GIGSTUFF 58

 
by Andrew Gigacz
 
HISTORY REPEATED IN GEELONG CUP
 
It was a case of history repeating itself in last Wednesday’s Geelong Cup, and not just because Dunaden emulated Americain’s performance of last year (winning the Cup as a top-weighted French horse) but because he became the 18^th horse with a one-word name containing seven letters to win it. Seven-lettered one-word horses were already the most common winners, the most recent prior to Dunaden being Mandela in 2006.
 
 
THE COX PLATE BY THE NUMBERS – AND LETTERS

The Cox Plate favourite Helmet will break an 85-year drought if he takes out today’s race. The last six-letter horse beginning with H to win the plate was Heroic in 1926. In Helmet’s favour is that Heroic was also favourite all those years ago.

Well backed Jimmy Choux will be fighting an even bigger battle against history. No horse beginning with the letter “J” has ever won the Plate. Long shot Wall Street faces the same challenge, as no “W” horse has saluted either.

Meanwhile, those with an interest in Rekindled Interest would be happy to know that eight “R” horses, including five two-worded ones, have won the Cox Plate, most recently Rising Prince in 1985. On the other hand, Rekindled Interest contains 17 letters and no horse with more than 16 letters in its name has ever won.
 
The horse that appears to have most going for it is 20-1 shot Sincero. 15 “S” horses have taken the Plate, with six of those being single-worded. And of those six, three were seven letters long, including Saintly in 1996 and Sunline in 1999-2000.
 
 
POSTCODE CODE THE WEEK
 
The day after Australia defeated South Africa in the first one-day international of their series, New Zealand took on Zimbabwe not far away in Harare. Thanks mainly to Brendan Taylor (128 no) and Forster Mutizwa (69), the Zimbabweans put together a respectable total of 231/6. But New Zealand overhauled that target with plenty of time to spare and won by a mile. Fitting, then, that 2316 is the postcode of ONE MILE.
 
 
RIDICULOUS COX PLATE ANAGRAMS
 
With rain forecast at Moonee Valley today, punters might be interested to find out that Wall Street is an anagram of ALL’S WETTER. Meanwhile, Secret Admirer might get the heart-rates up, given she’s an anagram of RACE STIRRED ME. And the rank outsider of the Cox Plate, Playing God, will certainly return big money if he gets up, which makes it very appropriate that it’s an anagram of PAYING GOLD.