The Original Leviathan.

A Leviathan is a Sea Monster from the Hebrew bible. It is also a term used on racecourses to describe a big Bookmaker, and big usually meant in girth as well as wealth and punting prowess.

One of the first Leviathan’s of the Australian turf was a giant of a man in stature and reputation by the name of Humphrey Oxenham. A man loved and admired by men and women from all walks of life. He was described as a genuine, upright man, a good husband and father, a generous high minded citizen who is always in his pocket when help is needed. Hardly words and terms we are used to hearing when describing a Bookmaker! He also ran an inter-colony sweepstake to rival Tattersall’s. A bold and fearless gambler in an era when gambling was looked upon as an immoral, debaucherous pursuit.

Legend has it that an 18 year old Humphrey accepted a bet from the local publican in Bathurst that he couldn’t walk from Bathurst to Kelso(about 5km) with a pumpkin on his head in a specific time without touching the pumpkin. He duly won the bet, to the tune of 100 pound to a shilling, and the foundation to his fortune was in place. During his bookmaking career he turned over sums unimaginable. At a time of depression, when the average weekly wage was less than 2 pound, he was turning over up to 100,000 pounds on major race meetings.  He was also a successful owner, but at times when he won blue ribbon races with his horses, he often lost heavily punting against them. On one occasion his colt Cabin Boy won the VRC St Leger at long odds but he did not celebrate as he had wagered all the money he could on a horse called Waterfall., another horse he owned. 

Without a doubt his greatest triumph as both an owner and a punter was when his best horse, Acrasia, won the 1904 Melbourne Cup. Although he was almost denied the chance to bask in this glory due to his insatiable urge to gamble. The story goes that in a high stakes card game with a Mr John Mayo, the man who owned the 1903 Cup winner Lord Cardigan, and subsequent 1908 winner Lord Nolan, Oxenham wagered his horse Acrasia on the outcome of a poker hand. Oxenham lost the hand, and the horse, but Mayo kindly offered to sell the horse back to him on Caulfield Cup day for 2000 pounds.  Two weeks later Acrasia fought off the challenge from Mayo’s Lord Cardigan to claim the Cup at the generous odds of 14/1. Odds  said to have helped save Oxenham from financial ruin for not the first time.

He died in 1923 in Neutral Bay, Sydney at the age of 69. He was loved and admired by all.  A true giant of the colonial days of racing and one of the first “Leviathan’s of the Australian Turf”. 

What could have been???

For a true horse racing fan, there is nothing worse than seeing a potential champion's career cut down before their prime. Knowing you are about to see something special unfold, before cruel fate steps in, and either injury or illness prevents us from ever seeing that potential fulfilled. During my time in racing I saw this happen on numerous occasions. None more devastating than the magnificent filly Unworldly, by Quest for Fame, who in only a handful of starts in 1999/2000 showed enough blistering acceleration and determination to win to endear her in the hearts of racegoers around the nation. In her last race she blitzed the Group 1 Flight Stakes and was surely about to continue her domination, which saw 5 wins and a 3rd from 6 starts, when tragedy struck on a grey October morning when she badly broke her front left leg at trackwork and had to be euthanised. Sadly we never got to see how great she could be but her memory lives forever in the hearts and minds of those fortunate enough to witness her incredible short career. Even Kbenjar, the horse from which I take my name won 2 good races in the Spring carnival of 1999 before breaking a sesamoid bone in his foot and never raced again.

Similarly is the tale of 1919 Melbourne Cup winner Artilleryman.

Reports from the era all claim that Artilleryman had the potential to be up there with the most celebrated names in Australian Turf history. Sired by the 1910 Melbourne Cup winner Comedy King, who was the first imported horse to win the Cup, Artilleryman had the conformation and movie star looks of a champion. Widely considered one of the best looking horses to ever grace the Australian turf, Artilleryman was quite erratic and inconsistent on the racetrack, much to the bafflement of his owners and trainer. Unable to find any physical ailment, they just put it down to bad manners and being "flighty", common traits among well bred colts who often had their minds on matters other than racing.

During the Spring of 1919 he cut a swathe through the major races in both Sydney and Melbourne. Winning the AJC Derby and dead-heating the Caulfield Guineas. He was beaten in the Victorian Derby in one of his "off performances", before finishing with what had been described as the most dominant winning performance in the Melbourne Cup's history at that time. He won the race by a widening 6 length margin that day at the odds of 10/1. Although spectators who had witnessed the race believed the margin was more like 10 to 12 lengths. He also ran a race record time of 3.24.5, almost a second quicker than the previous record.

In post war Australia racing was one of the major sports, and a champion is exactly what the public needed at the time, but sadly before he could be confirmed as a true champion, he was dead. Unknown until it was much too late, he had Cancer of the lymphatic gland since his 2 year old season. This would explain his erratic race career, often running in severe pain due to the swelling in his thigh region. An autopsy showed the cancer had severed his femoral artery, causing massive internal bleeding and subsequent death. Amazingly just a few hours before the great horse succumbing to death, his part owner, Mr Alec Murphy also died. Another of those strange coincidences common in racing.

The 1919 Melbourne Cup was also the first time the Loving Cup trophy was presented to the winner. Before the classic 3 handled Cup we know so well today was presented, winners of the race received anything from gold watches to a fruit bowl to the spectacularly garish trophy below, presented to Toryboy for winning the 1865 race, the first actual trophy ever presented.

 

It's a Mans World...

When the 1915 Melbourne Cup was run and won, history was made for a very unusual reason considering the times, for Patrobas, the star 3 year old colt sporting rose pink silks was the first Melbourne Cup winner to be owned by a woman.

Mrs Edith Widdis, along with her husband John were major landowners in the Gippsland region of Victoria. Being both keen racing enthusiasts, they each purchased yearlings at the sales of 1914 to be run by each other individually. Mrs Widdis selected a dark bay colt with bloodlines tracing back to the legendary Carbine. She had considerable success with her little horse and by the time Patrobas had stuck his head out and won the Cup in a deceptive finish, he had also claimed the Caulfield Guineas and the Victorian Derby, races only open to 3 year olds to compete. To this day he is the only horse to win all 3 blue ribbon races in the same year. A feat that will probably never be repeated considering the last 3 year old to win the Cup was Skipton in 1941. In 2007 a statue in Patrobas honour was erected in his home town of Rosedale, Victoria.

At the time the VRC Members was off limits to women, as the race clubs were still very much a "Boys Club", but an exception was grudgingly made on this occasion to allow Mrs Widdis to claim her prize and celebrate her victory.

It's a far cry from today, women like Gai Waterhouse and Sheila Laxon, who with Ethereal in 2001 became the first woman to officially train a Melbourne Cup winner( 1938 winner Catalogue is said to have been trained by Mrs A McDonald despite her husband being credited in the racebook), have been able to compete with great success. Although still a minority, women are certainly afforded more opportunities in racing now than ever before.

On the other end of the scale I found this excerpt from Nat Gould's 1895 book "Turf Life In the Colonies"

"There are thousands of ladies at Flemington on Derby and Cup days, who visit the racecourse out of pure love of the sport, combined with a natural feminine desire to be seen and to see others. The women punters however, are a nuisance on the turf. After considerable experience, I have found that once a woman takes to gambling, it absorbs her whole thoughts, and gambling leads to other things, such as champagne and its attendant consequences.
To the credit of the racecourse secretaries and officials, be it said, that they use every endeavour to keep loose women off their courses, and in this they succeed admirably"

How things have changed, and thank god they have!!

The Friendly Sting.

I recently discovered this story by accident and thought it worth sharing. It revolves around a man named Mr W Gannon, a horse named Arsenal and the 1886 Melbourne Cup.

In the previous years Cup, won by Sheet Anchor, Arsenal was backed to win a fortune by his then owner. Unfortunately Arsenal ran awful and the plunge went astray. Furious, the owner refused to give the horse another chance and sold him immediately. Mr Gannon bought the horse for the princely sum of 375 guineas.

Arsenal was well fancied by Mr Gannon for the 1886 Cup, and the odds were quite lucrative. Determined to secure as much of the good odds he could get he sent a commission Agent out to back the horse for him. Inexplicably, instead of quietly going about the business of backing the horse, the agent let another big betting owner(who we will call Mr B) in on the secret. The big odds were duly snapped up, but by Mr B, getting in before Mr Gannon and securing much better odds. Mr Gannon found out and was naturally furious, and determined to get even with Mr B.

Just days before the Cup, Mr Gannon was staying at the Menzies Hotel in Melbourne, as was Mr B.(They were actually friends) One evening at dinner, Mr Gannon received a Telegram. On reading it he immediately rose to his feet, roaring with rage! Mr B asked if there was a problem with the horse, to which Mr Gannon showed him the Telegram. It was from Arsenal's trainer, Henry Raynor. It stated Arsenal had gone bad and was in doubt to run in the Cup. Mr B thanked Mr Gannon for showing him the Telegram and intimated he would immediately start laying off the bulk of the money he had invested before the word got out about Arsenal going bad. So Mr B arranged for another Commission Agent to start laying off(effectively selling his bets). As fast as the money was laid off, another well known Commission Agent was taking up the wagers. Mr B knew this man and wanting to warn him, asked him if he was betting for himself or for someone else, telling him if it was for himself, he should leave off as the horse was a "Dead un". The agent, unaware of the Telegram told Mr B he was in fact betting for Mr Gannon!! Immediately Mr B smelt a rat, and told his agent to stop laying off. "I can't, I've already laid it all off" was the agents reply. "And Gannon's got it all" was all Mr B could say in disbelief.

Mr Gannon had made up the whole Telegram in order to sting his friend and reclaim his rightful odds.

After a few nervous days, when the horse actually did go off his feed, Arsenal recovered and went on to win the Cup at odds of 20/1.

Mark

...As far as you can kick your hat!

When the horses crossed the finish line in the 1896 Melbourne Cup, one anonymous journalist evocatively described the scene as 'Newhaven first, Daylight second'. Without knowing it at the time, with the term 'Daylight second...' that gentleman coined a phrase that would become part of the Australian sporting vernacular.

Unbeknown to most outside the racing industry, the origins of many Australian phrases and colloquialisms can be traced to the racetrack. Here's a quick look at some of the most commonly heard;

'At the drop of a hat' literally describes the manner in which races were started in the 1800's.

'Down to the wire', meaning a close, tight finish is from the 1800's as well, when a strip of tape was strung along the finish line to help determine the result in a tight finish.

A 'Dead Ringer' is someone who looks remarkably like someone else. A Ringer in racing parlance is a substitute of similar appearance, but more talent than the original. The word Dead, in this instance can be taken as meaning precise. e.g. dead centre or dead heat.

To win 'Hands Down' traces its origin to jockeys with a huge lead dropping their hands as they no longer need to urge their mounts along to win the race.

Often something or someone is described as 'Home and Hosed'. This being a horse that is such a sure thing it's hosed down and back in its box before the others have finished.

A 'Drongo' has long been a derogatory, albeit light hearted colloquialism for someone a bit slow. Drongo was a racehorse in the 1920's who never won a race (Although his record was not as bad as his legacy would suggest). Others such as 'Finished like Bernborough' and 'further back than Walla Walla' are self explanatory.

If you're agitated and annoyed it's fair to say someone or something has 'Got your Goat'. Often trainers would leave a goat with their horses as a companion to keep them calm in the paddock or around the stables. Take the Goat away..........You know the rest.

Just who is Johnny Cutts???

Well that can be answered quite simply, he was the jockey on board Archer, winner of the first two Melbourne Cups. The real question though is who is the man himself?

John Cutts will forever be remembered in history as the first jockey to win the Melbourne Cup, but what the record books don't mention is the heritage of the man. There is evidence to suggest Johnny Cutts was also the first Aboriginal jockey to win the Melbourne Cup.

The story to suggest he has Aboriginal heritage is that during the Goldrush in the 1850's, many of the white stockman in the Riverina area left for the Victorian goldfields. They were replaced by local Indigenous men, one of whom was said to be a young John Cutts, who was born in the Nowra region and was well known as a very talented horseman. Many of these Aboriginal Stockmen also doubled up as jockeys during the era and most were never actually recognised as Aboriginal despite their success. So it is quite possible the legend is true.

On the other hand there is evidence to suggest he was born John Dillon, in Sydney c1829 to English stock. He rode successfully around Sydney tracks during the 1850's and won races for trainers in Melbourne in 1851 and 1852. He died in 1872 at the tender age of 43, only 3 months before Archer, the horse with whom his name is indelibly linked.

Interestingly whoever wrote his biography on Wikipedia is certain John Cutts was a white man born in Sydney, but offers no concrete evidence to support this, other than an apparent photograph of him with his wife,(who was actually the widow of his first training master William Cutts) which they say proves he is not Aboriginal. I tend to be of the opinion that any babies born in that era to English stock would have been properly recorded, as the population back then was quite small. The fact biographical records of Johnny Cutts show his birth as circa 1829 clouds the issue. I find it odd that he would take on the surname of his new wife over his own supposed family name of Dillon, unless he was for some reason trying to hide his family name. Also surely any photos from the 1860's would have to be inconclusive, particularly if he had mixed parents.

We now know the original legend of Archer walking from Nowra to Melbourne for the first Cup has proven to be false, and that he actually took the steamship from Sydney, after racing in Maitland immediately before the Cup. Maybe the legend of Johnny Cutts being the first Indigenous jockey to win the Cup also is false. What we do know is the first officially recorded  Aboriginal jockey to win the Melbourne Cup was Frank Reys aboard Gala Supreme in 1973, an interesting tale in itself, but his is a story for another day.

Mark