The questionable rides and unlucky horses.

Valiant King’s Melbourne Cup chances went up in smoke due to the actions of one of his stablemates.

The Chris Waller-trained gelding was enjoying a fair first half of the two-mile race under Jye McNeil before Land Legend and Joao Moreira took off just before the 1600m.

Land Legend then bolted lengths clear only to bust up and eventually finish 22nd in the field of 24. McNeil said after the race that he was “stranded” as soon as Land Legend took off.

John O’Neill, who is in Valiant King’s ownership group, revealed the conversation he had with McNeil post-race, before criticising Moreira for his actions.

“I actually felt for Jye McNeil. I had a really good chat with him after the race,” O’Neill said on SENTrack & RSN’s Giddy Up.

“As everybody knows I love to have a crack at the jockeys but he worked so hard, he could not get in, he pushed up, they kept pushing up, he jumped really well.

“So here he is three-deep the trip. He came back and said, ‘Look, I just couldn’t get in, but I was trucking beautifully on the back of Land Legend’, until the ‘Magic Man’ dropped his wand or whatever it’s called, and off he went.

“Then he (McNeil) said, ‘I was just exposed three-deep, the horse did a wonderful job, it just wasn’t his day’.

“He did say they went slow early which enabled him to be a little closer than he wanted to be. We all saw from the race that you’ve probably got to be at worst on the back of the second wave. If you’re back any further and they do go slow you give yourself no hope.

“Those horses that were well back most of them made no ground whatsoever.”

McNeil was suspended for 18 meetings for careless riding aboard Valiant King when causing interference on Presage Nocturne at the 2500m mark.

O’Neill has had Moreira miss on the likes of Soulcombe and Buckaroo in previous Cups and feels his chances of winning the great race were again undone by the star Brazilian hoop.

“Joao Moreira, do me a favour, please,” he added.

“What he was doing in that Melbourne Cup on Land Legend, no one has got any idea.

“He couldn’t hold it? Well, if you can’t hold it… I got a text from a very respected horseman who just said, ‘My god’. Like, please.”

Trainer Wayne Hawkes added: “I’m the same, oh no Joao.”

Moreira was critical of what Land Legend did during the Cup.

“A horse with no manners, he pulls too hard, he’s done a lot of things wrong in the race,” were Moreira’s post-race comments.

Middle Earth & Buckaroo

O’Neill had two other horses in the Melbourne Cup - Ciaron Maher’s Middle Earth ran third under Ethan Brown and Buckaroo was pulled out of the race by Craig Williams.

“He (Middle Earth) pulled down the middle, tracked up and when I see Ethan holding them like that I thought, ‘My god, this thing is going to let go and win’,” O’Neill said.

“Incredible run by him. We always knew that two miles is where he needed to be and the blinkers just switched him on. A great ride.”

He says Buckaroo is fine after sustaining an internal bleed.

“Buckaroo has been well documented. He had an internal bleed which was not ideal,” O’Neill added.

“The great thing with Craig Williams being on board is he looked after ‘Bucky’. He’s fine, he pulled up fine, everything is ok, no problems.

“He’ll just have a nice break and come back in the autumn which is good.”

The beaten favourite

International visitor Presage Nocturne jumped as a well-supported $5.50 favourite but batted away to finish 19th, more than 18 lengths fro the winner Half Yours.

The Monday Means Test team went over his run and the ride by French jockey Stephane Pasquier.

Gerard Whateley said: “He was sensationally backed - $9 into $5.50. The only other one I can think of that was something similar is Pop Rock and he was beaten.

“But (Presage Nocturne) finished 19th and never figured.”

O’Neill added: “The jockey couldn’t get from Crown to Chin Chin so how he was going to get around Flemington in a field of 24?

“He’s gone back, he probably doesn’t know about the second or third for fourth wave. He’s sitting back there thinking I’ve got a superior wet tracker. We got a little bit of rain but (Flemington track manager) Liam (O’Keeffe) did such a wonderful job with that track that it was probably a Soft five at worst.

“He was back there going up one-way lanes the wrong way and stuck at the traffic lights as I said he would be. He just gave it no hope, he was never going to win from there.”

Poor Zahra ride on Al Riffa?

Another well-fancied horse who didn’t quite live up to expectations was Joseph O’Brien’s Al Riffa.

Carrying the top weight of 59kg for the in-form Mark Zahra, Al Riffa sat at the rear before picking off more than half the field to end up seventh.

Gareth Hall wondered if a horse of his calibre could have been afforded a better position from barrier 19.

Hall said: “Maybe it wasn’t Zahra’s greatest ride…”

O’Neill replied: “I don’t think that’s the case. At the end of the day he rode it like it was the best horse in the race.

“What do you do when you draw 19 in a Melbourne Cup? He had to either kick it forward and sit outside the leader or you go back and try to get in.”

Hall added: “That’s what he had to do and he didn’t get that luck because of the gate.

“He had to ride it like that to get the 59kg and the two miles. I’m not saying it’s a bad ride like a few are suggesting there.

“But under the circumstances of him getting a strong two miles with that horse with 59kg on his back he had to take the punt and try to get in somewhere.”

Al Riffa’s less credentialed stablemate Goodie Two Shoes finished runner-up in the great race for Irish hoop Wayne Lordan.