THEIR horse may not have taken out the Melbourne Cup, but a top 10 finish was an amazing result if you ask Mick and Stacey Whittaker.
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The Bathurst couple own shares in Tiberian, a six-year-old stallion who raced his maiden Cup on Tuesday.
Mr and Mrs Whittaker both ventured to Melbourne to cheer on Tiberian, who crossed the line in seventh place.
“You look at a lot of the horses and the favourite, Marmelo, finished ninth. Marmelo was supposed to run all over that field and he finished ninth, so we finished in front of plenty of good horses and finished in front of last year’s winner, Almandin,” he said.
“To finish seventh, to finish top 10, is pretty damn exciting.”
This was the first time the Whittakers had attended the race that stops the nations and they weren’t disappointed with their time there.
Mr Whittaker travelled down on Wednesday to take part in all the events prior to the race, including the barrier draw on Saturday, the Melbourne Cup parade and the Call of the Card on Monday.
The couple were separated from each other during the race itself, with Mr Whittaker in the mounting yard and his wife watching from one of the enclosures with some of the other connections of the horse.
He said it was definitely not the same experience as watching on television.
“At one point in there I was jumping up and down thinking that we were going to win it, but he probably just made his move a little too soon,” he said.
“Stace said it was absolute bedlam where she was and down in the mounting yard was just absolute madness.
“All the connections of all the other horses were in there and you don’t see the race – you literally do not see the horses from where I was standing.
“I’m obviously only short, but you’ve got to watch the whole race on the screen and when the race finished I had no idea who’d come first, second or third; I only had my eyes fixed on the screen watching where Tiberian was.”
The couple intends to stick by Tiberian as he continues his racing career, but they don’t know yet if the French horse will be back at next year’s Cup.