Trainer: Trevor H. Knowles
Jockey: W.A (Billy) Smith
Silks: Maroon, Light Blue Diamonds, Armbands And Cap

It was called ‘The Centenary Melbourne Cup’ but more accurately this was the hundredth running of the race first run in 1861. There had been much fanfare and publicity, but many saw the race as an anti-climax when New Zealand-bred mare Hi Jinx won at odds of 50/1 while favourite and crowd idol, Tulloch, never looked a chance. Tulloch was ridden cautiously by Neville Sellwood and finished seventh. It was the only time in his 53 career starts that he ever finished unplaced. The winning mare’s credentials for the race consisted of a win in the 11 furlong (2212m) Hawkes Bay Cup. Her trainer, Trevor Knowles, had not previously taken horses to Australia. The lightweight jockey, Ballarat-born W.A. Smith, had been riding with success in New Zealand. He returned to make Melbourne his base and in the next several years won many good races, including the 1961 Caulfield Cup on Summer Fair.    

Trainer: Frank B. Lewis
Jockey: Ray Selkrig
Silks: Orange And Green Stripes, Red Cap

Lord Fury, bred in New South Wales, proved to be the most successful of the offspring of his imported Irish sire, Edwardsii, along with 1961 Sydney Cup winner, Sharply. Lord Fury as a 4YO finished third to champion sprinter Sky High in the 1961 Epsom Handicap, but his connections seemed ambitious in aiming for the Caulfield and Melbourne Cups. He was raced by Sydney businessman, Norman Cohen and his wife, Rachel, and trained by Frank Lewis who had begun his training career in Sydney after the Second World War. Having narrowly qualified to run in the Caulfield Cup, and with a light weight, Lord Fury finished an impressive second to Summer Fair. In the Melbourne Cup his Sydney jockey, Ray Selkrig, sent him to the front from the moment the barrier stalls opened. Leaving the straight for the first time, he set up a lead of about four lengths and from that point was never headed, defeating good horses in Grand Print and Dhaulagiri.

Trainer: Arch McGregor
Jockey: Les Coles
Silks: Gold, Green Band, Red Cap

New Zealand-bred Even Stevens was the first horse to travel by air to Australia and win the Melbourne Cup. His late arrival clearly caught bookmakers off guard. His biggest win beforehand was the Avondale Cup in Auckland, which had never produced a Melbourne Cup winner, so he had been treated lightly by the Australian handicappers. In what became a hit-and-run campaign, he won in succession the Caulfield Cup, Werribee Cup, Melbourne Cup (carrying a 4.5 kg penalty) and the WFA C.B. Fisher Plate in the space of three weeks. Arch McGregor trained the horse for food industrialist Sir James Wattie. In each of his Victorian wins he was ridden by Australian-born Les Coles who had been one of the top jockeys in New Zealand for the past eight years. Coles subsequently returned to Australia permanently. Injury curtailed Even Stevens’s racing career in 1963 and he was retired to the stud. 

Trainer: Graeme Heagney
Jockey: Jim Johnson
Silks: Gold, Red Cap

Trained in Adelaide by Grahame Heagney, at three years Gatum Gatum won a South Australian Derby and at four he finished second to Sometime in the Caulfield Cup. Winning the Melbourne Cup, he defeated two previous Cup placegetters, horses of quality: the 1960 Caulfield Cup winner, Ilumquh, and Sydney Cup winner, Grand Print. Gatum Gatum went on to further wins including Adelaide’s Labour Day Cup. Twice again he attempted the Melbourne Cup, in 1964 and in 1966. That last time he finished a gallant seventh. His owner-breeder Malcolm Reid also bred 1945 Cup winner Rainbird, raced by his brother Clifford. The win of Gatum Gatum prompted Jim Johnson to relocate from South Australia to Victoria. In 1966–67 he won the title of premier Melbourne jockey. And in 1968 and again in 1969 he won the Melbourne Cup on the Adelaide-trained champion, Rain Lover—owned by Clifford Reid.

Trainer: John P. Carter
Jockey: Ron Taylor
Silks: Gold, Emerald Green Hooped Sleeves, Emerald Green Cap

Polo Prince was a New Zealand-bred horse by Marco Polo, the sire of 1959 Melbourne Cup winner Macdougal. Owned by Mr and Mrs Laurie Davis who had only recently ventured into horse ownership, he was initially rejected as ‘wayward’ by his first trainer in Auckland and was then sent as a potential hurdler to the Woodville stable of John Carter, a former jumps jockey. Carter saw his potential on the flat. As a 5YO, Polo Prince finished second in both the Wellington Cup and the Auckland Cup, so was then set for the Melbourne Cup. He ran fourth in the Moonee Valley Cup and fourth in the Mackinnon Stakes, before he outstayed his New Zealand rival Elkayel to win the Melbourne Cup. It was jockey Ron Taylor’s first visit to Australia. He said the win changed his life, and he rode with success in New Zealand for the next 20 years. Taylor narrowly missed a second Cup win, beaten on Red Crest by Red Handed in 1967.  

Trainer: J.B (Bart) Cummings
Jockey: Roy Higgins
Silks: White And Royal Blue Spots, Royal Blue Cap

The 4YO mare, New Zealand-bred Light Fingers, became the seventh of her sex to win the Melbourne Cup. Bought as a yearling by Bart Cummings for owner Wally Broderick, she raced entirely in Australia. Before her Cup win, she was already hailed as a rising champion with wins in such 3YO classics as the VRC and the AJC Oaks and the Sandown Guineas, creating a special bond with her regular rider, Roy Higgins. Her victory, defeating her stablemate Ziema in a photo finish, marked the start of trainer Bart Cummings’s run of success in the Melbourne Cup, which would conclude 44 years later with his 12th winner of the race, Viewed. The following year, Light Fingers finished second to another Cummings horse, Galilee, before she won the Sandown Cup.

Trainer: J.B (Bart) Cummings
Jockey: John J. Miller
Silks: Gold, Red Hoops, Black Sleeves

Galilee was bred at Trelawney Stud, New Zealand, was selected as a yearling by Bart Cummings and was raced in Australia by Mr and Mrs Max Bailey. When Galilee won the Melbourne Cup, he became only the second horse to win the Toorak Handicap, Caulfield and Melbourne Cups in the one campaign, after The Trump in 1937. He added the Sydney Cup to his list of wins in the autumn of 1966, becoming the first to win the Sydney, Caulfield and Melbourne Cups treble in the one racing season. Bart Cummings trained the quinella for the second year in a row: the previous year’s winner, Light Fingers, was runner-up. Cummings always nominated Galilee as the best stayer he ever trained. John Miller’s long-lasting fame as a jockey was chiefly in his home state of Western Australia, but he rode with success for Cummings in this era.

Trainer: J.B (Bart) Cummings
Jockey: Roy Higgins
Silks: Green And Gold Diagonal Stripes, White Cap

It was unprecedented in Melbourne Cup history for the one trainer to win three successive Melbourne Cups. Bart Cummings, still based in South Australia, achieved this treble with the win of Red Handed in 1967. Like Light Fingers, the winner was bred in New Zealand, sired by Le Filou. His pedigree and constitution attracted Cummings at the yearling sales. Following the pattern, he set with Galilee a year earlier, Cummings raced Red Handed in the Toorak Handicap and Caulfield Cup, but the horse was beaten in both by champion Tobin Bronze. A fourth placing in the Mackinnon Stakes was enough to make Red Handed 4/1 equal favourite in the Melbourne Cup. He started from a wide barrier. What was hailed as ‘a magnificent riding display’ by Roy Higgins, culminating in his determination in a close finish, helped cement his position as the champion Melbourne jockey of his time.

Trainer: Mick L. Robins
Jockey: Jim Johnson
Silks: Gold, White Spots

The South Australian-bred stayer Rain Lover won the two-mile Adelaide Cup as a 3YO in autumn 1968, trained by Grahame Heagney. The trainer had already prepared one Melbourne Cup winner, Gatum Gatum (1963), but the latest star in his stable was middle-distance champion, Tobin Bronze. When Heagney was invited to work with Tobin Bronze in the USA, he was quick to recommend his young stable foreman, Mick Robins, to owner Clifford Reid to take over his stable. By the time the horse won the Melbourne Cup by an astonishing eight lengths, setting a new race record, Robins had held his licence for just four months. The young trainer, who grew up in Broken Hill, remained Rain Lover’s mentor for the rest of the champion’s career. They returned to Flemington to win the Cup again in 1969, former Adelaide jockey Jim Johnson in the saddle on both occasions.   

Trainer: Mick L. Robins
Jockey: Jim Johnson
Silks: Gold, White Spots

Much drama surrounded the 1969 Melbourne Cup. Bart Cummings, with three Cup winners in the past four years, had four starters in the race including the favourite, Big Philou, who had recently won the Caulfield Cup after a protest. Then, an hour before Melbourne Cup staring time, Big Philou was withdrawn from the race by order of veterinary stewards. The horse was clearly unwell in his stall, and later was proved to have nobbled by a corrupt stable hand. None of this should diminish the achievement of Rain Lover who won carrying 9 stone 7 pounds (60.3 kg) after fighting off a sustained challenge from Alsop who carried 13 kilograms less on his back. Rain Lover was the first since Archer to win the Cup twice in succession, the first since Peter Pan to win two Cups. For owner Cliff Reid and for jockey Jim Johnson it was a third Melbourne Cup win each. After retirement, Rain Lover became a successful sire.

Trainer: Robert (Bob) Heasley
Jockey: Ernie J. (Midge) Didham
Silks: Emerald Green, White Striped Sleeves

Baghdad Note’s win in the Cup was a triumph for the New Zealand South Island city of Dunedin where horse, owner, trainer and jockey all resided. A dead-heat for third in the 1970 Caulfield Cup first drew the attention of Australian racegoers to the grey Baghdad Note. He had previously won the Great Autumn Stakes at Christchurch. In the Cup, Baghdad Note was brilliantly ridden by Midge Didham who was having his first visit to Flemington. Didham made his future career based in Melbourne, riding 1981 Cup runner-up Igloo. Baghdad Note’s owner-breeder, E.C. Stuart Falconer, reportedly had suffered a heart attack some twelve months earlier and his doctor’s advice was that any unnecessary excitement should be avoided at all costs. As Baghdad Note loomed up to the lead with 100 metres to run, Falconer was heard to say ‘steady, steady’! He was referring to himelf, not the horse! Baghdad Note was sold in 1972 and won the 1973 Sandown Cup.

Trainer: Eric Temperton
Jockey: Bruce Marsh
Silks: Cherry, Pink Checks

Silver Knight became the seventh Melbourne Cup winner credited to the Trelawney Stud, New Zealand. By Alcimedes, from the Foxbridge mare Cuban Fox, and raced by Sir Walter Norwood, the grey Silver Knight at three years won Auckland’s Great Northern St Leger and Wellington’s NZ St Leger. A last-minute flight from New Zealand allowed him to reach Melbourne in time to run second in the Mackinnon Stakes before winning the Cup. Eric Temperton had been a top NZ trainer since the 1940s, based at Palmerston North. He and Silver Knight’s jockey, Bruce Marsh, returned to Flemington the following year and nearly won the Cup again with Magnifique. Marsh later enjoyed a long career as a champion trainer in Singapore. Silver Knight was sold after his racing career to Robert Holmes à Court and stood at stud in Western Australia, where he sired Black Knight, winner of the 1984 Cup.

Trainer: George M. Hanlon
Jockey: John Letts
Silks: Yellow, Orange Spots

This was the first ‘metric’ Cup when the two-mile (3218.7m) distance was shortened to 3200 metres. Piping Lane was the first Tasmanian-bred horse to win the Melbourne Cup since Malua back in 1884. Sired by imported Irish-bred Lanesborough, Piping Lane did not race until three years. He strung together wins including the Longford, Devonport and Hobart Cups before being sold to Ray Trinder, a Devonport trainer and amateur rider. Trinder raced him both on the mainland and at home, consistently but without winning, before transferring Piping Lane to the Mordialloc stables of George Hanlon. A third in the Moonee Valley Cup proved his fitness. Hanlon secured the leading Adelaide lightweight John Letts for the ride—Letts had never ridden at Flemington before, and had never met the owner, trainer or horse. At generous odds, Piping Lane surprised his champion opponents Magnifique and Gunsynd, beating them into the minor placings. Letts won the Cup a second time, on Beldale Ball (1980), while Hanlon trained two further winners.   

Trainer: Ray Hutchins
Jockey: Frank Reys
Silks: Aqua, Black And White Diamonds, Aqua Sleeves And Cap

Gala Supreme became the first Victorian-bred horse to win the Cup since Wodalla in 1953. His sire, the locally-bred Gala Crest, had won the Herbert Power Handicap before finishing second in the 1966 Caulfield Cup—and Gala Supreme exactly replicated this in 1973. Both horses were owned by studmaster Pat Curtain, and both were trained at Caulfield by Ray Hutchins. And it was Hutchins who encouraged his number one stable jockey, Queensland-born Frank Reys, to return at the age of 41 from serious injuries after a sequence of bad accidents, to ride the stable’s hope in the Melbourne Cup. Reys is now recognised as the first Indigenous Australian jockey to have won the Cup. After the race, he was unashamedly emotional, delivering a long, heartfelt speech. ‘I kept picking myself up off the ground and hoping I would win a Melbourne Cup,’ he said. ‘It’s something that every Australian jockey dreams about.’

Trainer: J.B (Bart) Cummings
Jockey: Harry White
Silks: Green And Gold Diagonal Stripes, White Cap

After training three successive Melbourne Cup winners in the 1960s, Adelaide trainer Bart Cummings was dubbed ‘The Cups King’, and he was starting to think big. He would soon establish stables in Melbourne and Sydney. Any horse he started in a Melbourne Cup was followed by racegoers with interest. As with his first three winners, Think Big was bred in New Zealand, secured as a yearling by Cummings and sold to Mr C.N. Tan, better known later in Australia as Dato Tan Chin Nam, who ended up as owner or part-owner of four Melbourne Cup winners trained by Cummings. Tan sold a share to Ric O’Sullivan of Brisbane. Think Big’s win came at the expense of his stablemate, the popular mare Leilani. The trainer’s horses had finished first and second in the Cup race for the third time. For jockey Harry White it would be the first of four Melbourne Cup wins. 

Trainer: J.B (Bart) Cummings
Jockey: Harry White
Silks: Green, Gold Diagonal Stripes, Red Sleeves And Cap

It had taken 107 years for Archer’s record of two consecutive Melbourne Cup victories to be equalled, by Rain Lover with his 1969 victory. Six years later Think Big replicated the feat—in his case, without winning a single race since his 1974 Cup win. The previous year he had come into the Melbourne Cup with a sharp win three days earlier in the Hotham Handicap. This year his best run was a third in the Caulfield Stakes in October, but the wet conditions on Cup Day suited him well and he just outlasted his stablemate, Holiday Waggon. Other records were set: Cummings now had five Cup wins, equalling the de Mestre stable’s tally in the 19th century. He had quinellaed the race for a fourth time. Jockey Harry White now had a second Melbourne Cup win. Also present to celebrate the win was former Malaysian Prime Minister, Tunku Abdul Rahman, now a part owner with Dato Tan Chin Nam and Ric O’Sullivan.    

Trainer: Leonard (Leo) H. Robinson
Jockey: Robert (Bob) J. Skelton
Silks: Cerise, Green Diagonal Stripes, Armbands And Cap

Melbourne’s changeable climate was at its worst on Melbourne Cup Day 1976, with torrential rain falling overnight on Cup Eve and persistent showers continuing. The track was deemed safe enough and then, just prior to the race, the heavens opened again. After a delay, the race began in the rain. New Zealand gelding Van Der Hum had good recent form after coming to Victoria, running third in the Caulfield Cup, and was known to like heavy tracks. He was ridden by the experienced New Zealand jockey, Bob Skelton, and was backed heavily accordingly. Racecallers struggled to distinguish the jockeys’ colours in the conditions, and horses and riders returned to scale spattered with mud—none happier than Skelton. In New Zealand the horse was trained and part-owned by the brothers Roy and Leo Robinson, but Van Der Hum was raced in Australia under L.H. Robinson’s care. Runner-up in the race, Gold And Black, had to wait his turn until the following year.

Trainer: J.B (Bart) Cummings
Jockey: John Duggan
Silks: Gold And Black Hoops, Black Cap

With his sixth Melbourne Cup victory, Bart Cummings now held the record for the most wins in the race as a trainer—all with New Zealand-bred horses. Ridden by Sydney jockey John Duggan, Gold And Black made up for his second place in the previous year’s Cup. Indeed, jockey Duggan had finished second in the past two Cups. While Gold And Black was equal favourite for the race, the sentimental favourite was the Tommy Woodcock-trained Reckless who had won the Adelaide, Sydney and Brisbane Cups in the previous twelve months. Woodcock, now a veteran in his 70s, had found unsought fame decades earlier as ‘Phar Lap’s strapper’, the groom with a special bond with the champion. Reckless, too, was evidence of his rapport with racehorses. The race concluded with a tussle to the line. John Duggan lifted Gold And Black in the closing stages to win by a length.

Trainer: George M. Hanlon
Jockey: Harry White
Silks: Red And White Halves, Royal Blue Sash And Cap

Arwon had several owners and trainers, and even a different name, before he came to trainer George Hanlon. In New Zealand he raced as Flash Guy until purchased by an Australian syndicate on the recommendation of veteran Canberra jockey, Ted Doon. There was already an Australian ‘Flash Guy’. The new trainer was Paul Sutherland at Nowra, hence the new name—Nowra, backwards. Nothing backward about this horse: his connections transferred him to John Morrisey at Canberra, for whom he registered impressive wins in Canberra and Sydney, ridden by Doon. With dreams of a Melbourne Cup, the owners transferred him to Hanlon in early in 1978. For Hanlon he had an outstanding spring, winning the Seymour Cup and the Herbert Power. He was narrowly defeated in The Metropolitan and nosed out of first place in the Caulfield Cup. Harry White took the mount, finishing fifth in the Mackinnon before his strong win in the Melbourne Cup. Arwon continued racing, placed in a Sydney and a Perth Cup, and winning the 1980 Sandown Cup. Hanlon gave the gelding a home in retirement.

Trainer: J.B (Bart) Cummings
Jockey: Harry White
Silks: Pink, Lime Green And Navy Blue Striped Sleeves, Lime Green Cap

Hyperno was one of the most talented horses racing in Australia in his era. He also had the reputation of a rogue. His racing career extended from 1977, when he finished third in the Melbourne Cup, to 1981 when he was voted Australian Horse of the Year. Caulfield trainer Geoff Murphy bought him at the 1975 New Zealand yearling sales for a group of Melbourne owners and prepared the horse until the spring of 1979 when he was transferred to Bart Cummings, giving Cummings his seventh Cup win as trainer. It was the narrowest of photo finish wins, over Salamander, ridden by Roy Higgins, who had turned down the chance to ride Hyperno in the race. For Harry White it became his fourth Cup win, equalling the jockey record for most winners, set by Bobbie Lewis early in the century.