"Just don't blame the horse".
Sometimes sporting memories change with time but the passage of 13 years has done little to alter Darren Beadman's regret at his ride on Lonhro in the 2004 Queen Elizabeth Stakes.
Beadman had piloted the outstanding performer to 10 Group I wins but his defeat by Grand Armee in the stallion's last race at Randwick still rankles the former star jockey
Beadman took a hammering from all quarters at the time and seems to still reflect on it every now and then – even in retirement – but the reason for Lonhro's defeat won't change.
"I rode a bad race and he got beat," is Beadman's simple assessment.
Almost 30,000 people turned up at Randwick expecting to send Lonhro into retirement with a round of cheers after another win but it didn't turn out that way.
Reports emerged of one punter having $5 million on the champion with bookmaker Michael Sullivan but the money stayed in the bookmaker's bag but there was a nibble of support for Grand Armee, who firmed from $8 into $7.50 on track.
Lonhro had gone into the Queen Elizabeth Stakes in scintillating form with wins at nine of his last 10 starts. It was the information gleaned from the defeat that enabled Grand Armee's trainer Gai Waterhouse and jockey Danny Beasley to plan Lonhro's downfall in the Queen Elizabeth Stakes.
Lonhro had started favourite and been beaten in the 2003 and 2004 Cox Plates at Moonee Valleyso Beasley decided to replicate those conditions in the Queen Elizabeth Stakes.
"The way Lonhro mainly gets beaten is at Moonee Valley in the Cox Plate," Beasley told the press at the time. "So I thought I'd ride Grand Armee as if I was at Moonee Valley, not (the bigger) Randwick, and get going a long way from home and make him chase me and get him off the bridle and see what we could do."
It worked perfectly.
Beasley took control of the race by sending Grand Armee to the front, setting a moderate tempo, for the first 1200m before ramping up the pressure from the 800m as has happened in many Cox Plates.
Beadman's error, which he had always admitted whenever questioned about the race, was to allow Beasley to do as he pleased on Grand Armee, who was already a Group I winner courtesy of his success in the 2003 Doncaster Mile in which he defeated Lonhro with a 6kg weight advantage.
Lonhro showed his customary acceleration to get within three lengths in the straight but the effort of sustaining a long run told as Grand Armee strode to a six-length victory, his first in the 12 months since his Doncaster triumph.
One can only imagine the reception Beadman received from Lonhro's trainer John Hawkes and owners, the Ingham brothers, who had gone through the same thing seven years earlier with another retiring champion Octagonal.
"I think Darren sat back and he should have taken off a lot earlier," he said.
"You can't let them walk in front. If you let them walk in front they win. He gave the race to Grand Armee."
Chief steward Ray Murrihy dragged in Beadman to explain his ride on Lonhro before panning the jockey's tactics in full view of the press.
"You rode to a pattern that suits Lonhro, not the race," Murrihy said. "From the 1400 (metres) in you had to get going . . .
"Initiative was required, but no initiative was shown. You set Lonhro an impossible task."
A trial fall in Hong Kong ended Beadman's amazing career in 2012 after seven Sydney jockeys' premierships, two Melbourne Cups, a Cox Plate and two Golden Slippers among 94 Group I wins but the Lonhro ride still rankled the champion rider when he announced his retirement.
The question of his biggest disappointments came up in his round of interviews and Lonhro's Queen Elizabeth defeat was still at the forefront of Beadman's thinking.
"As for the Lonhro ride, it was a shocker," Beadman said. "I had too much confidence from the start."
While Lonhro's backers would have been filthy on that day in 2004, Beadman did more than his bit for the punters with his deeds in the saddle in Sydney.
Beadman might not want another look at the footage but a replay of that fateful race is below.
