New stablemates: A Super Saturday story

In the dying days of Adelaide’s Cheltenham Racecourse, in the drought stricken summer of early 2009, I heard a trainer tell his son that his life’s ambition was to win the VRC Newmarket Handicap at Flemington. Not the Cox Plate, nor the Golden Slipper, nor even the Melbourne Cup: it was to win the Newmarket. The reason was simple – the tradition of this rich race, and the chance to upset the favourites with an unheralded sprinter.

That has always been the lure of the handicap as against set weight and weight-for-age races. The underdog gets a chance. A known champion must always carry extra, and if they win they prove true superiority. Black Caviar won the Newmarket in 2011 carrying more than weight-for-age and she set a new race record in the bargain. The gelding Shaftesbury Avenue, trained by Bart Cummings, similarly carried 58 kilograms to win in 1991, with five Group 1 victories behind him. The only horse in the past 70 years to win with a heavier weight was Gold Stakes, a son of Star Kingdom, in 1959, with 59 kg on his back.

Mind you, no horse has ever won the Newmarket without being exceptional, combining speed with stamina to triumph down the famous Straight Six track. When the New Zealand mare Roch ‘N’ Horse won the 2022 Newmarket, her odds were 100–1, even though she had been runner-up in the previous year’s Black Caviar Lightning Stakes. If there was any doubt about her class, she proved herself during the 2022 Melbourne Cup Carnival, prevailing at weight-for-age against the best company to win the VRC Champions Sprint.

The heaviest weighted horse ever, bar one, to win the Newmarket was magnificent Bernborough in 1946, defeating a huge field. He carried 9 stone 13 pounds (about 63 kg) and powered from back in the pack to get up at the finishing line.

Those who saw that performance never forgot it. But the all-time weight-carrying record in the Newmarket (10 stone 2, or 64.4kg) belongs to Greenline in March 1930. He won on the very day when the three-year-old Phar Lap at odds-on took the VRC St Leger in a canter, by five lengths, and their mutual rival, Amounis, won the weight-for-age Essendon Stakes of 1¼ miles, his seventh successive victory. It was a Super Saturday for Sydney jockey Jim Pike, who rode all three of them.

Greenline was a New South Wales gelding who first made his name with wins in the Carrington Stakes, the Challenge Stakes and The Shorts, all at Randwick, and the Hill Stakes at Rosehill. In the 1930 Newmarket, in the days of barrier starts, before starting stalls, Greenline had drawn near the outside in a field of 29. It worked to his advantage, keeping to the outside rail all the way to win.

Two years later, after more success, Greenline returned to contest the Newmarket once more. The handicapper allotted him 10 stone 6 pounds (66.2kg). He finished third to Lady Linden (a Stradbroke Handicap winner), with Winooka second (a star performer who later raced in America). Greenline was magnificent in defeat. No other horse in the history of the Newmarket has finished in the placings with such a weight. A year later, Greenline retired to a paddock at his birthplace in the Hunter Valley.

Many great horses have won the Newmarket: Century and Baguette, Begonia Belle and Royal Gem, Ajax and Aurie’s Star, Wakeful and Malua among them. The immortal Carbine finished third as a three-year-old in 1889.

Such history. This year’s Yulong Newmarket Handicap is the 162nd running of the race. By comparison, the other Group 1 feature of today’s Super Saturday, the All-Star Mile, is being run for only the seventh time, and for just the third time at Flemington. This year it has Group 1 status for the first time and it will be a Flemington fixture for the future.

The first edition of this innovative race was run here in 2019. The popular Tasmanian filly, Mystic Journey, took home the big prize. Since then it has rotated to Caulfield and Moonee Valley and back here, with Perth horse Regal Power, Mugatoo, Mr Brightside, Zaaki and Pride Of Jenni the winners. The calibre of these horses underlines its appeal.

Unlike most races, the All-Star Mile offers a number of entry points into the field of 16. Eight lead-up races in Australia and New Zealand offer direct entry. Top current form counts, and there is a possible wildcard for horses showing exceptional promise. With big prizemoney and public appeal, the All-Star Mile has quickly established itself as a highlight of Melbourne’s autumn. One day we’ll surely overhear a trainer telling her daughter that the race she most wants to win is the All-Star Mile at Flemington. Maybe this year.