Milestone Memories: The Cup

This year marks the 165th running of ‘the race that stops the nation®’, the Lexus Melbourne Cup — a moment when the country pauses to honour the spirit, stamina and prestige of our Australian racing.

The VRC’s Joe McGrath and Consultant Historian, Dr Andrew Lemon, reflect on the various milestone races from years past.

1990 - Kingston Rule

35 YEARS AGO

Kingston Rule was arguably the best-bred horse ever to win the Cup. He was certainly the fastest, and the record time of 3 minutes 16.3 seconds remains the record to this day.

He was legendary trainer, Bart Cummings’s eighth winner in the race, and his first that wasn’t bred in New Zealand. His owner-breeders, David and Helen Hains, had raced the champion dam, Rose of Kingston, winner of the VRC Oaks and AJC Derby, and sent her to the US to be paired with the great Secretariat, the 1973 Triple Crown winner. 

Kingston Rule, a handsome chestnut, was lightly raced in his career, winning the Moonee Valley Cup and placing second in the Dalgety (Hotham Handicap) before his Melbourne Cup victory. He retired to stud in Victoria in 1991, producing many winners, the best of which was Kensington Palace, winner of the 1997 VRC Oaks.

Emerging champion jockey Darren Beadman secured a second Melbourne Cup win for Cummings in 1996 on Saintly. 

1965 - Light Fingers

60 YEARS AGO

The four-year-old mare, New Zealand-bred Light Fingers, became the sixth of her sex to win the Melbourne Cup.

Bought as a yearling by Bart Cummings for owner Wally Broderick, she raced entirely in Australia.

Before her Cup win, she was already hailed as a rising champion with wins in such 3YO classics as the VRC Oaks and the AJC Oaks, as well as the Sandown Guineas, forging a special bond with her regular rider, Roy Higgins.

Her victory, defeating her stablemate Ziema in a photo finish, marked the beginning of trainer Bart Cummings’s run of success in the Melbourne Cup, which would end 43 years later with his 12th victory in the race, Viewed (2008).

The following year, Light Fingers finished second to another Cummings-trained horse, Galilee, before she won the Sandown Cup.

1930 - Phar Lap

95 YEARS AGO

Most observers at the time and ever since revere the New Zealand-bred Phar Lap as Australia’s greatest racehorse, and it seems fitting that he holds the record for starting the shortest priced favourite (8/11 fav) in the history of the Melbourne Cup.

He won with ease carrying 9 stone 12 pounds (62.6 kg) and, as a hero horse in tough economic times, he carried the weight of a nation on his back.

It was a triumph for Sydney jockey Jim Pike, who was having his 14th ride in the Cup, and especially for trainer Harry Telford, who struck gold when he paid just 160 guineas for the scrawny yearling at the Trentham Sales in New Zealand in 1928.

Phar Lap’s extraordinary performance is only surpassed by his record of winning on each of the four days of the Flemington Cup Carnival.

In his career, he recorded 37 wins from 51 starts. His only unplaced run, aside from the start of his remarkable career, was in the Melbourne Cup the following year, when he was allotted 10 stone 10 pounds (68.03 kg). 

1905 - Blue Spec

120 YEARS AGO

Blue Spec was bred and first raced in New South Wales before being sold to the prominent Western Australian owner and punter, P.A. (Paddy) Connolly.

Connolly would own no fewer than seven Perth Cup winners, but it was Blue Spec who secured him the ultimate prize – the Melbourne Cup. Following victory in the Kalgoorlie Cup and the Perth Cup, Blue Spec was sent by Connolly to Victoria to be trained by Walter Hickenbotham.

The horse also won the Moonee Valley Cup prior to his victory at Flemington. This victory marked Hickenbotham’s fourth Melbourne Cup winner.

He engaged the services of Australian jockey Frank Bullock, who at age 21 had recently returned from his first successful riding stint in England and Europe.

Bullock later established himself as one of Australia’s greatest jockeys and trainers, winning prestigious races in Germany, France, England, and India, as well as in Australia, in a career that extended until his death in 1948. 

1890 - Carbine

135 YEARS AGO

When the New Zealand-bred Carbine won the 1890 Melbourne Cup in a record field of 39 starters, carrying an all-time record weight of 10 stone 5 pounds (65.77 kg) and setting a new race record, he was registering his 27th win in 36 starts.

This alone earned him legend status in Australian racing and Melbourne Cup history, rivalled in fame only by the 1930 winner, Phar Lap.

Added to this was a stellar career at stud, first in Australia, then in England after owner Donald Wallace sold him, for a then Australian record sum, to the Duke of Portland for 13,000 guineas.

He started a dynasty of champion racehorses and sires, and most horses competing in Melbourne Cups in the 21st century can trace their lineage to Carbine.

This was trainer Hickenbotham’s second of four Cup wins. Jockey Bob Ramage was fortunate to ride Carbine in the 1890 Cup after his usual jockey, Mick O’Brien, retired due to ill health.