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Months before the 1870 race, Ballarat publican Walter Craig had a vivid dream. In this dream he watched his own horse, Nimblefoot, win the Cup, but he noticed his jockey was wearing a black armband. Craig’s premonition was that his horse would win the Cup, but that he would not live to see it. So strong was his conviction that the story gained great currency and was reported in the press before the Cup was run (this is verified by the Trove newspaper database).
Astonishingly, Craig’s horse Nimblefoot won the cup, with the jockey wearing a black crepe armband to mourn Walter Craig who, just as he had dreamed, died before the race.
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Jockey John Letts rode the 40/1 outsider Piping Lane to win the Cup in 1972.
Letts was a South Australian, a late booking because he could make the horse’s light weight of 48 kilograms. When approached for the ride he decided not to reveal he had not ridden at Flemington previously. He asked a friend among the local jockeys for advice and was told “make your move at Chiquita Lodge”.
In the run Letts gained a good position. As the field began the long turn for home, he scanned the horizon for Chiquita Lodge. “I was looking up in the sky for some multi-storey hotel or apartments,” he recalled. Nothing like that appeared and the jockey grew desperate. Then he saw the favourite Gunsynd being urged forward and decided to get onto its tail. In the straight Piping Lane surged past Gunsynd and went on to an easy win.
Later Letts confronted his informant about the Chiquita Lodge tip. He was embarrassed to learn that Chiquita Lodge was a famous stable that ran down the side of the racecourse with its name painted in huge letters on the roof.
Letts capitalised on his 1972 win to become one of the country’s leading jockeys and won another Melbourne Cup in 1980 – leading all the way.
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The story of the 1906 winner Poseidon and its ardent admirer, a Chinese market-gardener named Jimmy Ah Poon, also has its element of humour.
Poseidon was a three-year-old colt in the spring of 1906. He began a sequence of big-race wins at Randwick in September, then won at Hawkesbury, followed up in the AJC Derby, but then ran second in the Metropolitan Handicap. He then travelled to Melbourne and won four races in a row, culminating in the Melbourne Cup. In autumn 1907 Poseidon raced five times for three more wins and two seconds.
Ah Poon supplied Poseidon with his favourite food, carrots, from his garden. They became firm friends. He bet 10 pounds on the horse at Randwick then “let it ride” at Hawkesbury and in the Derby.
At the urging of the owner he laid off on the Metropolitan defeat, then again bet all-up in each of the Melbourne wins. He did the same in the autumn, but somehow knew not to bet on the losses.
Bookmakers, who not surprisingly had come to know him well, wryly nicknamed him “The Possum” for his pronunciation of “Poseidon” when placing bets, but also for his cunning in avoiding losing days.
He was not seen at the track thereafter and it is believed he returned to China with his fortune intact.
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The Cup of 1890 was won by “Old Jack” or Carbine, the horse that several racing heavyweights judge superior to Phar Lap.
Carbine wins the Cup in 1890.
It is one of the earliest for which we have images of the contestants approaching the winning post. It is thus of significance in the history of photography.
The picture also captures a large section of the crowd watching the race intently, in which a keen-eyed latter-day researcher named Jack Pollard spotted a crime in progress. One racegoer is being “dipped” – that is, having his pocket picked (circled in the photo). One hopes that the victim was not holding a winning ticket.
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The youngest jockey to ever win the Melbourne Cup was just 15 years old.
It was 1948 and it was the first time a photo finish was used in the race.
Rimfire, an 80-1 outsider, beat Dark Marne, just. Without the photo evidence the race could have easily gone to the other rider or ended in a dead heat.
Ray Neville had placed second in the Caulfield Cup two weeks before the big race.
Rimfire’s jockey was re-positioned to ride the race favorite instead, and the trainer, Stan Boyden, was out of options. Young Neville was picked to ride Rimfire at the last minute. His previous win had not gone unnoticed, and he was small. It would have to do.
According to Ray Neville’s daughter Christine Currie:
“There is no way they would put someone so young and unexperienced like my dad on an expensive horse like that today. [Rimfire] was an 80 to one outsider. The jockeys thought it was a joke and the trainer was not placing any bets. He would tell us as kids that as he was coming round the last bend he just went for it. He thought he might just have a chance – he was as shocked as everybody else.”
Ray Neville won 25 pounds, enough for a new suit and a saddle, which was later stolen, and was presented with a whip and a cup. That night he sat on a bench and had fish and chips for dinner – no grand celebration for the youngster in those days.
“It will never ever happen again, my dad was the youngest on record and most likely always will be,” Ms Currie said.
Mr Neville won 25 pounds, enough for a new suit and a saddle, which was later stolen, and was presented with a whip and a cup.
That night he sat on a bench and had fish and chips for dinner – no grand celebration for the youngster in those days.
“It will never ever happen again, my dad was the youngest on record and most likely always will be,” Ms Currie said.
Mr Neville continued to ride until 1968 and worked in the racing world issuing barrier certificates well into his 50s.
He died suddenly in 2008, five weeks after his 60th birthday.
A photograph captures Ray Neville as he dismounts Rimfire after winning the race.
H. G. Raymond with Jockey Ray Neville, after their 1948 Melbourne Cup success with Rimfire.
