Famous horse owner Lloyd Williams has two horses in this year’s running of the Melbourne Cup, but he’s also cheering home a “great hope story” if he can’t win.
Williams has had seven winners of the race that stops the nation, spanning back from 1981 when Just A Dash won the Cup.
In 2021, he’s got two interests in Pondus and Twilight Payment.
Pondus is having his first go at the Cup, having been based in Australia since late last year, while Twilight Payment is backing up after winning the 2020 Melbourne Cup.
While he’s clearly invested in his two horses, Williams would love to see Cup favourite Incentivise take home the prize.
“If I can’t win the race myself, I’d love to see them win it, simply because it’s a great Australian story,” he told SEN’s Melbourne Cup Day.
“There he was running in a maiden in March this year, I don’t want to be saying that he can’t win.
“There’s lots of reasons why he can’t win, but I’ve got no interest in elaborating on him, simply because if I can’t win I’ll be cheering for him, simply on the account that it’s a great hope story in Australia.”
The 81-year-old has overseen the Cup campaigns of plenty of horses and is finely tuned in knowing how to give runners their best chance.
While he enjoys the story of Incentivise, he believes connections missed a trick by running him in the wrong race.
“The only criticism I’ve got of them at all is that I would never have run it in the Craiglee (Makybe Diva), before the weights came out,” he said.
“They inflicted itself with a two-kilogram penalty which was unnecessary.
“They should have run it in the 1700 metre race that day, and they wouldn’t have 57 today, they’d have 55.5.
“That’s the only criticism I’ve got … If I can’t win, I’ll be barracking for them.”
Incentivise is one of the shortestpriced favourites in the history of the race at $2.90 at the time of publish, while Williams’ duo of Twilight Payment and Pondus are $13 and $21 respectively.