“If we win, we can get drunk and lose the Melbourne Cup!”

South Australian farmer Haydn Lines woke up at 4 a.m. one morning this week, covered in sweat and with a racing heart. He survived a Melbourne Cup nightmare.

It had nothing to do with it Mapa horse he part-owns, along with a group of enthusiasts that includes breeders, stockbrokers, a publican, three builders, an accountant, the three original owners and co-trainers Dan Clarken and Upie McGillivray.

The nightmare centered around the famous three-handled Love Cup – the Melbourne Cup itself worth $750,000 – and what might happen to it if, by chance, their $35,000 bargain mare actually won Tuesday’s race for 8 million dollars that not only stops the nation, but also interests the world.

The six-year-old mare had a golden ticket to this year’s Melbourne Cup since May when she won the Andrew Ramsden.

From that day on, the owners looked forward to the first Tuesday in November, even if Lines was distracted by work on the farm.

“It’s been very busy here so I haven’t had time to be nervous (about the Cup),” Lines said this week from his home in Keith, about 225km south-east of Adelaide.

“It was a difficult year for us. Over the last week we have been haying and organizing things with Flemington for ‘Oopy’ (McGillivray, co-trainer The Map).

“It ended (this week) … I don’t know why, but I woke up at four o’clock in the morning and thought, ‘If we win the Cup, do I have to put up an insurance cover?’

When asked if he was referring to insuring The Map, who has already won nine of 32 starts and earned $865,000, Lines insisted he was talking about the Cup, not his powerful mare.

“I meant the insurance for the Cup, not the card,” he said with a laugh.

“We all don’t mind a drink. I woke up worried that if we win we might get drunk and lose the Cup!”

Murray Bridge trainers Dan Clarken and Whoopi McGillivray with the Cup trophy and their galloper The Map (Image: Mark Blake)

CARD PURCHASE

In a Cup now pitted against some of the wealthiest owners in this country – and indeed the world – with international pedigrees as far afield as Australia and huge stables involved, the history of Karta and her fellow trainers, as well as her exciting group of owners, provide the desired a return to the past.

This does not mean that the owners of this Tassie mare from South Australia are not well off. Most of them are.

But for just a relatively small outlay on a horse that ran in the 2020 Adelaide Magic Millions Sales, they got the ride of a lifetime.

And four years later, the ride is still going.

The filly was born Armidale Stud in Tasmania on November 1, 2018, five days before fellow international raider Godolphin’s Cross Counter won the Melbourne Cup.

Of course, she was not called Karta then. She was a daughter of the Tasmanian stallion Alpine Eagle, who was bred out of the mare Tsia Mita.

Her breeder, Richard Sadek, thought enough of her to consign her to the Magic Millions Sales, expecting her to fetch $80,000.

She did not reach this figure.

At this stage Haydn Lines and its group of owners have moved on from other trainers and are now established in the Mount Gambir coaches Clarken and McGillivray, who were shopping at the sale that day.

Lines, who raises Angus cattle, Merino sheep and a small seed business with his wife Poppy, has owned horses for several years for fun and a distraction from the hard work of the land.

He was at the sales that day in 2000, watching Clarken and McGillivray and trying to find a few bargains.

He received shares of three yearlings that day, but he said it was just luck that one of them happened to be Karta.

“Rodney Dix (co-owner) and I went to the yearling sale with Dan and Opie to buy a couple of horses.

“The card did not meet any of the criteria that Dan gave us before the sale. But structurally she was an exceptional animal.

“But he (Clarken) kept going back to her. He kept saying, “I think we need to look at it.”

Haydn Lines leave Flemington with the Andrew Ramsden Trophy

They had a budget of about $50,000 for Lot 140. In the end, with modest bidding from the opposition, the hammer fell on the $35,000 bell of Upi McGillivray.

That was more than $40,000 less than her breeder expected, so Sadek decided to keep her stake in the horse.

“It was the best decision he ever made,” Lines said.

Clarken, now 58, and McGillivray, 52, backed the new addition to their stables while retaining some ownership.

They are one of seven individual names that form part of the ownership in the racebook, along with three syndicates.

As Lines said: “The breeder has retained his share of the horse, and Oopie and Dan are also part of the ownership. Paul Cousins ​​is the original owner, as are Jeff and Bernadette Davidson.”

“So horses have three first owners. That’s why they’re not in the syndicate, as we didn’t know if they’d ever get back on the horse.

“Blair Hayden is a longtime friend of Opie and her late husband (businessman Duncan McGillivray). Blair is a community worker in Sydney.

“One of the syndicates is run by Rodney Dix, which includes farmers, cattle agents and herders from the area (near Mount Gambir).

“There’s Gambling Graziers, that’s my one. We’re a mix of Mid-North farmers and stockbrokers, one accountant and three builders.’

All the owners will be there at Flemington on Tuesday and they have agreed to let breeder Richard Sadek pick the barrier on Saturday night.

WHAT’S IN A NAME?

It’s not just the story of The Map racetrack that captivates racing fans, even those five-dollar punters who want to pick a horse for the Cup.

It is also the name of a mare.

So how did she get there?

Well, it does credit to her home state. Map of … (Tassie).

“She changed our lives,” Lines said, and he’s not talking about her $865,000 in prize money.

It’s about the experience and the journey.

“Dude, she was incredible, we had the trip of a lifetime.”

Karta won the race on Cup Day last year with Jamie Kach on board (Image: Quinn Rooney/Getty)

Lynes tries to drive the hour and a half from his farm in Keith to Brinkley, not far from Mount Gambier, to drive to the stables as often as possible.

“I was at the stables (last) Tuesday night and she (Carta) was on the treadmill. She is quite a calm horse. But when she goes to the races, she knows it’s game day.”

The map will travel to Victoria on Sunday, where it will be based Ballaratbefore her meeting with the Cup on Tuesday.

He says he couldn’t be more grateful for the hard work and dedication of Clarken and McGillivray.

“We are very grateful to them. It is incredible to be part of a small stable. It feels like they are just part of our big families,” he said.

Clarken has spent most of his life around horses and was the most successful horse in 2013 among the top trainers Blue Diamond rates winner of Miracles of Life.

But Carta could change all that next Tuesday if she can do the honors in the Melbourne Cup.

McGillivray, too, grew up around horses, riding on the family farm before moving on to evening and eventing.

She was born Julia McGillivray, but her sister could not pronounce her father’s nickname because of her “stiffness”. From then on she was Oopie.

Clarken trained a horse for Upi and her husband. But when her husband died in 2014, she wanted to rediscover her love of riding.

While doing so, she went to Clarken’s stable to ride for him at the track and a bond was formed. They are now partners on and off the racetrack.

KILLINGS TO FLEMINGTON

Card has been successful on the track since his first star, winning on debut at Balaclava in September 2021.

After two starts, she won on Morphettville.

She finished her career and on Melbourne Cup day last year the mare produced one of her best results to win the 2800m Macca’s Run.

Jamie Ka rode her that day and she won by more than four lengths to clearly establish herself as a good mare on the rise.

Haydn Lines on the South African border with the Andrew Ramsden Trophy

A second in this year’s Adelaide Cup showed his credentials over 3200m as Clarken and McGillivray – and the rest of the ownership group – began dreaming of a Melbourne Cup.

She booked her Cup ticket with Andrew Ramsden, a moment that brought Haydn Lines and even several of its owners to tears.

Riding with Kah Okita Sushi on, Rachel King will be on the map, making it a girl-only combination that players will love.

Linii said of Andrew Ramsden’s win: “Mate, I was the one who had to apologize (on the radio) to my kids because I was photographed crying.”

This guaranteed a return to Cup Day this Tuesday, rather than Macca’s Run this time around.

However, Lyne’s son, Lachlan, will not see the race. He will work on the university exam without paying attention to its result.

His daughter, Daisy, also sat her final year 12 maths exam on Cup Day, but has a very tight schedule to get to Melbourne for the big competition.

“She (Daisy) has about 40 minutes to get from her exams to the flight and then she has to land in Melbourne at 1.30pm. She needs everything to go right to make it.”

Lines and his wife Poppy traveled to Melbourne on Friday and his parents Glad and Daphne also made the trip.

Each of The Map’s owners will be in Flemington on Tuesday. They will celebrate win, lose or even run late into the night as long as the mare is fit and healthy.

“We’re all going to the Central Club Hotel in North Melbourne,” he said. “I called (the publican) and he’s happy to take us no matter how things turn out.”

And five hundred kilometers away, in one of Keith’s pubs, Lines says about the locals: “everything will be fine.”

“Whatever happens, we’re all going to have a good time.”