Trainer: James Scobie
Jockey: Andrew  Richardson
Silks: White, Royal Blue Sleeves And Cap

Sold as a yearling by his breeder, Andrew Chirnside, Clean Sweep was raced by ‘F.T. Forrest’, the racing name used by Victoria Amateur Turf Club committee member, Frank Cumming. Trainer James Scobie was one of greats of the Australian turf, beginning his career as a jockey and steeplechase rider in the 1870s. Clean Sweep was the first of his four Melbourne Cup winners. In the 1900 Melbourne Cup, Scobie had four runners: Clean Sweep and Maltster finished first and second respectively. Both were champions. Clean Sweep had previously won the Moonee Valley Cup, while Maltster won the AJC and the Victoria Derby. The next year, Clean Sweep won the AJC St Leger at Randwick. He was then sold to England but had limited success at the stud. The 17-year-old jockey, Andrew ‘Dingo’ Richardson, was described as a freckle-faced youngster from Queensland. Eight years later he tragically drowned in a swimming accident.

Trainer: Hugh Munro
Jockey: Frederick Dunn
Silks: Black, Rose Sleeves, White Cap

Revenue was raced by C. Leslie Macdonald, who managed the St Albans Stud, Geelong in the 1890s. The trainer, Hugh Munro, was father of the future champion jockeys Jim and Richard ‘Darby’ Munro. Both Macdonald and Munro had previously worked with J. Eden Savill of Lockleys Stud, Adelaide, trainer of 1882 Melbourne Cup winner, The Assyrian. Revenue, a son of Trenton, won the VRC Sires Produce Stakes at Flemington as a 2YO. The Cup was the first big race win for Munro’s nephew, Fred Dunn, 18 at the time. Dunn won many races on Macdonald’s champion mare, Wakeful but the young jockey died from infection in 1906 after an arm injury. Revenue, a handsome gelding, was lent on retirement to the Governor of Victoria, Lord Dudley, and he accompanied the Governor’s retinue to the 1909 Melbourne Cup. Later stories that Revenue became a war horse in the First World War are incorrect—he retired to a paddock in Gippsland.  

Trainer: Richard Bradfield
Jockey: Robert (Bobbie) Lewis
Silks: Lavender, Rose Collar, Sleeves And Cap

This was second of four Melbourne Cup wins for trainer Richard Bradfield, and the first of four as jockey for Bobbie Lewis, 24 years old at the time. Lewis’s fourth Cup win would come 25 years later, with Trivalve. He dominated the Victorian jockeys’ premiership for years, with multiple wins in the biggest races. The champion mare, Wakeful, did not accept for the race after being given the handicap weight of 10 stone 5 pounds (65.77 kg)—equivalent to the record weight that Carbine carried to win in 1890. The Victory was raced by the partnership of eminent Australian businessmen Lionel Robinson and William Clark who had recently established a stockbroking firm in London. The Victory was exported to the stud in Ireland in 1904 but died less than five years later. 

Trainer: Albert E. Cornwell
Jockey: Norman Godby
Silks: Black, Pale Blue Sash And Cap

Lord Cardigan’s Cup victory is especially remembered for the narrow defeat of Wakeful in her final race. Wakeful was truly the first lady of the turf, winning from sprint distances of an Oakleigh Plate and Newmarket Handicap up to a two-mile Sydney Cup. In the Melbourne Cup, she carried 10 stone (63.5 kg) while the 3YO Lord Cardigan had 6 stone 8 pounds (41.7 kg). Wakeful’s jockey, Fred Dunn, took her to the lead too far from home but she was beaten narrowly at the finish. Lord Cardigan was a good horse. He went on to win the Sydney Cup, and in the next Melbourne Cup he carried top weight and ran second to the lightly weighted mare, Acrasia. He was owned and raced by prominent NSW breeder John Mayo, trained in Sydney by veteran Albert Cornwell. Jockey Norman Godby, born in Armidale NSW, was 15 when he won the Cup: in 1920s he trained the winners of the VRC Grand National Hurdle and Steeplechase.

Trainer: Albert Edward Wills
Jockey: Tom Clayton
Silks: Violet And Gold Stripes, Violet Cap

Acrasia was raced by the flamboyant Sydney bookmaker, Humphrey Oxenham, who was lucky to retain her when she won the Cup. Press reports said that he had lost the mare on a wager in a poker game to John Mayo after the Caulfield Cup, a race in which she finished second. Oxenham quickly negotiated to repurchase the mare. She enjoyed a two stone (12.7 kg) advantage in the weights over the previous year’s winner, Lord Cardigan, and her race time equalled the record set by the champion Carbine in 1890. Newcastle-born trainer Albert Wills was based at Randwick, and Tom Clayton at 22 was the rising star of Sydney racing. He went on the win the Melbourne Cup again two years later on the brilliant Poseidon. Clayton died in race fall at Rosehill in 1909. Acrasia is recorded as the first mare to win the Melbourne Cup.

Trainer: Walter Hickenbotham
Jockey: Frank Bullock
Silks: Scarlet, White Sash And Cap

Blue Spec was bred and first raced in NSW 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 landed him the ultimate prize—the Melbourne Cup. Following victory in the Kalgoorlie Cup and the Perth Cup, Blue Spec was sent by Connolly across to Victoria to be trained by Walter Hickenbotham. The horse won the Moonee Valley Cup ahead of his Flemington victory. It was Hickenbotham’s fourth Melbourne Cup win. He had the service of Australian jockey Frank Bullock, who at age 21 had just returned from his first successful riding stint in England and Europe. Bullock later cemented his place 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 extending to his death in 1948.

Trainer: Isaac Earnshaw
Jockey: Tom Clayton
Silks: Purple 

Poseidon goes down in history as one of the greatest 3YOs to have raced in Australia. In the space of a year, he won 11 of 14 races including the Caulfield and Melbourne Cups, the AJC Derby and the Victoria Derby and the VRC and AJC St. Legers. No other horse has matched this record. A favourite story is that from the spring of 1906 he was supported at every win by a Chinese punter, Jimmy Ah Poon, who reportedly accumulated more than £30,000 starting from a £5 bet. Poseidon was sired by Positano, father of four Cup winners. Heavily weighted, he finished sixth, a beaten favourite, in the next Melbourne Cup. ‘Ike’ Earnshaw was a well-established Randwick trainer at the peak of his career, and he won the race the next year with Apologue. Top Sydney jockey Tom Clayton had previously won the 1904 Melbourne Cup. He lost his life in a race fall at Rosehill in 1909.

Trainer: Isaac Earnshaw
Jockey: William Evans
Silks: Red, Black Sash, Yellow Sleeves And Cap

After winning the Caulfield-Melbourne Cup double in 1906, Poseidon returned to Melbourne in 1907 and won the Caulfield Cup a second time. His new stablemate, the New Zealand-bred and owned Apologue, was a close runner-up to him at Caulfield and met him in the Melbourne Cup on more favourable weight terms. Consequently, Apologue was heavily backed, and landed big wagers for the Earnshaw stable. Apologue was the first Cup winner to be owned by a New Zealander and was a half-brother to Gladsome, a prolific winning mare in both countries. South Australian-born jockey Billy Evans had ridden with little success on the pony-racing circuit in Sydney before trying his luck in India. There he won the prestigious 1906 Viceroy’s Cup on former Queensland champion, Fitzgrafton. He returned to Sydney and secured the ride on Apologue but wasted dangerously to get down to the light weight. He collapsed upon dismounting and was so ill that he was only just able to stand and weigh in, to confirm the victory. 

Trainer: Ernest A Mayo
Jockey: John R. Flynn
Silks: Black, Pale Blue Sash And Cap

Lord Nolan was a small, three-quarter brother to the Melbourne Cup winner of 1903, Lord Cardigan. Both were named after heroes of the charge of the Light Brigade in the Crimean War in 1854, and both horses were bred and owned by John Mayo of Maitland, NSW. Mayo did not have a large stable of horses, and Lord Nolan was trained by his son, Ernest. Lord Nolan finished third in the Victoria Derby three days earlier but performed better in the Cup under his lighter weight. The happy owner reportedly plied his colt with champagne after the race—apparently to no ill effect. The next year Lord Nolan won the AJC St Leger at Randwick. Jockey Jack Flynn, born in Victoria, was one of four brothers who rode with success in Western Australia.

Trainer: Frank McGrath
Jockey: William H. McLachlan
Silks: Pale Blue, Yellow Sleeves, Black Cap

Prince Foote was a 3YO champion with a record to rival Poseidon’s. His eleven wins included the AJC and the Victoria Derby, the AJC Sires Produce and the St Leger and the VRC St Leger, He was bred and raced by the Newcastle (NSW) coal mining magnate John Brown who enjoyed the racing name of ‘Mr J. Baron’. Brown had a famous rivalry with his brother William who went on to win the 1912 Cup with Piastre. Prince Foote at the stud sired Victoria Derby winner Richmond Main, second in the 1919 Melbourne Cup. Frank McGrath, trainer of Prince Foote, went on to train the great Peter Pan, winner of the 1932 and 1934 Melbourne Cups. Jockey W.H. McLachlan, sometimes nicknamed ‘Midget’, was 22 when he won his first Melbourne Cup but had already ridden with success overseas. He won the race again in 1910 and 1917. He was the great-grandfather of trainers Lee and Anthony Freedman who achieved their own Melbourne Cup success stories. He was also the great-great-grandfather of Sam Freedman, also a Melbourne Cup Winning trainer.

Trainer: James Lynch
Jockey: William H. McLachlan
Silks: Black, White Checks, Red Sleeves And Cap

Solomon Green in his time was the best-known and most successful bookmaker in Victoria. He invested heavily in property and horses, acquiring Shipley Park Stud at Warrnambool. In 1907 he and his trainer, Jim Lynch, visited England to buy mares for the stud. The purchases included Tragedy Queen with her black foal at foot, by Persimmon. Green named the foal Comedy King. The colt did not race until he was a 3YO, taking the 1910 Caulfield Futurity at his second start. By winning the 1910 Melbourne Cup, Comedy King became the first ‘imported’ northern-hemisphere horse to win the race, although the British-bred Panic was runner-up in 1865. Comedy King won other big races and went on to become a great Australian sire. Two sons won Melbourne Cups (Artilleryman 1919, King Ingoda 1922), while the popular Shadow King ran in six Melbourne Cups, for two seconds, two thirds, a fourth and a sixth. This was jockey McLachlan’s second of three Melbourne Cup wins.

Trainer: Charlie Wheeler
Jockey: T. Ronald Cameron
Silks: Royal Blue, Gold Armbands And Cap

Owned by a South Australian grazier, John Kirby, The Parisian started 5/1 for the Cup following a good third in the Melbourne Stakes the Saturday before, having won the Australian Cup at Flemington in the autumn. The Parisian was ridden by the versatile New Zealand-born jockey, Ron Cameron, as successful over the jumps as he was on the flat, who went on to a long career in Victoria as a trainer. In this Cup he rode a confident race and was never in doubt, winning by two lengths. Trafalgar, an acknowledged champion, started favourite for the third year in a row after finishing second in 1910, but this year finished unplaced. Charlie Wheeler, originally from the Upper Murray, had been training horses in Melbourne since the 1880s: he was successful again in the Melbourne Cup in 1915 with Patrobas.

Trainer: Richard O’Connor
Jockey: Albert Shanahan
Silks: White, Purple Sleeves, Red Cap

Piastre was the fourth son of imported British sire Positano to win the Melbourne Cup, after Lord Cardigan, Poseidon and Lord Nolan. His first race win, in Sydney, was recorded only one month before the Cup. His NSW owner-breeder, William Brown, was the brother and racing rival of John Brown, whose horse Duke Foote started hot favourite at 6/4 in the race but ran ingloriously. Duke Foote had beaten Piastre comfortably at each of their previous two races, including the Melbourne Stakes three days earlier. James Scobie had trained Piastre as a 2YO before the horse joined the successful stable of Richard O’Connor in Sydney. Sydney jockey Alby Shanahan, originally from Newcastle, won the Cup again in 1913 on Posinatus.

Trainer: James Chambers
Jockey: Albert Shanahan
Silks: Lilac, White Sleeves, Red Armbands And Cap

Posinatus won’t go down in history as the best horse to win a Cup but he will be remembered as part of a dream that netted one punter more than £36,000. This punter woke up in the middle of the night and predicted the Caulfield and Melbourne Cup winners down to the names and the numbers. He backed the double accordingly. Posinatus had never won beyond 10 furlongs and it was only the smart riding of Albert Shanahan, who slowed the field up considerably, allowing Posinatus to win. It was Shanahan’s second race victory in consecutive years.

Trainer: Isac Foulsham
Jockey: George Meddick
Silks: White, Orange Braces, Collar And Two Armbands With Black Outline, Orange Cap

War in Europe had broken out just three months before the 1914 Melbourne Cup. The effects of what came to be known as the First World War on life in Australia were only just beginning to be felt. Scottish-born solicitor L.K.S. Mackinnon had been a member of the VRC Committee for the past ten years. He became Chairman in 1916 until his death in 1935. Under the name ‘K.S. Macleod’, Mackinnon had previously raced several horses with success. Funded by his 1914 Cup win, Mackinnon acquired the Chatsworth Park stud farm at Nagambie. Kingsburgh was a son of champion sire Wallace, so a grandson of Carbine, but the Melbourne Cup was only Kingsburgh’s second race win. He was trained in Sydney by Ike Foulsham whose previous Melbourne Cup win was thirty years earlier, with Malua. The winning Sydney jockey, George Meddick, was 17 years old.  

Trainer: Charlie Wheeler
Jockey: Robert (Bobbie) Lewis
Silks: Rose Pink

The 1915 Melbourne Cup winner, Patrobas, was owned by a woman—Edith Willis, of Rosedale, near Sale in Gippsland. The news was widely reported at the time and has become an essential moment in Melbourne Cup history. In the previous century it was rare, though not unprecedented, for women to racehorses as owners in their own name. Charlie Wheeler, who trained the 1911 Melbourne Cup winner, The Parisian, is credited with selecting the horse for Mrs Widdis at a yearling sale. Like Kingsburgh, the previous winner, Patrobas was sired by Wallace, son of Carbine. The colt won the Caulfield Guineas and the Victoria Derby before winning the Cup. This was jockey Bobbie Lewis’s 19th ride in the Melbourne Cup and his second of four wins in the race. The Cup was held in sombre wartime conditions in the year when Australian forces were under fire at Gallipoli.    

Trainer: Murray Hobbs
Jockey: Fred Foley
Silks: Yellow, Black Cap

The 1916 Melbourne Cup was held at the mid-point of the First World War, a time of great anxiety. The weather added to the gloom: heavy rain forced the postponement of Cup Day for only the second time in its history. The race was put off until the following Saturday, 11 November, when the weather had cleared and the track drained. New Zealand-bred and owned horses had won Melbourne Cups before, but this was the first time a New Zealand-trained horse had triumphed. Wilfred G. Stead was one of the most successful racehorse owners in his country, and Murray Hobbs trained for him at Christchurch. Sasanof won the Victoria Derby ahead of the Melbourne Cup. Most of his racing career was in New Zealand, his wins including the Great Northern Derby and the NZ Cup. The jockey Fred Foley was from NSW and was 17 when he won the Cup. 

Trainer: Joseph Burton
Jockey: William H. McLachlan
Silks: Orange, Green Sash And Cap

Westcourt had recorded a succession of minor placings in big races before he achieved his greatest success in winning the 1917 Melbourne Cup. Two years earlier he had lost by a short half head to Patrobas after finishing third to the same horse in the Victoria Derby. In the AJC Derby, he finished third to Cetigne, the horse who then beat him in the Melbourne Stakes. In the 1917 Cup, his luck turned. He had been bred in NSW by Hugh Denison and was raced by prolific Sydney owner and thoroughbred breeder, Daniel U. Seaton. Joseph Burton was a veteran Randwick trainer whose first winners had been racing in the 1870s. Late in his career he bred Bitalli, the 1923 Melbourne Cup winner. Westcourt gave jockey W.H. McLachlan senior his third Melbourne Cup win.  

Trainer: Richard Bradfield
Jockey: William (Billy) Duncan
Silks: Black, Pink Sleeves, White Cap

The First World War ended just days after the 1918 Melbourne Cup was run. When Night Watch won the big race, racegoers were recalling the days of his mother, the great Wakeful, who was the darling of the turf at the start of the century: her courageous second in the 1903 Melbourne Cup, carrying 10 stone (63.5 kg), defeated by the lightly weighted Lord Cardigan, is how the public remembered her. Night Watch was raced by Wakeful’s owner, C.L. Macdonald. He won his Melbourne Cup with the fly weight of 6 stone 9 pounds (42.2 kg). This was trainer Richard Bradfield’s third of four Melbourne Cup wins. Night Watch was ridden by Billy Duncan, 18 at the time and relatively unknown to racegoers. He would ultimately secure 11 premiership titles, two Melbourne Cups and become a racing household name. In 1919, Night Watch won the Caulfield Stakes and ran second in the Caulfield Cup to Lucknow.

Trainer: Phillip T. Heywood
Jockey: Robert (Bobbie) Lewis
Silks: Grey, Red Sash

Artilleryman was the easiest of winners, securing victory by at least six lengths and setting a new race record. He was a son of the 1910 winner, Comedy King, while his archrival Richmond Main, who finished second after beating him in the Victoria Derby, was sired by the 1909 winner, Prince Foote. Altogether, Artilleryman won 11 of his 26 race starts including the 1919 AJC Derby where he dead-heated with Richmond Main. Sydney merchant and bloodstock breeder Samuel Hordern raced the horse in partnership with Melbourne-based pastoralist Alexander Dyce Murphy. The owners received the very first of the now-traditional three-handled gold Melbourne Cup trophies designed and made by Melbourne goldsmith, James Steeth. Trainer Phil Heywood was the son of J.G. Heywood, one of the founders of Caulfield Racecourse. This was jockey Bobbie Lewis’s third of four Melbourne Cup wins.