have been worse.
The champion mare secured her place among the immortals with an
historic third Melbourne Cup win at Flemington on Tuesday, prompting
bookmaker Robbie Waterhouse to declare he would be dining on little
more than baked beans on toast for dinner.
However, fellow high-profile bagmen Con Kafataris and Colin Tidy reported her win as a bad but not dire result.
That was little consolation for Waterhouse, who was left licking his wounds.
"It was as bad a result as I've ever had on a Cup and it's usually a very kind race to me," Waterhouse said.
"I was in two minds but in the end I did take her on.
"I reckon I wrote about 400 bets on Makybe Diva alone."
Kafataris said punters were hesitant to back her early but crunched her
late and while she wasn't a good result for him he still took a moment
to pay homage to her greatness.
"Last year was worse," Kafataris said.
"I paid out about half a million on her here and about $1.4 million overall, which was similar to the Cox Plate.
"She was actually hard to lay early, we were betting up to $5 when the TAB was $3.70 but the punters soon rallied.
"Leica Falcon would have been my worst result, I would have had to pay
out about $2 million on him, so that's some consolation and I feel
privileged to have witnessed her win.
"She is certainly one of the immortals after that, she gave everyone goosebumps."
Tidy said his hold on this year's Cup was his biggest ever and that he
had learned the hard way not to underestimate Makybe Diva after the Cox
Plate.
