Trainer: Harry J. Robinson
Jockey: Ken Bracken
Silks: Yellow, White Sleeves, Black Cap

The brothers William (Bill) and Frederick Albert Moses bred the colt Poitrel at their famed Arrowfield Stud NSW, retaining him to race after he failed to sell as a yearling. This was before the Melbourne Cup win in 1919 by Night Watch, sired by the same imported St Alwyne, who stood at Arrowfield. Under Sydney trainer Harry Robinson, Poitrel won a string of rich Sydney races, beating the best horses of his time including Desert Gold, Wolaroi and Gloaming. He was allotted the heavy weight of 10 stone (63.5kg) in the 1920 Cup: only two horses in Cup history have won with more (Archer 1861, Carbine 1890). Robinson retired from training the year after Poitrel’s win. Jockey Kenneth Henry Bracken, born in Parkes NSW in 1895, rode Poitrel in ten of the horse’s victories.   

Trainer: Jack Williams
Jockey: Edward (Ted) O’Sullivan
Silks: White, Red Sash And Cap

Posting only her second race victory, Sister Olive became just the third 3YO filly ever to win the Melbourne Cup, joining Briseis (1876) and Auraria (1895). She raced in the red and white colours of the South Melbourne football and cricket clubs where her owner-breeder, bookmaker Fred Norman, had been president. She was foaled at his Clarendon Park, Molesworth, Victoria. Her dam was a half-sister of 1910 winner, Comedy King. The trainer, Jack Williams, had been a top jockey in his day, narrowly losing the 1885 Melbourne Cup on Grace Darling to Sheet Anchor. This was the biggest career win for Geelong-born Ted O’Sullivan (real name Edward Kenny), who later became a trainer of note. Unplaced in the 1921 Cup was the heavily weighted Western Australian champion, Eurythmic. Sister Olive is an ancestor of the great Tobin Bronze.

Trainer: James Scobie
Jockey: Alan Wilson
Silks: Royal Blue, Pink Sash

It was a race remembered for its big field and star-studded line up. King Ingoda became the second winner of the Melbourne Cup to be sired by 1910 winner Comedy King. His dam, Ingoda, had won the New Zealand St Leger. In 1918 Sol Green dispersed his Shipley Park Stud at Warrnambool: Charles Dubois, a wealthy South Australian with pastoral interests in the Northern Territory, acquired the mare who was in foal to Comedy King. Contrary to some later stories, King Ingoda was foaled and raised at Dubois’s property at Magill, Adelaide, not in the Territory. He was trained in Victoria by James Scobie who had already prepared a Melbourne Cup winner, Clean Sweep (1900). King Ingoda won the 1922 Hotham Handicap on Victoria Derby Day before winning the Cup. The following year he won the Adelaide Cup. Jockey Alan Wilson, 19 at the time and widely known as ‘Tich’, went on to ride the 1923 Melbourne Cup winner, Bitalli.

Trainer: James Scobie
Jockey: Alan Wilson
Silks: Royal Blue And White Hoops, Red Cap

Bitalli’s pedigree differed from that of previous Melbourne Cup winners. He was the first to be sired by an American-bred horse: October had raced as ‘Rock Rib’ in the US before being sold to race in Great Britain. October was then sent to NSW during the First World War. Joseph Burton, who trained Westcourt to win the 1917 Melbourne Cup, was the breeder of Bitalli from his mare Miss Phillina, a granddaughter of 1880 Melbourne Cup winner, Grand Flaneur. After a promising fourth in the 1923 Sydney Cup, Bitalli was sold to Alfred Thomas Craig whose family ran the Melbourne city department store, Craig, Williamson Ltd. James Scobie became trainer. Bitalli then won the two-mile Adelaide Tattersall’s Cup in July and did not race again until the Melbourne Cup. Scobie and his lightweight jockey, Alan ‘Tich’ Wilson, had won the Cup the previous year.

Trainer: Richard Bradfield
Jockey: Perry ‘Bunty’ Brown
Silks:  White, Purple Seams, Red Cap

Following the success of Comedy King in 1910, Backwood was the second imported horse to win the Melbourne Cup, and the first to have raced before coming to Australia. During the First World War when racing overseas was restricted, several British and European horses were sent to race successfully in Australia, and the trend continued post war. Foaled in Ireland in 1919, Backwood won the 1922 King Edward VII Stakes at Ascot before being bought by auctioneer Edward Lloyd ‘Prince’ Baillieu (a VRC Committee member since 1915) and William Clark and sent to Richard Bradfield to train. Clark had a previous share in 1902 winner The Victory, also trained by Bradfield. Bunty Brown was an experienced jockey when he won the Cup, having ridden in Sydney, Melbourne, India and the UK. He won the 1922 Victoria Derby and Caulfield Cup on Whittier. Brown retired from riding in 1927.

Trainer: George R. Price
Jockey: James (Jim) L. Munro
Silks: Pale Blue, Black Diamond And Sleeves, Yellow Cap

A versatile champion who could win from 6 furlongs to two miles, Windbag put up a strong performance to defeat the highly talented, wayward colt, Manfred, in the 1925 Cup. Both horses carried two pounds over weight-for-age and the race became an epic duel down the Flemington straight. Percy Miller bred the horse at his Kia-Ora Stud, NSW, the sire the imported British horse, Magpie. After some confusion at the 1923 Sydney yearling sales, the colt was sold to the breeder’s brother, Robert Miller, for just 150 guineas. In his career, Windbag won 18 of his 26 starts, trained in Sydney by the former New Zealand jockey, George Price. This was the first of two Melbourne Cup wins by jockey Jim Munro, older brother of Richard ‘Darby’ Munro. Jim was 19 when he won on Windbag.  

Trainer: Vincent O’Neill
Jockey: Hughie Cairns
Silks: Black And White Diamonds, Black Cap

Spearfelt was a great-grandson of Carbine—through Spearmint, winner of the 1906 English Derby and then Spearmint’s son, Spearhead, imported as a sire to Australia. Douglas Grant, a returned Australian soldier from the First World War, used his deferred pay to buy Spearfelt as a yearling. The colt became a champion. At three years, Spearfelt won the 1924 Victoria Derby and finished third behind Backwood in the Melbourne Cup. He won the 1925 VRC St Leger, before winning the 1926 Melbourne Cup in equal record time, followed by the 1927 Australian Cup. Grant sold him to the stud in NSW where he sired many winners, including Dark Felt who won the 1943 Cup. Vincent O’Neill trained for many years at Caulfield: Spearfelt was his best horse. Hughie Harold Cairns had been a successful New Zealand jumps rider before coming to Australia. In 1929 he lost his life in a hurdle race accident at Moonee Valley.   

Trainer: James Scobie
Jockey: Robert (Bobbie) Lewis
Silks: Light Blue, Pink Sleeves And Cap

Trivalve was a great-grandson of Carbine on the sire’s side of the pedigree. As well, Carbine was a great-great-grandsire on his dam’s side. Trivalve’s sire, Cyklon, was imported by Ernest E.D. Clarke to his Melton Stud near Melbourne, where Trivalve was foaled in 1924. James Scobie, in his late 60s, was by now in effect Clarke’s private trainer: the pair had enjoyed success for four decades. Scobie later estimated he trained 146 winners for Clarke in his career. Trivalve was Scobie’s fourth Melbourne Cup winner but the first for Clarke. It was also Bobbie Lewis’s fourth Cup victory as jockey. Now aged 49, Lewis became the oldest jockey to win the race. Trivalve won the rare treble of the AJC and Victoria Derby and Melbourne Cup in the one year, followed by three more wins in autumn 1928 including VRC St Leger, but was retired with leg soreness before the end of his 3YO season. Unsuccessful at stud, and sold after Clarke’s death in 1941, Trivalve ended his days in the Northern Territory.

Trainer: William Kelso
Jockey: James (Jim) L. Munro
Silks: Red, Black Sleeves, White Armbands And Cap

The dam of Statesman, Marcelle, was one of many English horses exported to Australia in the First World War. Statesman was her best foal, bred and first raced in NSW by William Kelso. In 1927 he was sent to Melbourne and finished second in the Victoria Derby and sixth in the Melbourne Cup, both races won by Trivalve. Although he had won only twice in numerous races in his career, he was clearly coming into form ahead of the 1928 Cup and started as one of the favourites. This Cup was the second win for Jim Munro who won the Cup in 1925 riding Windbag. The Munro family, boasting Hugh (trainer of Revenue 1901), his jockey sons Jim and Darby, and their cousin Fred Dunn, between them secured a tally of seven Melbourne Cup victories. Kelso’s Statesman is sometimes confused with the younger Irish-bred Statesman, third in Hyperion’s 1933 English Derby.

Trainer: Alec McAulay
Jockey: Roy Reed
Silks: Purple, Gold Spots

Was New Zealand horse Nightmarch lucky to have won the 1929 Melbourne Cup? Some believed so because the great Phar Lap finished in third place. Champion jockey Scobie Breasley later observed that ‘Phar Lap probably should have won the Cup if it had not been for the fact he pulled for half the race. [Bobbie] Lewis should have let him slide along, but Phar Lap was more than a handful and proved hard to contain.’ Nevertheless, Nightmarch was a champion, winning 24 and placed in 29 of his 69 starts in Australia and New Zealand, later becoming a top sire. His owner, NZ businessman Alfred Louisson, bought the horse in 1928 on the recommendation of trainer Alec McAulay. In 1930 McAulay declared Phar Lap was the best horse in the world, and the two horses—both sired by Night Raid—never clashed again. Nightmarch’s jockey, Roy Reed, was killed in a race fall in New Zealand in 1936. His younger brother Ashley won the 1937 Melbourne Cup on The Trump.  

Trainer: Harry R. Telford 
Jockey: James (Jim) Pike
Silks:  Red, White and Black Hooped Sleeves

Most observers at the time and ever since revere the New Zealand-bred Phar Lap as Australia’s greatest racehorse, and it seem fitting that he holds the record for starting the shortest priced favourite (8/11 fav) in the history of the Cup. He won with ease carrying 9 stone 12 pounds (62.6 kg) and, as a hero horse in tough economic times, he carried the weight of a nation on his back. It was a triumph for Sydney jockey Jim Pike, having his 14th ride in the Cup, and especially for trainer Harry Telford who had struck gold when he paid just 160 guineas for the scrawny yearling at the Trentham Sales in 1928. Phar Lap’s extraordinary performance is only bettered by his record in winning on each of the four days of the Flemington Cup Carnival. In his career he recorded 37 wins from 51 starts. His only unplaced run, excepting at the start of his amazing career, was in the Melbourne Cup the following year.  

Trainer: Ernest Hatwell
Jockey: Neville Percival
Silks: Mclachlan Tartan, White Sash

White Nose’s Cup victory is widely remembered for the anti-climax of Phar Lap’s final Australian race, when for the first time in 41 starts since he was an early 3YO, he finished unplaced. The champion carried 10 stone 10 pounds (68 kg), which no horse had carried to victory in the Cup. Phar Lap had taken all before him through the spring and despite the huge weight was sent out the public elect at 3/1 favourite. White Nose had won the Hotham Handicap the previous Saturday and went into the Cup with support. His handicap weight was 6 stone 12 pounds (43.5 kg). Half a mile from home it was evident that Phar Lap could not win back-to-back Cups, and jockey Jim Pike eased up. It would be the last time Australians would see the ‘Red Terror’ before he headed to the USA. White Nose was bred and raced by South Australian grazier Hugh McLachlan and prepared by his private trainer Ern Hatwell. West Australian-born jockey Neville Percival on White Nose went on to a globe-trotting career.

Trainer: Frank McGrath
Jockey: William (Billy) Duncan
Silks:  Orange And Green Hoops, Orange Cap

Months after Phar Lap’s death in the USA, another exceptional racehorse emerged. Peter Pan was soon lauded as one of the great Australian stayers and his victory in the 1932 Cup was one the bravest wins in the race. With 1000 metres left to run, Peter Pan received such a severe jolt he nearly fell. With a second accidental bump, this time from his stablemate, Denis Boy, he regained his balance. With the skill of jockey Billy Duncan, Peter Pan re-established momentum, and went on to win the Cup by a neck. He was bred and raced by NSW pastoralist Rodney Rouse Dangar. Trainer by Frank McGrath at Kensington, Sydney, Peter Pan won the AJC Derby before his victory in the Cup. McGrath was a former jockey, injured in the running of the disastrous 1885 Caulfield Cup. In his long training career, he prepared many champions, including 1909 Cup winner Prince Foote, but rated Peter Pan as the best. This was Melbourne jockey Billy Duncan’s second Melbourne Cup win. 

Trainer: Michael (Jack) Holt
Jockey: Jack O’Sullivan
Silks: Gold, Green Sleeves And Cap

Hall Mark was bred and raced by the motor dealer and former champion cyclist, Charles Kellow, who also owned the sire, Heroic, late in that horse’s successful racing career. Prepared in Melbourne by master trainer Jack Holt whose string of winning racehorses had earned him the nickname ‘the Wizard of Mordialloc’, Hall Mark was not a great looker as a young horse, but he won top 2YO races in Sydney and the AJC Derby and the Victoria Derby at three years. After working on the Monday morning before the Cup, Hall Mark appeared lame. With constant attention by the trainer overnight, he overcame all ailments to win the Cup. Hall Mark continued racing and winning until 1936, his victories including the 1935 Doncaster Handicap. NSW Jockey Jack O’Sullivan was a son of trainer Pat O’Sullivan, and later became a trainer himself. He was not related to Ted O’Sullivan who rode the 1921 Cup winner, Sister Olive.

Trainer: Frank McGrath
Jockey: Richard (Darby) Munro
Silks:  Orange And Green Hoops, Orange Cap

Peter Pan became the first horse since the inaugural winner, Archer, to win two Melbourne Cups: in the case of Peter Pan there was a two-year gap, as he had been sidelined with rheumatism for much of 1933. As a 5YO and a past winner, this time he carried top weight of 9 stone 10 pounds (61.7 kg) and the track was heavy after consistent rain, which ceased shortly before the race. Trainer Frank McGrath had the horse’s tail plaited and bound to keep it out of the mud and was rewarded with his third Cup win as a trainer. Jockey Darby Munro was 21 at the time: this was the first of what would be his three Melbourne Cup wins. His older brother, Jim, had won the race twice. Starting from the extreme outside of the field, Darby Munro kept Peter Pan wide for much of the race but on the firmer going. It was a popular, courageous win by a handsome chestnut horse. 

Trainer: Lou Robertson
Jockey: Keith Voitre
Silks: Royal Blue, White Stripes, Yellow Sleeves And Cap

Andy Robertson, brother of trainer Lou Robertson, was credited with importing the English mare Vivandiere and mating her with the imported stallion Marconigram to produce Marabou, foaled at A.P. (Paddy) Wade’s Borambola Stud near Wagga Wagga in 1931. After injury interrupted his training, Marabou finished fourth in the 1934 Victoria Derby and was unplaced in the Melbourne Cup. Andy Robertson sold the horse to Tom Hogan and his racing partner, Joseph Fell, on condition that Lou Robertson continued as trainer. Marabou was placed in both the 1935 Caulfield Cup and the Melbourne Stakes ahead of his win in the Melbourne Cup. Joseph Fell, already ill, made his way to Flemington to watch the race and died two days later. Marabou was then sold to C.B. Kellow and retired to the stud. His progeny included 1941 Melbourne Cup winner, Skipton. New Zealand jockey Keith Voitre rode Marabou: he was 22 when he won the Cup. Just three years later, he lost his life in a race fall in New Zealand.  

Trainer: Jack Fryer
Jockey: Oswald (Ossie) Phillips
Silks: Pale Blue, Gold Collar, Cuffs And Cap

Wotan’s chief fame in Melbourne Cup history is that he is one of four horses to have won at odds of 100/1. In hindsight the odds were puzzling as Wotan was a half-brother of the good New Zealand horse Gaine Carrington who won the 1933 Caulfield Cup, and of Peter Jackson, who won the 1933 Moonee Valley Cup. The dam, Left, came into the ownership of three brothers Smith, dairy farmers in the North Island of New Zealand, and they bred and raced Wotan. The colt showed early promise, but there were disappointments. Only the enthusiasm of the owners and a late win at Wanganui saw him sent to Australia to join a team of horses prepared by his NZ trainer, Jack Fryer. Caulfield jockey Jack O’Brien missed the ride with a broken arm, so local jockey Ossie Phillips picked up the ride, expecting only a losing ride fee. Wotan’s only other big win was the Feilding Gold Cup at Awapuni in 1938.

Trainer: Stanley W. Reid
Jockey: Ashley Reed
Silks: Green, Pink Sash, Red Cap

The Trump was owned by Darcy Eccles, who had come close in the 1922 and 1932 Melbourne Cups with The Cypher and Yarramba respectively. Eccles went one better with The Trump whose other wins in the spring of 1937 included the Caulfield Cup, the Toorak Handicap and the Mackinnon Stakes. He was bred by Leslie Aldridge at Kismet Park Stud, South Australia. He was by Manfred and, as was often said about the line of Spearmint, he was described as a weak-jointed individual. No one told The Trump. Eccles paid 200 guineas for the colt as a yearling. The trainer was former New Zealand jockey Stan Reid who originally rode for George Price, trainer of Windbag. Moving to Victoria, Reid then rode the double of the Grand National Hurdle and Steeplechase in 1921, both on Mountain God. He took to training five years later. The Trump was ridden by New Zealand jockey, Ashley Reed, whose brother Roy had won the 1929 Cup on Nightmarch.

Trainer: Allan McDonald
Jockey: Fred Shean
Silks: Cerise, Gold Spots And Cap

‘A victory for women: that is the story of the 1938 Melbourne Cup’, ran the headlines at the time. While Allan McDonald’s name stands in the record books as the official trainer of 1938 Melbourne Cup winner, Catalogue, there is no ambiguity that the New Zealand horse was trained throughout his career by McDonald’s wife, Hedwig ‘Granny’ McDonald. She was a talented, registered trainer with stables at Riccarton, Christchurch. It was understood—though not legally accurate—that Victoria’s rules of racing prevented women from training horses professionally. Mrs McDonald decided it was simplest to send her husband to supervise Catalogue’s quest to win the Melbourne Cup after the horse’s win in the Winter Cup at Riccarton. Catalogue was bred at Hawkes Bay and was owned by Mrs Tui Jamieson, who did make the trip to Melbourne to watch the race, unlike Granny McDonald. Allan McDonald was an accomplished horseman in his own right. He secured the Queensland jockey, Fred Shean, for the winning ride. 

Trainer: Harry Bamber
Jockey: Edward (Teddy) Preston
Silks: Black And Rose Pink Diamonds, Rose Pink Cap

A true rags-to-riches story: Harry Bamber was down to his last dollar as a battling owner-trainer when his mare Rivette landed the Caulfield and Melbourne Cup double. Modestly bred, she was the daughter of a little mare whose wins had been at the pony races. Through blind faith, Bamber bred one of the most durable Cup winners of all. Bamber was so keen on the prospects of Rivette he backed her at long odds to win ₤15,000 in the spring of 1938 only to see her go amiss. On return to the track a year later, Rivette proved she had lost none of her ability and won the Caulfield Cup convincingly. Bamber started her in the Moonee Valley Cup one week later and but for a very poor start would have won that race as well. She subsequently started hot favourite for the Cup. She won accordingly. She was ridden by Teddy Preston, not long out of his apprenticeship to Phar Lap’s trainer, Harry Telford.