MELBOURNE CUP TALES

Sun (Christchurch), Volume III, Issue 867, 20 November 1916, Page 3

MELBOURNE CUP TALES

INTERESTING REMINISCENCES.

Very interesting reminiscences of oldtime racing in Australia, and particularly of races for the Melbourne Cup, were told to a Sydney "Sun" representative by Mr J. J. Miller, of Melbourne, recently. Mr J. .1. Miller was 84 years of age on May ]'■'> last. His vitality is remarkable, for lie is still able to direct the business affairs of the J. .). Miller Printing Co., Melbourne. He has been sightless for PO years, but his memory is as good to-day as ever it was. He was ono of Australia's earliest bookmakers, and has a recollection of the intercolonial match run in 1857 (59 years :go) between Veno, representing New South Wales, and Alice Hawthorne, representing Victoria. Yeno won handsomely.

When Mr Miller started as a bookmaker he was not exactly a new chum at the business, for he had had some education in that line in London, lie has a vivid recollection of Mr Tom Coker, the father of bookmaking in Australia. "They were a different class of bookmakers in those days," remarked MiMiller. "They were men of commercial training. I remember Mr Poole, the Levey Bros., Mr Tom Bavin (who owned Flycatcher), and Mr Hawley, whose brother. Sir John Hawley, won an English Derby. It was bookmaking pure and simple in those days, and not on present lines. Nowadays it is more or less a racecourse gamble. Some Contrasts. "The largest book I made was in conjunction with Messrs E. E. Jones and' T. O'Brien. We laid £50,000 against the Navigator —Gudarz double, Navigator for the Derby and Gudarz for the Melbourne Cup. Well, Navigator won the Derby all right, and we had three sleepless nights waiting for the Cup. Fortunately for us, Gudarz could do no better than run third. We had plenty of money in those days, and could easily have met our liabilities. But our loss would have been a big one, for we had only £27,000 in the book. "I remember that when The Barb won the Cup I went home with a fourpenny bit in my pocket. After that race I remember that a number of the bookmakers went to New Zealand for a holiday without settling beforehand. Another vivid recollection is a visit I paid to Mudgee, accompanied by Tom Coker and Teddy Jones. Coker was very fond of fishing, and took his rod and line with him wherever he went. The Mudgee people could not make us out. They had never had three big bookmakers visit them before. But when Coker went to the creek to fish they thought he was a lunatic. You see there were no fish at all in that creek —never had been. Jones used to play the violin a bit. We went to the course playing as we went —Jones on his violin,' Coker on a triangle, and I forget what I had. We lost £SOO on the first day. A squatter backed John Tait's horses. However, we got even and a bit over before the meeting ended. "These were the bushranging days, and I remember I was the bank of the firm. I carried all the big notes in my boots. I had small feet, and we came to the conclusion that my boots would be no good to bushrangers. The trip to Mudgee, I recollect, was a very rough one. We had to coach it over the Blue Mountains, and on the box with me was a policeman in charge of a raving lunatic. But the days of what you" might call the legitimate figure bookmaker have ceased long ago." The Cup of '6l. Mr Miller can recall the running of the first Melbourne Cup in 1861. He, states that Archer was a big, raking horse. In those days an eveut known as the Champion Race was run in Victoria, New South Wales, Tasmania, and New Zealand, and the winner was regarded as champion until the event was run again. A noted horse was Praccitiles (afterwards Mormon). "The bookmakers' efforts to pronounce the nanie," states Mr Miller, "were ludicrously funny. I gave them a poser myself once." T had a colt by my horse Irish King. I went to several priests to get a good name for him. It seems tliat one Irish king had three sons. Two were not of much account. The other chap was a good fellow. He was named Guiedalathatch. I decided to give the colt that name. The bookmakers compromised by calling him Gogglygogglywhack. However, he broke down on me. I suppose he couldn't carry the name. Mr Miller, still dipping deep into the well of memory, said: "No one hears of John Tait now. Yet he won four Melbourne Cups. In those days almost everybody wore his racing colours. Nobody's colours are worn now. I remember the old grandstand on the Melbourne course. It was not a great affair —just a few boards, with no cover over them. I recall the old Turf Club. They used to have races over three miles. There used to be seven or eight starters. At one stage or other each horse would be in front. You could always find a backer to lay odds-on on the horse in front. I 've taken the odds on each one of them."

Mr Miller sighed. "What," he asked, "would bookmakers give to have such men those days?" Bolting Horse Wins.

Getting back to the old-timers, MiMiller said, "Herbert Power was one of the old racing men. He is one of the few of them alive to-day. Jimmy Wilson travelled the country with a couple of horses, Musidora and Ebor. They weren't bad mounts either. Geo. Watson used to ride his own horses. The present generation may remember that lie was starter at Flemington for many years. William Cross Yuille was a prominent owner in the days of long ago. His son, Archie Yuille, is the present V.ft.C. treasurer. Hector Norman Simson owned the first Victoria Derby winner, Flying Doe. She was ridden by Garter. The jockey is still alive. You will see him on one of the gates at Flemington any meeting you like to po out. Then there was .linnny Monaghan. He won the St. Legor on Quiz the Wind. Later lie was a trainer on the Sydney side for many years. "I remember very well the Melbourne Cup Lantern won. Let me see, yes, it was in 1864 —52 years ago. J. Perkins was riding Poet. He had the race well in hand, and was cantering home an easy winner, when Lantern, shortly after rounding the bend, took fright, bolted from his boy, and, finishing under the judge's box, just pipped Poet, who was going along leisurely. The most surprised person on the course that day was Perkins, who had actually stopped riding. Sam Davis rode the winner. Later on in life he became a council clerk in a Melbourne suburb."