Owner responds after jockey accused of 'horrendous' act on Melbourne Cup pre-race favourite

Joao Moreira is known across the racing world as 'the Magic Man' but for the second straight year he produced anything but magic in the Melbourne Cup. In 2023, Moreira produced a horror show on heavily favoured Soulcombe.

Instead of following eventual winner Without A Fight into clean air, Moreira zigzagged up the Flemington straight, moving left and right through horses only to realise the best lane was the one he left to start with. Moreira still finished second but many thought he blew the chance to win the race. This year, Moreira - regarded as one of the best jockeys in the world - was handed the ride on heavy favourite Buckaroo, with owners overlooking Australia's top jockey James McDonald in favour of the Brazilian hoop, a decision they now likely regret.

On Tuesday, Buckaroo jumped from barrier 21 and was immediately snagged back to the rear where he sat for most of the race. Moreira then took off on a looping run around the field at the 800m mark and started to make some serious ground before fading late to finish ninth, 3.5 lengths from the winner Knight’s Choice.

It was an incredibly underwhelming performance from the hot favourite and Moreira put it down to the horse not being able to run out the 3200m. "Didn’t have the best of the runs because he was actually too wide. It was hard to get in. He had to travel a little bit wide," Moreira said. "He still had cover, but the distance probably just stretched him too much, and the last little bit, he started getting tired. So I’d say he couldn’t really run the distance." But many punters felt it was Moreira's fault once again with his tactics coming under heavy fire.

Gerard Whateley labels move 'one of the worst' in history

On Wednesday SEN's Gerard Whateley went even further labelling the decision to go with Moreira over McDonald as "one of the worst decisions in Melbourne Cup history". "A three-kilo apprentice from barrier 21 can hook a horse back to second last and swing widest on the turn, but you can’t win a Melbourne Cup doing it," Whateley said on SEN.

"It's one of the worst decisions in Melbourne Cup history not to replace Joao with James McDonald on Buckaroo. It played out graphically before us. He died wondering. He was never given a chance. You’re the owner, John O’Neill, what say you?"

Trainer Wayne Hawkes - who did not have a runner in this year's Melbourne Cup - called Moreira's butchering of back-to-back Cup rides "horrendous". “I think I nearly threw up myself and I’ve nothing to do with it," Hawkes said.

"It shouldn’t have just won, it should have s—t in. You got ‘Oh Joao’d’ last year, now you’ve been ‘Oh Joao’d’ again this year. That’s horrendous. It’s the worst car crash in the racing industry. Two years in a row, you should have won back-to-backs."

Buckaroo owner John O'Neill opens up on decision

John O’Neill, a major owner of Buckaroo, admitted it was disappointing but didn't go as far as to pin the blame on the Brazilian. "It's an interesting situation because we put a lot of work and money into trying to win this race," said O’Neill.

"There’s a lot of people around the world trying to identify the right horses and then we get them here and the trainers do all the work, the support staff and the jockeys. From an ownership perspective, we’re lucky to even have runners in the race. We do put our money in and we’re hoping to get the best result we can. Generally, they charge the first three furlongs (600 metres) in this race and then they sit up because the horses have got to stay.

"You get a really good run-in, it doesn’t really matter where you draw unless it’s barrier 1 because I hate being inside (with horses everywhere around you). So drawing where we did, certainly ‘Oz’ (Kheir) and I thought we were going to be positive and go forward, then chance our arm. If you’ve got to use a little bit more petrol to be there… If you look at the race and where Interpretation was, he drew 14 but Teo (Nugent) kept pushing forward.

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"After they travelled about 500m, he was one off the fence and running sixth which is probably where we should have been with Buckaroo in my opinion. Here’s me making an opinion as an owner. I don’t want to sound like I’m a bad loser because having been in racing for a long time, it’s bloody difficult to win anywhere, let alone a Melbourne Cup."