TDN Weekend December 2016 Issue 9
Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/920057
Then, all of sudden and quite perceptibly, Tiberi- an's yellow colours start to advance… The pace up- front has steadied as the leaders – far away from the adrenalin-flavoured shouting that's swamped the grandstand – relax a little on the back stretch. But the yellow jockey has not reined back; his mount's progress catches everyone's attention. In the weigh- ing room, on the lawn and out on the Committee's verandah, hope spills out: Come on Tiberian… Rounding the home turn, with still well over three furlongs to go, Tiberian has circled the field in a breathtaking move and is now bang there, on the heels of the two leaders. The jockey's yellow sleeves are motionless; all around him, others are getting as busy as firemen on an old steam train, shovelling coal into the engine, urging their mounts to greater ef- fort. Not Tiberian – he is absolutely cruising! Now the front two horses are struggling – one of them the British-trained favorite, Marmelo – and quickly relent. Tiberian strikes the front. His support- ers up in the stands and down by the winning post are standing and shouting, half-jumping and grabbing at each other. His inscrutable French trainer allows per- haps a half-smile to wriggle across his face. The Cup, the 6.2 million dollar 157th running of the race that stops a nation, is all of a sudden Tiberian's to lose… Let's freeze-frame the action here and catch up with our characters and the plot. Suspended mid-shout high up in the stands and wearing elegant morning coats are the three friends who not only own Tibe- rian, but who bred him – and they owned and bred both his sire and dam, too. And not one of them has