NOTABLE CUPS

New Zealand Times, Volume LII, Issue 12298, 18 November 1925, Page 10

NOTABLE CUPS

ROMANCES OF REMINGTON HITTING THE “RING The grand prize of the. Australian turf for more than 60 years, the Melbourne Cup, lias a history bristling with romantic touches. One of the earliest winners, the grey Toryboy, of 1865, was reported to have been'won by liis owner, nil Englishman named Marshall, in a game of rarrls. Marshall had not been long m Australia. He lost everything in punting soon afterwards. Many a horse has been bought with the special object of trying to win the Cup, but for no other has so much been paid as the <£2500 which .Sir Samuel Hordern gnye for Pilliewinkie. So long ago as 1878 Mr Beibey, Premier of lasmajiin, swept away by the exuberance of the moment at a convivial racing func-* tion, made the boast that Tasmania could produce a Melbourne Cup winner. His turf manager agreed with him when ho remarked afterwards: "I think I have made a fool of myself/' However, they set about their formidable task, and Mr Keibey paid the magnificent sum of 4.> guineas for his Cup hope, a chestnut yearling by St. Albans that was afterwards called Stockwell. In the next box was Sheet Anchor, and Mr Eeibey went to 71 guineas for him, but stopped bidding because he thought the auctioneer was "running” him. Four years later Stockwell ran second in the Cup in which, during a heavy thunderstorm, The Assyrian beat him by half a length, and made small fortunes for the plungers behind him. Mr Eelbey had almost redeemed his boast. And what atrocious luck he had, after all, as three years later Sheet Anchor, whom he had almost bought, actually won the Cup I

, OWNFR’S TWO CUPS A horse that was bought with the deliberate intention of’ trying to make a Cup winner of him was Bitalli, Astute .Tames Scobie is reported to have given Joe Burton, of Sydney, about £IOOO for this maiden performer, mom he then wished on to Mr A. T. Craig, a Melbourne merchant who only rarely bothers to own a horse. When ho gets a good one lie is not afraid to bet, and after Jockey Cairns had, ridden Bitalli'» winner in the South Australian Tattersail’s Cup, the owner backed Bitalli to win £20,000 or £30,000 in the Melbourne Clip. His friend Ml* C B. Kellow, who last year paid tlse record Australian price of 16,000 guineas for Heroic, was also carried away by the prospects of Bitalli, through whose success lie took nearly £30,000 out of the line. Two of the most notable Cup coups were engineered by Mr Leslie McDonald, so well known in connection with tlie St. Albans stud. At the commencement of this century he had in Revenue a horse who had been n ('nick at two years but had then broken down. Patched up, a start was made to back him for the Clip of l»0O but his legs went again. Mr McDonald, however, knowing he hnd a rare good one, persevered, and in 1001 the son of Trentpn rewarded him. Revenue was at 100 to 1 when the owner began to put money on, and. bb be stood up soundly to the severe tasks allotted to him, lie was backed and backed again. Revenue was not given a race, but the public got to know that he had done u wonderful "final trial, and so great was their confidence in Mr McDonald’s judgment that his price at flagfall was at 7 to 4 It was not till 17 years later that Mr McDonald again put his thumbs down over the clip, and again the coup materialised. This time it was a horse of a different type. Night Watch, who had done nothing in public to indicate that he was a great stayer, was let in with 6.0 Served ~by his feather-weight,