TURF NOTES BY "RANGATIRA"

Evening Post, Volume CXIV, Issue 104, 29 October 1932, Page 21

TURF NOTES BY "RANGATIRA"

THE MELBOURNE CUP

NOTES FBOM HAWEKA

TO BE RUN ON TUESDAY

NEW ZEALAND'S CHANCES

What the Epsom Derby is to England, ■what the Kentucky Derby is to the United States, and what the Grand Prix de Paris is to France and the Continent, so the Melbourne Cup is to Austra'ia. Xoiv in its seventy-second year, th.? Melbourne Cup has grown from an event t:.-nt was a mere annual affair of no more than just ordinary account to become what is now one of the greatest, if not the greatest, handicap • event in the world's racing calendar. This year's two-mile Cup is set down to be decided on the famous Flomington course nest Tuesday.

The first Melbourne Cup was run' 71 years ago at Flemiiigton, in the presence of 6000 people. The attendance- nowadays is a little over 100,000. The winning horse was named Archer, ridden by Johnny Cutts, 9st 51b up, the time being 3min 52sec. Seventeen horses faced the starter, and the conditions of the race were "a sweepstakes of twenty sovereigns, ten sovereigns forfeit, or five sovereigns if declared, with two hundred sovereigns added by the V.T.C."

To show that the racing public even in those far-off days made mistakes, the following was written just after the race by a reporter:—

"Mr: de Mestre's pair. Archer and Inheritor, were surrounded by an eager crowd of New South Welshmen. Archer was full of life, and looked ready to jump out. ot his skin, but the money was all on, and, the pretensions of the crack not being at all strongly supported, very little was heard about him in the rin" nor did either his appearance or his style rnduee us to think him at" all dangerous He is a powerful, raking horse, with a tremendously long stride, well calculated to get hacks and hunters, but certainly not lookable to give the weight he was asked to the speedy animals he had to , meet.

The second horse was Mormon, Wst lib Prince, Sst, was third, and Antonelli, with 6st ,1b up, ran into fourth place. Archer won again the next year with 10st 21b up, J. Cutts being again in the saddle. Mormon was likewise second, but with a drop of 31b to 9st 121b, was definitely Archer's inferior, for he was beaten by ten lengths. Camden, Sst 71b, was third.

FLEMINGTON'S GROWTH. The first meeting at Flemington was held in 1840. It lasted three days, and was the first at which colours Were worn W- the jockeys. As already indicated, the first Cup was inn in IS6I. In 1564 the Victoria Turf Club and the Victoria Jockey Club amalgamated under the name or-the Victoria Racing Club. The added money for the Cup had been increased from £200 to £500 by 1876, and the winning owner in that year also received a gold cup. Iv 1883 the prizemoney reached four figures, and the amount was £2000 three years later. Another £500 was added in ISS7, and the amount was no less than £3000 in 1889 It, then rose and Jell in an interesting manner (taking in the boom period), and became the richest race in the world. During the lust few years it has ceased to be the world s most valuable race, but with a. prize of £7200 attached this year fit" has. not been' a sweepstakes during the last two years., and was dropped to £5200 Jafct year) it is still the world's richest handicap. THE DOUBLE EVENT. Poseidon is the only horse that has won the Caulfield and Melbourne Cups in the same year, and Archer is the only horse to have won the Cup twice. Though this historic race is generally r.un; ; on .the first Tuesday in November, this rule was. .not observed in 1916, when Sasanof _won, for the race was then run on the following Saturday. Fortunately the-Cup has been only once attended -with fatal results. In Zulu's J'e« fl881) Wheatear and Suwarrow fell, and Dodd, the rider of the latter, died from • injuries. ■■ • . . t1*,, 58 °£ interest to note that the size i- i! 16! r for thi3 year's race has climbed-back to something like its usual dimensions some years ago. Last year and in Njghtmarch's year (1929) there were only fourteen runners, and such heJds were the lowest on record. In 1890 (Carbine's year) a field of 39 went to the post, and^this still stands as the record, .the smallest field, prior to Nightmarch's 3'ear was jn Banker's..year, on the occa6ion ; of the third Cup in 1863. In Phar ■rruS ylar c were only fi^een starters. Ine final acceptors for Tuesday numbered 28,, and, although the number of probable starters has since been reduced by a couple, it looks as i£ at least twentyfive horses will go to the post this year. This will be the best field numerically for some years past". NEW ZEALAND'S PART. New Zealand has its biggest representation,yet in-the Tace, for six of the final acceptors were racing in the Dominion until recently, and five of the half-dozen are still owned here. Compris, who tops the acceptance list ■with 9st lib, will be having his first racing at the meeting in the colours of his new owner, Mr. G. L. Lyon, president of the Ceylon Racing Club. He made his last appearances at the C.J.C. Grand National Meeting in August^ and his sale was effected shortly afterwards. He is not among the. fancied candidates for the Cup, and 3t would seem doubtful if his preparation has been full enough, especially in view of the slight injury he received preventing his racing, in the Caulfield Cup. The other five New Zealanders are Mr. JM. Samson's Admiral Drake (Sst 111b), Messrs. R., T. A., and W. Smith's' Peter • Jackson (Bst 11 Ib) and Game Carrington (ist 61b), Mr. J. M. Corcoran's Havering Wst 131b), and Mr. H. Rama's Manawhenua (7st 61b). None of these is especially fancied, but the Messrs. Smith's pair are highest of them in the quotations, with the three-year-old preferred to Peter Jackson. To-day's racing may throw some light on the prospects of the Xew Zealand representatives. - New Zealand-bred horses have had quite a. fair measure of success in the race, especially during the last few years. In ISS3 Martini Henry, by Musket, was victorious, and seven years later, Carbine, also_ by Musket, was the winner. Aft«'r an interval .of seventeen years (in 1007), during which the New Zealanders' trips across the Tasman were rare and far between, Apologue, by Phoebus Apollo (a son of St. Simon), was successful, and nine years later Martian's son, Sasanof, led the field homo. The next success did not come till 1929. when Nightmarch. by Night Raid, scored, with two other New Zealanders, Paquito and Phar Lap, in the places. The following year Phar Lap, also by Night Raid, won from Second "Wind, another Dominion-bred horse. Last year Concentrate looked all over the winner at the distance, but he broke down and finished third. The only ones among these wjnners to have been owned in the Dominion at the time of their success were Sasanof and Xightmarch. who respectively carried the colours of Messrs. W. G. Stead and T. S. Luttrell and Mr. A. Louisson. H. E. Telford, who held Phar Lap on lease at the time of his triumph, was formerly a New Zealander. It does not look as if New Zealand horses can repeat this year'the showings they had made in recent years, in spite j of their full representation, but all Do- j minion sportsmen will be keenly awaiting ] Tuesday's wirelessed result to learn if the unexpected has happened and another New Zealand horse has added his name to the winning record.