Horse Racing / Tony Calvin / 04 November 2008 / Leave a comment

Punters expect Bauer to finish strongly as he trades at [1.57] but fails to reel winner in...

Viewed won the Melbourne Cup this morning at a Betfair starting price of [40.0] - and remarkably the last bet struck on him before the exchange suspended their in-running market was at [11.0].

Many in-running punters thought that the strong-finishing Bauer, a [23.0] chance at the off, was going to get up close home. But, despite trading at a low of [1.56] in-running near the finish, Viewed held on by the narrowest of margins.

Remarkably, Viewed never traded at less than [2.0] in running and was backed at a high of [85.0] in Betfair's ante-post market.

The Aidan O'Brien trio forced the pace and filled the first three places in the early stages, but fell away to nothing. Septimus was very weak in the betting pre-race, being matched as low as [4.8] when the market opened before returning to a [7.72] starting price .

Mad Rush went off the Betfair favourite at [5.4], with Profound Beauty also solidly backed at [8.8].