Names you will read in his story include Tom Roberts who owned Exeter Farm near Braidwood NSW where Archer was foaled in 1856, Roberts’s sister Betsy and brother-in-law Thomas Royds, the Royds’s young sons Edward and William, Betsy’s second husband Rowland Hassall, the horse trainer Etienne de Mestre based at Terrara near Nowra, the trainer’s assistant Tom Lamond, the farriers Patrick Egan and John Rouen and the Sydney jockey John Cutts – which wasn’t his real name anyway.
You’ll read – and may you have even seen in the old movie – that Archer walked all the way from New South Wales to win the Melbourne Cup, but it isn’t true. Luckily for my reputation, the Nowra local historian Keith Paterson in his detailed biography of Etienne de Mestre, The Master’s Touch, confirmed my revelation in 1987 that Archer travelled by ship to Melbourne for both his successful Cup campaigns, each time on the steamer “City of Sydney”. He went home by ship, too.
Whatever the legalities and moralities around Archer’s origins and ownership, the official record tells an official story. Etienne de Mestre is credited as the owner and trainer of Archer (William Tell – Maid of the Oaks) when he won the two Melbourne Cups. John Cutts was the jockey, wearing de Mestre’s silks: black, black cap. Both times the best Victorian horse of the day, Mormon – who first raced as Praxiteles – was runner-up.
But let’s just talk about the horse himself, Archer. We are fortunate that, unlike many horses from this era, this champion was described in detail and depicted by several of the best equine artists of the time. He was a beautiful horse to paint. Bob Charley’s art book Heroes and Champions includes a private collection portrait by Joseph Fowles. It shows jockey Cutts from behind – standing shorter than the horse’s withers – poised to mount the spirited Archer while de Mestre holds the horse’s bridle, firmly and confidently. Archer is all action.
“A horse of immense size and power,” said Australia’s earliest Stud Book. “A magnificent horse for the eye,” said a local journalist seeing him for the first time before the 1861 Cup. He was certainly big, standing more than 16 hands tall, muscular, a gleaming bay with distinctive black “points” – the colour on the lower legs, mane and tail.
Like many colts growing into stallions, Archer thickened up with maturity. They sometimes called him a “gross feeder”, which meant a good appetite. He put on condition too easily and needed hard training to keep him fully fit. Yet his good temperament was always noted.
Keith Paterson confirms that Archer raced 17 times, at Randwick, Windsor, Flemington, Maitland, Geelong, and Ballarat. Cutts rode him in 16 of these starts, de Mestre once, for 12 wins (9 in succession) and three third placings. His two unplaced runs were his first two starts, at Randwick in 1860 at three years. He was allocated an unprecedented 71.6kg in the 1863 Melbourne Cup but controversially, and probably, fortunately, did not start. His acceptance form arrived a day late – but that is another story. His stud career was said to be unsuccessful, but he died in 1872, too soon to prove himself.
Did the Melbourne Cup make Archer famous, or was it the other way round? Both things are true. The race made a champion. The champion made the race.
