Australia: Manzoice pulls off 20-1 upset in Victoria Derby

Manzoice, a 20-1 long shot ridden by Michael Dee, ran down the 5-2 favorite Sharp ’N’ Smart and score a half-length win Saturday in the 167th running of the Group 1, US$1.28 million Victoria Derby at Flemington in Melbourne, Australia.

The 1 9/16-mile race was the feature on a card that included nine group stakes to open the carnival that precedes the US$5.1 million Melbourne Cup (G1) on Monday night U.S. time.

Aberfeldie Boy (100-1) was a farther 1 1/4 lengths away in third in the field of 16 3-year-olds who raced on a course rated soft. The winning time was 2:40.86 for Manzoice, an Almanzor colt owned by the Flannery family.

Most pundits had pinned their faith in Sharp ’N’ Smart. He won last week’s Spring Champion Stakes (G1) at Sydney, a race that was expected to prove the best form reference Saturday.

Instead, Manzoice provided Chris Waller his second win in the Derby after Preferment won for the trainer in 2014.

The Derby victory was the second Group 1 win of the Melbourne Spring Carnival for Dee, who claimed the 1 1/2-mile Caulfield Cup aboard Durston, also trained by Waller, two weeks ago.

“If you said to me before this spring that I’d have two major Group 1s coming up, I’d probably laugh,” Dee said. “It is pretty surreal, and hopefully it can continue.”

Dee said Manzoice had to do it tough after taking a buffeting in the middle of the race.

“I was very happy early, and then the tempo came out of the race,” Dee said. “It just got a bit tricky from the mile onwards when we were getting pushed around by horses inside and out. He’s a big strong horse, and he was able to buffet his way out, and I always was confident he was going to be strong the last furlong, too.”

Waller stayed in Sydney for the Golden Eagle meeting at Rosehill. His assistant Charlie Duckworth said it was a massive thrill for the stable to win the Victoria Derby.

Duckworth said the Derby had been in the planning for some time, but wide draws and wet tracks had not helped Manzoice’s cause.

“But we’ve stuck solid with the plan that we set out to do,” Duckworth said.  “There’s a Derby in different states, but this is the first one, and it’s Derby day. … It’s the grand final, and to pull it off is quite remarkable, really.”