MELBOURNE CUP WINNER

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25384, 16 November 1943, Page 2

MELBOURNE CUP WINNER

PREVIOUSLY USED AS HACK SYDNEY, Nov. 15. The rise to fame of the Melbourne Cup winner, Dark Felt, from a stable hack for Ajax to the best handicapper in Australia is one of the romances of racing. Bought by the 86-year-old trainer, Frank Musgrave, as a yearling for 200 guineas, Dark Felt made Ajax gallop on the tracks, but could not win a race, and after two years he was sold for 500 guineas. The Sydney trainer, J. A. Cain, secured a lease of Dark Felt, with whom he won two small races in Sydney and Newcastle. Dark Felt was then hitchhiked to Melbourne to win last year’s Moonee Valley Cup and the Hotham Handicap, and finish fourth in the 1942 Melbourne Cup. Now he has won 10 races —the last four In succession—and £11,395 Musgrave, who has been trying for a lifetime to wip the Melbourne Cup, was induced to sell Dark Felt because of a shortage of stable laboilr. Musgrave said he was too old now to expect to train a Melbourne Cup winner after having let Dark Felt slip through his fingers. Dominate was trained by Musgrave for this year’s Cup.