MELBOURNE CUP TODAY.

Southland Times, Issue 23346, 2 November 1937, Page 10

MELBOURNE CUP TODAY.

Historic Contest At Flemington SEVENTY-SIX YEARS OF HISTORY ONE PREVIOUS WINNER IN FIELD (By THE CURRAGH) Seventy-six years ago M. Etienne de Mestre made racing history by winning the first Melbourne Cup with Archer. He carried 9.7 and won again the following year with 10.2. Since that day many eventful chapters have been written in the story of the Australian turf and the great race has conquered the imagination of race-goers and horse-lovers everywhere. The final acceptors for today’s race at Flemington number 31 which is much larger than the average number in recent years. When the New Zealander Wotan won last year there were 20 starters and there were 22 in the previous two seasons. Today’s acceptors are as follows: MELBOURNE CUP, £lO,OOO and trophy value £2OO. Two miles Allunga 9 1 Royal Step 7 7 Wotan 9 0 Hua 7 7 Mala 8 12 Sir Regent 7 6 Flood Tide 8 9 Nightguard 7 6 Donaster 8 9 Frill Prince 7 5 Sarcherie 8 9 Red Ray 7 5 Black Mac 8 7 International 7 5 Balkan Prince 8 6 John Wilkes 7 4 Silver Standard 8 6 Gay Knight 7 2 The Chanter 8 4 Tapestry 7 2 Mestoravon 8 2 Mascarades 6 13 Willie Win 8 1 Bristol 6 13 Jack Horner 8 0 Old Rowley 6 12 Alinura 7 13 Royal Mutable 713 Messenger 611 The Trump 7 9 Vaahnore 6 7 It was early thought that the older horses were not up to the standard of many previous years and that the three-year-olds were likely to prove better than usual. Hua now receives the credit for being the best of his age engaged, but several of the older horses are going to make the task a hard one for him. The top-weight is Allunga who will be ridden by T. Webster. This five-year-old has unquestionable qualifications as a stayer. He ran in the Melbourne Cup of 1936, finishing fifteenth. Wotan, the only previous winner of the Cup will claim particular attention for New Zealanders. He has been racing well recently in Victoria. N. Creighton will ride him. The New Zealand-bred Mala has a satisfactory record. He was sixth in the last Melbourne Cup with 7.6 and now has 8.12. His pilot will be E. Bartie. Donaster has a good record over all distances and was eleventh in the last cup. He has raced well recently. A win for Sarcherie would be well received. She is a game mare and may bo called the veteran of the field. She ran second to Peter Pan and Marabou and was tenth last year. Black Mac was the favourite for some time, but went under a cloud. He recovered however and has been galloping brilliantly. He won seven races last season. Silver Standard is one of the unluckiest horses racing in Australia, being narrowly beaten in most of the big events in Victoria last season. He has fared little better this season. Balkan Prince is one of the favourites and The Trump, who won the Caulfield Cup has had a good string of successes this season. He will again be ridden by Ashley Reed. The Chanter is said to be one of the most heavily coupled horses with the Caulfield Cup winner. Mestoravon and Willie 'Alm. whose pilot will be W. Jenkins, will enter discussions. Mutable has shown staying power and Sir Regent and Frill Prince have admirers. , ~ , . f There is always the big element ot surprise in this race and today s winner may come from some of the despised lightweights. , t j. The race will be rebroadcast tnrongn. station 4YZ at 5.10 p.m. today.

PAST EVENTS The Cup has not always been run on a Tuesday. When Archer won the first Cup it was run on a Thursday. Nor has the Cup always flourished. It had many lean years, and it was not until the race had been run 15 times that the added money amounted to £5OO. From 1886 to 1890 the advance was rapid; in fact, too rapid to be stable, with the result that although owners of the Cup winners of 1890 and succeeding three years received more than £lO,OOO as their share of the prize, in 1894, when Patron won, his owner received only £5OOO. The prize continued to dwindle and it was not until Revenue won in 1901 that the stake money to the owner of the winner amounted to £5OOO. Today the Cup is worth £16,000. Horses have been backed for huge fortunes, and while some have failed, many have won. For actually first favourites have a splendid Cup record. In 76 years 14 first favourites have been successful. It is a high average, considering that the average number of starters is 25. Until Peter Pan won the Cup the second time in 1934 no other horse had won two Cups since Archer won the first two Cups in 1861-62. What a great horse he must have been, and what a scurvy trick Fate played on his owner, Etienne de Mestre, which prevented him from winning his third successive Cup. In those far days, silence did not mean consent where acceptance was concerned, and the club had to be advised by the owner that bis horse intended to start, de Mestre wrote to the V.R.C. stating that Archer, despite his 11.4, would run, but the letter arrived in Melbourne on a postal’holiday, and was not delivered until the day following the date of acceptance. Consequently Archer could not run. Turf historians say that he would have won, although the winner was Banker, who carried the featherweight of 5.9. Archer’s owner, Etienne de Mestre must have been a shrewd judge and a marvellous trainer, as not only did he own and train four Cup winners, but he also trained Chester for the Hon. James White. ■ de Mestre’s record as the trainer of five Melbourne Cup winners still stands, and there are only two men at present training ever likely to better or equal his record. They are the Flemington trainers James Scobie and Richard Bradfield. Scobie trained Clean Sweep, King Ingoda, Bitaili and Trivalve, and Bradfield Patron, The Victory, Nightwatch and Backwood. BIG MONEY When Chester won his connections collected more than £70,000 from the ring, and Joe Thompson, the then King of the Ring, paid Mr S. Stephens, who had carried out some of the commission £20,000 in notes outside the old Exchange in Collins street. The leading fielder evidently had a flair for publicity, as the money was paid in £lOO notes in full view of the

gaping onlookers, who had never seen so much money in their lives. The Chester coup was a notable one, but a lot of money was won on Mentone when he won Mr Donald Wallace’s first Cup. Mr Phil Glenister was a famous commissioner in those days; in fact, he was still handling most of the big commissions until about 1904 or 1905. He collected more than £20,000 for the stable when Mentor won, and even more when Carbine won for the same owner. Carbine started at 4 to 1, and the story of how he made light of his huge weight of 10.5 and defeated a record Cup field of 39 runners has often been told. Many horses have tried to win the Cup since with Carbine’s weight or more, but they have all failed, and the failures include the incomparable Phar Lap. But Phar Lap has at least one distinction in association with the Melbourne Cup. When he won he started at 11 to 8 on—not only the hottest favourite to win, but the shortest priced favourite to start for a Cup. Before Phar Lap, the record in that respect went to Revenue, who started at 7 to 4. One of the most tragic incidents associated with the Melbourne Cup was the death of that great horse Lord Cardigan. He won the Cup as a three-year-old in 1903, defeating the peerless Wakeful, who carried 10.0 as against the three-year-old’s featherweight of 6.8. Lord Cardigan proved himself a great horse, as in the autumn he won the Sydney Cup with 8.7. He was weighted at 9.6 for the Melbourne Cup of 1904, and he ran a gallant race, being beaten narrowly by that good mare Acrasia, owned by Humphrey Oxenham, then Australia’s leading bookmaker. So great was Lord Cardigan’s effort to stall off the lightweight that he ruptured a bowel and, although Mr S. O. Wood fought hard to save his life, he died at Caulfield four days after the Cup was run. A fortune was won when Apologue, one of the few New Zealanders to win the Cup, cantered home at the head of the field in 1907. He had been tried with Poseidon, who had vzon the Melbourne Cup the year before and the Caulfield Cup the same year, and was coupled with Poseidon for a colossal fortune. Mr Sol Green laid the stable commissioners £lOO,OOO about the double, and paid the bet by cheque to the stable commissioner, a Mr Smart, on the Wednesday following the race. Bitalli’s Cup success was a wellplanned coup. He had not run for nearly three months before the Cup, but his trainer, James Scobie, told Mr A. T. Craig, the gelding’s owner that Bitaili would win. Long prices were obtained about the ill-considered lightweight, and £60,000 was won by his connections.