Best Australian Racing Stories (4 page)

Luckily, however, there was one man who knew better. Les MacDonald was a former manager of St Albans and he obviously knew a few things about the filly that others bidding at the sale didn't. He commissioned Mr Neil Campbell to make the purchase for him at 310 guineas, which was a fair amount for an unraced though well-bred filly. In hindsight it was the bargain of a lifetime.

Wakeful was a powerfully built bay mare. She stood 15.2 hands, a good size for a mare in those days, and her near-perfect action was marred slightly by some awkwardness in her forelegs. She suffered from bouts of lameness all her life, which may account for the odd anomalies in consistency in her career and her occasional, uncharacteristic minor placings.

Trained at Mordialloc in Victoria by Hugh Munro, father of great jockeys Jim and Darby, Wakeful began her racing career as a four-year-old, running second over 5 furlongs at Caulfield. At her second start she raced poorly over 6 furlongs at Flemington, finishing 20th and pulling up lame once again. She was immediately sent back to the paddock.

Four months later many things had changed. Australia had become a nation on 1 January 1901, and Wakeful had recovered from her lameness and was back at Munro's stables and running amazing times on the training track.

What occurred next must be considered one of the most amazing racing feats, not to mention betting coups, of all time. Wakeful, a maiden galloper rising five, won the Oakleigh Plate and took half a second off the race record. Not only did she win one of the nation's premier sprint races, she started at 4 to 1 favourite following a huge betting plunge by her owner Les MacDonald.

The mare was then given the maximum penalty of 10 lb for the VRC Newmarket Handicap. Even with this penalty she carried the relatively light weight of 7 st 6 lb (47 kg) and won easily, once again backed in to start favourite at 5 to 2.

In those days the weights for the AJC Autumn Carnival were issued in January, and Wakeful, even with the maximum penalty, was thrown into the Doncaster Handicap with 7 st 10 lb (49 kg). She won the famous mile race easily and, with really no preparation as a stayer, ran a gallant third in the Sydney Cup two days later. The AJC immediately rescheduled weight declarations to prevent such a thing happening again.

In the spring Wakeful returned to racing by winning the Caulfield Stakes. She then started favourite in the Caulfield Cup. After stumbling and almost falling in the straight, she recovered to catch Hymettus and the crowd thought she had won. The judge, however, gave the race to Hymettus on the bob of the head—they had taken one and a half seconds off the race record.

Wakeful then won the first of her three consecutive Melbourne Stakes, defeating Hymettus who could only manage fourth placing. She had not been trained for the Melbourne Cup and tired to run fifth in the big race after contesting the lead in the straight with the eventual winner, her stablemate Revenue, who carried 1 stone less. MacDonald, who also owned Revenue, did not expect her to run out the 2 miles, and she started at 10 to 1.

When Wakeful returned to racing in the autumn of 1902, she had been trained and conditioned to stay, her target being the Sydney Cup. She opened her campaign by winning the mile and a half Essendon Stakes, but on her second outing, over 3 miles, she ran second to Carbine's daughter La Carabine. In what was perhaps an attempt to toughen up the mare, two days after her second placing Munro started her twice in one day at Flemington. She easily won the All-Aged Stakes over a mile, but could only manage third over 14 furlongs later the same day.

Munro then took the mare to Sydney where, after a three-week break, she proceeded to ‘do a Carbine' by winning four major races in seven days at the Autumn Carnival. She won the Autumn Stakes over a mile and a half on the first day and, two days later, recorded what was perhaps her greatest victory. Carrying a record weight for a mare of 9 st 7 lb (60.5 kg) she won the Sydney Cup by 2 lengths, taking an amazing three seconds off the race record held by, among others, the mighty Carbine and his champion son Wallace. Three days later she won the All-Aged Stakes over a mile, and two days after that the AJC Plate over 3 miles.

As a six-year-old Wakeful started 15 times for ten wins, four seconds and a third. Trained to stay, her wins came at distances from 9 furlongs to 3 miles and her placings, all except one at 10 furlongs, were in shorter races. The great mare bypassed the Melbourne Cup that year to concentrate on weight-for-age races. In winning her second Melbourne Stakes, however, she easily defeated The Victory, who won the Melbourne Cup at his next start.

In the twilight of her career, as a seven-year-old, Wakeful raced eight times for three wins, three seconds and a third. It is strange that, considering her amazing record and all her great wins, racing historians consider her best efforts to be two second placings. The first of these was the Caulfield Cup of 1901 when she stumbled only to recover and be unluckily placed second to Hymettus in that dubious judge's decision, which could only have been guesswork. The second, and most incredible effort of all, came in the champion mare's final race, the Melbourne Cup of 1903.

The most weight carried by a female horse to win the Cup prior to 1903 was the 7 st 4 lb (46.5 kg) carried to victory by Auraria in 1895. The most weight carried to victory by a mare in the Cup's entire history was 9 st 1 lb (58 kg), when Makybe Diva won her third Cup in 2005. Wakeful was given 10 st (63.5 kg), still the biggest weight ever allotted to the female sex in the great race's history, and it is likely to remain so for all time.

The gallant mare raced to the lead half a mile before the finish and led into the straight by 2 lengths, only to be run down by the good stayer Lord Cardigan, carrying 6 st 8 lb (42 kg)—a massive 21.5 kg less than Wakeful. Lord Cardigan, whose connections had successfully ‘cheated' the handicapper to get the tough young stayer into the race with a featherweight, won by less than a length. Many experts considered that Wakeful could have beaten Lord Cardigan if jockey Frank Dunn had waited another furlong before going for home on the champion mare.

Wakeful was a very successful broodmare. She produced five winning sons, including Night Watch who won a Melbourne Cup, and the great sprinter Blairgour, who won an Oakleigh Plate and a Futurity Stakes. Her daughters were not successful on the track but two, San Repos and Camilla, became great broodmares, producing many good horses and passing Wakeful's genes down to later generations of good stayers like Frill Prince and Yarramba.

The year after Wakeful's gallant Cup defeat, the fairer sex had revenge when the aged mare, Acrasia, defeated Lord Cardigan by exactly the same margin as he had beaten Wakeful. The difference was that Acrasia carried 7 st 6 lb (48 kg) and Lord Cardigan carried 9 st 6 lb (60 kg), a ‘turnaround' in the weights of 33.5 kg in favour of the mares.

Lord Cardigan was generally acknowledged as Australia's best racehorse when Wakeful retired. By the imported champion son of St Simon, Positano, out of the good Trenton mare Lady Trenton, Lord Cardigan won the Sydney Cup as well as the Melbourne Cup, but his effort in running second to Acrasia caused him to rupture and he died several days after the Cup, at the age of four. Acrasia was owned by Sydney bookmaker Humphrey Oxenham, who lost her in a card game to Lord Cardigan's owner, John Mayo, on the eve of the Caulfield Cup, but bought her back the next day for 2000 guineas.

After Wakeful's retirement and the premature death of Lord Cardigan, the racing public didn't have to wait long to find another great champion to adore and follow—and 1906 saw the arrival of perhaps the greatest three-year-old in our racing history, who happened to be another son of Positano.

Poseidon (foaled 1903)

In 1904 the Moses family, from the famous Arrowfield Stud in the Hunter Valley, purchased the Martini-Henry mare Jacinth, with a colt foal at foot, at the dispersal of Neotsfield Stud, also in the Hunter. They paid 400 guineas and decided to sell the colt at the Sydney Easter Yearling Sales of 1905. The colt, Poseidon, sold to Sir Hugh Denison for 500 guineas, which looked like a very good result for the Moses family when he managed to win only one race from six starts as a two-year-old. Poseidon's amazing three-year-old season, however, made the 500 guineas look like petty cash.

Poseidon started 14 times as a three-year-old for 11 wins and three seconds. The wins included the VRC and AJC Derbies and St Legers, the Eclipse Stakes, and the Caulfield and Melbourne Cups. He remains the only horse to ever achieve that sequence of wins.

He returned as a four-year-old to win seven from 12 starts. His weight-for-age victories that year included the AJC Spring Stakes, Cumberland Stakes and AJC Plate, as well as the Eclipse Stakes for a second time, the Melbourne Stakes, and the Rawson Stakes. He carried the 9 st 3 lb (58.5 kg) to become the first horse to ever win consecutive Caulfield Cups; and he finished 11th, carrying a massive 10 st 3 lb (65 kg), behind Apologue in the Melbourne Cup of 1907.

Poseidon lived to the age of 26 and stood at stud at Eumerella, in Gulgong, New South Wales. He was a moderately successful sire; his son Rascasse won the Queensland Derby and another son, Tel-ecles, won the Moonee Valley Cup.

Poseidon not only made a fortune for his big-betting owner, but also famously made a fortune for a Chinese market gardener from Bankstown named Jimmy Ah Poon, who had an uncanny knack of backing Poseidon only when he won. Jimmy backed him on every occasion that he won, but never when he ran second or worse.

Jimmy was known as ‘Louis the Possum' by bookmakers because he could not pronounce ‘Poseidon' and called the horse on which he won his fortune ‘Possumum'. Evidently Jimmy returned to China and lived out his days in luxury with the estimated £35,000 fortune he acquired backing ‘Possumum'.

Between Federation in 1901 and the outbreak of war in 1914, Australia enjoyed a period of growth and prosperity. The drought and Depression years of the 1890s were merely a memory. The economy was booming and so was racing, and the public had some outstanding horses to follow and admire.

Following the retirement of Poseidon, great stayers continued to dominate the racing scene as far as public popularity was concerned. Three of the greatest stayers ever bred to race in Australia dominated this era, and they were three very different horses—Trafalgar, Prince Foote and Comedy King.

Of the three, Trafalgar was undoubtedly the most popular, although the other two were more brilliant, more versatile and better performed overall. Firstly, though, let's take a look at Prince Foote, who was probably the best of the three in terms of sheer talent.

Prince Foote (foaled 1906)

A small bay horse trained by the master trainer of stayers, Frank McGrath, Prince Foote was the product of all English bloodlines, being by the imported stallion Sir Foote from the imported mare Petrushka, and so had the great 1875 Epsom Derby winner Galopin on both sides of his pedigree. Galopin started 11 times for ten wins and a second, and was the leading sire in Britain in 1888, 1889 and 1898.

As a two-year-old Prince Foote won the AJC Sires' Produce Stakes in what was a moral victory for non-colonially bred horses, but he was considered by many to be too small to be a good stayer. Frank McGrath proved the doubters wrong when the horse took out the AJC and VRC Derbies, both St Legers, the Champion Stakes and the Melbourne Cup as a three-year-old. In that year Prince Foote started 11 times for nine wins.

His greatest victories were in the AJC Derby where he was badly checked twice, fell back through the field, was forced to race wide and went around every other horse to win by a length and a half; and the Melbourne Cup, where he came late and flew past Trafalgar and Alawa to win by 3 lengths.

Owned by the Newcastle coal baron and shipowner, John Brown, Prince Foote was a great success at stud, being the sire of dual Derby winner Richmond Main, Craven Plate winner Prince Viridis, and 1922 Sydney Cup winner Prince Charles. He was also a good sire of broodmares and his daughter, Princess Berry, was the dam of Rosehill Guineas winner, Balloon King.

Trafalgar (foaled 1905)

Trafalgar was a son of Wallace, which of course makes him a grandson of the great Carbine. He was a light chestnut with a flaxen mane and tail, so his colouring was identical to the great stayer Peter Pan, who was to grace the racetracks of Australia three decades later.

Trafalgar was a more solid horse than the later champion, and his popularity with the racing public was based as much upon his courage and dour staying ability as it was on his good looks. He started 59 times for 24 wins, 11 seconds and six thirds. His best wins were in the Sydney Cup, the AJC Plate and the Melbourne Stakes. His greatest run came in the Melbourne Cup of 1910, when, carrying 9 st 2 lb (58 kg), he unwound a mighty finish to come from near last and just failed to catch Comedy King, carrying 7 st 8 lb (48 kg). The margin was half a head.

Trafalgar was one of the most loved horses to ever race in Australia. He ran in three consecutive Melbourne Cups carrying huge weights—more than 9 st each time—and finished fourth, second and 11th, but he was always the crowd favourite. Some idea of his popularity can be gained by looking at the events surrounding the running of the Melbourne Stakes of 1911, three days before Trafalgar's final Melbourne Cup run.

Most punters considered the 10 furlongs of this race far too short for a dour stayer like Trafalgar. His old nemesis, Comedy King, was red-hot favourite at 5 to 4 on, while Trafalgar was unwanted in the ring at 15 to 1. The great stayer was to finish behind Comedy King eight times in his career but that day, when he produced another of his great finishing runs to defeat the imported champion, the Flemington crowd cheered him all the way back to scale—a show of affection rarely seen for a horse that had just defeated an odds-on favourite.

Comedy King (foaled 1907)

Comedy King went on to win the Melbourne Cup of 1910 and was the first imported horse ever to do so. He was bred at King Edward's stud and purchased and imported by the popular Melbourne bookmaker Sol Green as a foal at foot with his dam, Tragedy Queen. His sire, Persimmon, a son of St Simon, started only nine times for seven wins, a second and a third, but those wins included the Epsom Derby, the St Leger, the Eclipse Stakes and the Ascot Gold Cup twice.