Delta Blues just held off 5-1 joint-favourite and stablemate Pop Rock to notch an impressive one-two for Japanese trainer Katsuhiko Sumii in the Melbourne Cup.In a dramatic finish to the Group One Contest, 17-1 shot Delta Blues, ridden by Yasunari Iwata, held off a strong challenge from Pop Rock to win by a short head to become the third foreign horse to win the race.Maybe Better (9-1) claimed third for the home team while Jamie Poulton's 200-1 outsider Land'N Stars fared best of the British raiders, storming down the home straight under John Egan to take fifth place. Iwata was always prominent aboard Delta Blues, disputing the early lead before letting Zabeat set the pace in the two-mile feature.

Heavily-backed Irish horse Yeats, trained by Aidan O'Brien, was slow to break for Kieren Fallon but he quickly made up lost ground and was settled in eighth place while Land'N Stars and the Luca Cumani-trained Glistening were in the pack.
Fallon steadily worked his way through and moved up to take second from Delta Blues around six furlongs out before hitting the front turning into the straight. However, the top weight quickly found himself swallowed up, falling back to a seventh-placed finish as Iwata conjured a fantastic run from Delta Blues to take the lead around a furlong and half out.

Damien Oliver threw down a serious challenge aboard Pop Rock in the final half-furlong but he narrowly lost out in a driving finish.

Delta Blues finished third in the Caulfield Cup on his previous start and Iwata said: "I would like to congratulate the owner, and the trainer, and all related staff involved in training such a great horse in Delta Blues. Thanks very much for all the support and fantastic atmosphere here at Flemington."

Sumii, who took last year's American Oaks at Hollywood Park with Cesario added:"We'd like to say thanks to this country Australia for giving us two chances to win this very, very big race."

Poulton was delighted to see Land'N Stars put his last place in the Caulfield Cup well behind him with a strong staying performance. "I was very happy with that. We had to turn it around quickly after the Caulfield Cup and we did that, but you have to hand it to the Japanese horses, weren't they amazing?" he said.

The Lewes handler hopes to have another crack at the Flemington feature next year but he is also eyeing a tilt at the Perth Cup on New Year's Day for his six-year-old. He added: "We will be back and better prepared next time. This was a real learning curve but I couldn't be much happier with how the old boy went today. The horse will now head to Perth to tackle the Perth Cup, but I am heading home for a couple of weeks first. We will be back for this race again though."

Yeats started from stall four and although Fallon's mount suffered some interference which saw him pushed wide on the first bend, the rider offered no real excuses and believes Yeats was just not at his best. "I am disappointed really, he didn't finish off like I thought he would," said Fallon. "The race was run pretty much the way I expected it to be.

"I thought I should have gone from a mile out because they didn't go very quick. You never know, you always think 'what if I did something different?', but I was disappointed. I thought I was in the right place and just thought he would lengthen better."

Tom Magnier, son of owners John and Sue Magnier, thought the tempo of the race had played against Yeats. "Kieren gave the horse a great ride and it was the race not working out the way we wanted - the pace didn't suit us," Magnier said. "We were just going to sit and wait but the pace was too slow, Kieren gave a peach of a ride but we carried a lot of weight. The horse is fine, it was just the way the race was run."

Guardian/UK