Makybe Diva: Sculpting perfection

In September, Mr Brightside achieved what no horse had before: winning the Makybe Diva Stakes at Flemington for a third consecutive year, ridden each time by Craig Williams. The race has a history dating back to 1948, originally known as the Craiglee Stakes, and has seen a procession of champion winners since the days of Comic Court, Chicquita, and Sailor’s Guide. 

For the race honouring her name, Makybe Diva was a special guest at the venerable age of 26. Twenty years ago this November, she also achieved what no horse had before: winning the historic Melbourne Cup for a third consecutive year, each with Glen Boss.  

For her nostalgic return on Makybe Diva Stakes Day, the now retired broodmare led the runners onto the track from the Mounting Yard for the Group 1 race. Her owner Tony Santic and her original trainer, David Hall, were present for the reunion, along with Glen Boss.

There was one more piece of racing symmetry that day. As Makybe Diva headed to the mounting yard before the race, she passed her double. Just a few metres away, gazing in her direction, stood the beautiful statue of Makybe Diva, larger than life. That bronze, perched on a low plinth, commands pride of place on the Flemington Lawn. It was crafted by English sculptor Philip Blacker and was officially unveiled on Makybe Diva Stakes Day in 2007, the year the race adopted its new name. It is rare for a statue and the life it commemorates to meet. All of this came together on Makybe Diva Stakes Day 2025. 

It seemed timely to contact Philip Blacker at his home and studio in Oxfordshire to seek his reaction and invite his reflections on having created the Makybe Diva statue. Philip was delighted to learn that the mare was alive, healthy and revisiting the scene of her greatest triumphs.

Back in November 2005, there had been emotional scenes at Flemington when Makybe Diva won her third Melbourne Cup. At the trophy presentation, Tony Santic announced that she would be retired from racing immediately. Her career tally stood at 15 wins, including a Sydney Cup, an Australian Cup, a Turnbull Stakes, and a Cox Plate. Six of her wins had been at Flemington. 

When Philip Blacker met her in Australia, she had already gone to the stud. Here, he could run his expert eye over her impressive physique. He knew he wanted to capture ‘the lovely loping, loose way she walked’.

An expert eye indeed: Philip Blacker knew his horses first-hand. Before he became a world-renowned sculptor, Philip Blacker had enjoyed a thirteen-year career as a successful professional steeplechase rider in Britain, with 340 winners, riding most frequently for trainer Stan Mellor, himself a former champion jockey. In a sense, he was already sculpting horses from the saddle, knowing with all his senses how a racehorse is made, how it walks, how its muscles move, its ears twitch, its mane flows, its eye subtly signals its intent. In 1982, he retired from race riding, from the discipline of controlling his weight and the discomfort of injuries, to make sculpting and painting his full-time calling. 

Philip Blacker has another significant yet tangential connection to Australian racing. In 1973, he rode the outstanding jumper Spanish Steps to fourth place in the Grand National at Aintree, the world’s most famous and challenging steeplechase. That year, Sir Chester Manifold’s Australian-bred champion Crisp, carrying top weight of 12 stone (76.2 kg), led nearly throughout the race, staying half a furlong ahead for much of the contest, only to be caught in the very final strides by Red Rum, who carried 10.4 kilograms less. Together, they broke the course record by nearly 19 seconds. Philip had fancied his chances with Spanish Steps before the race but was beaten by the pace. He vividly recalls the race, watching the finish from many lengths behind. Overall, Philip Blacker rode in nine Grand Nationals, his best being fourth on Royal Stuart in 1980.

As for Red Rum, that gelding was the Makybe Diva of the Grand Nationals, the first and only horse to have won the race three times, successful again in 1974 and 1977, and finishing second in 1975 and 1976. Philip Blacker, still early in his sculpting career, was commissioned to produce his first life-sized statue, completed in 1988 — Red Rum, for Aintree Racecourse.

You will find Philip Blacker statues of famous horses at racecourses around the world: they include steeplechaser Desert Orchid at Kempton Park, Generous at Epsom, Kentucky Derby winner and champion sire Northern Dancer at Woodbine, Toronto, and triple winner of the Jockey Club Cup, Persian Punch, at Newmarket. In another Australian connection, the popular Persian Punch twice travelled to Flemington, finishing third in the 1998 Melbourne Cup to Jezabeel and third in 2001 behind Ethereal.    

Philip explains the painstaking process of creating a statue in bronze. The imaginative stage is the small scale maquette. When modelling from life, as with Makybe Diva, the artist’s observation, sketches, and photographs assist the process. The finished maquette can then be measured precisely to scale, preparing for the full-sized version. A large steel frame is welded to provide internal support, bulked out towards proportion with chicken wire. The clay is applied for an exact finish. The horseman’s hands undoubtedly help. In a sense, the sculpture seems to come alive: Philip states this is the most agonising part of the process. Following this, the complex task involves sending the finished clay sculpture to the metal foundry for casting in bronze. In the case of Makybe Diva, it was then carefully packed and shipped to Australia.

“I wanted to be a jockey from the moment I was born,” Philip Blacker says, only partly in jest. It was the glamour of racing that drew him into the sport, and the excitement of the great racing carnivals such as Aintree and Cheltenham. He pursued the sport until his body began to tell him otherwise, and by that time, sculpting had become a second passion. Horses are not his only subject, but sculpting horses has allowed those two passions to run together for a lifetime. 

The static statue is not for Philip Blacker. He wants, of course, to capture the likeness. Animation, he says, is the key – the feel of life. His Makybe Diva walks beautifully, purposefully, like a mannequin. Her near front leg stretches forward, tip of the hoof gently touching the ground. Her head tilts slightly to one side, as if seeking that distant winning post of dreams. “I want it to look as though she is about to walk off the plinth.” This is the Makybe Diva that Philip Blacker captured for Flemington. She will be there for years to come.