Dunedin Cup Recalls the Glamour Of Days Past

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26704, 25 February 1948, Page 8

Dunedin Cup Recalls the Glamour Of Days Past

By Sentinel It is Carnival Week, and people will speak of little save horses and odds. There’s hurry and bustle along every road, and all sorts and conditions of men, and women as well, plebian and patrician, are off to the races again. The widespread interest in the Centennial Cup meeting recalls the fact that Otago was once the. sporting hub of the country, and the Dunedin Cup the principal race of the season. The Dunedin Cup attracted horses from all parts of New Zealand, and this year’s centennial meeting will help to recapture and hold some of the old sporting glamour and sentiment that made the magnetic sporting atmosphere which surrounded the Cup meeting of years long past. Attached to the Centennial Cup is an historic trophy linking the past with the present, and it should revive a dominating spirit of sport to make the financial aspect of racing a secondary consideration.

The first Dunedin Cup field included Mr James Hazlett’s Atlas, who finished third, when the field ran for a stake of 300sovs and a' sweepstake of lOsovs in 1874. Interest in the race became widespread. and the next year Templeton beat the Australian-bred Right Bower. In 1877 Fishhook, in Dan O’Brien’s colours, beat the Auckland-owned Hippocampus. A memorable race took place when two Auckland-owned horses, Nelson and Necklace, fought out the finish. Nelson was then on his triumphal march, during which he won the Auckland Cup of lOOOsovs with a 15sovs sweepstake, two miles; the Island Bay Cup of 400sovs, one mile and a-half; the Wellington Cup. of 650sovs, two miles; the Dunedin Cup, of lOOOsovs, with a sweepstake of lOOOsovs. and the Marshall Memorial Stakes; and tnen went on to Australia where he won other important stakes. When Nelson appeared at Flemington ■ he was described as the " Greatest Roman of them all, and he looked the part of a great horse. Two other Auckland horses started in Nelson’s Dunedin Cup, and several other Auckland candidates also figured m the fields for the Dunedin Cup about this time. In 1899, Exhibition year, the Dunedin Cup had a stake of 1500sovs, and in 1899 the club transferred the scene of Its operations to Wingatui—and so we proceed to present times, and the now familiar course, to see another important Cup race run, and a thrill for a new generation of race-goers