The race that stops a nation

By Chamari Senanayake

RACING: Every year 'The Melbourne Cup' is the ultimate sporting event that every Australian sports fan looks forward to. Melbourne Cup is the biggest sporting event in Australia beating some of its favourite sports like cricket, football and swimming.

The Melbourne Cup is won by the fastest horse, its jockey and its trainer, in other words the sports stars are horses. Although it is not a common sport in Sri Lanka, it is one of the most famous sports in most countries like England, Australia and Europe and even in the USA.

World's best horses compete in The Melbourne Cup and every year the Victoria Racing Club receives hundreds of applications from all over the world. But, only the best of the best who has already won some of the finest races during their career could be selected and even out of that number, a few many be removed after the final veterinary checks and fitness checks.

Some horses that arrive from the other side of the world spend about a month in the sea arriving in special ships for the Melbourne Cup. About a hundred years ago, when caught in storms, many race horses and even their trainers had died in the sea while arriving for the Melbourne Cup. But today, thanks to the latest ships and communication devices and weather predictions that almost never happens.

History

The history of the Melbourne Cup runs as further as 1840 when the first meeting was held, but the first Melbourne Cup was run at the Flemington race grounds in Melbourne in 1861 and turned into a dramatic event.

Twelve horses arrived from all over the country and the horse that arrived by walking more than 580 miles all the way from the New South Wales State was 'Archer'. And Archer won the very first Melbourne Cup proving he is a great athlete.

Tragically, two horses fell and got injured during the race and had to be put down. One horse started too early and could not be stopped and he ran the whole course before the race officially started.

However, a crowd of 4,000 gathered to Flemington that day, and at that time it was as grand as a modern World Cup cricket match day.

The following year, more people arrived for the Melbourne Cup and 'Archer' arrived for the race again. He became the fist horse to win the Melbourne Cup twice by winning that year. Since then, horses called 'Think Big', 'Peter Pan', 'Rain Lover' and 'Maybe Diva' have also won the cup twice each. As the years went by, Flemington race course improved and later turned into Victoria Racing Club, which today worth billions of dollars. Racing fans started to arrive from New Zealand, England, Europe, America and many other countries and so did the horses.

Famous winner

The most famous Australian Melbourne cup winner is called 'Phar Lap' and he is famous all over the world for his extraordinary performances and humble beginnings. Born in New Zealand and bought for a rich American businessman by a struggling trainer called Harry Telford, 'Phar Lap' was almost an unwanted horse by his owners at the beginning. Soon, Phar Lap was winning almost every race that he ran, and at the time of depression, people even bet their last pennies on Phar Lap and he rarely let them down.

The trainer, the owner and even Phar Lap's strapper rose from rags to riches, but some criticized Harry Telford for being too harsh on Phar Lap and giving him tough exercises. However, there was someone who loved Phar Lap from the very first day he met him and it was Phar Lap's young strapper Tommy Woodcock. The horse and the strapper loved each other very much it was widely known that Phar Lap even refused to travel without Tommey by his side. Ironically, the pair was inseparable to the day this great race horse died and Phar Lap rested his head on Tommey's lap and closed his eyes forever on April 5, 1932 after being poisoned in America.

Phar Lap's extraordinary wins made some mob involved in racing angry and once gangsters shot at him before Phar Lap won the Victoria Derby in 1930. Although he escaped that, he became a victim to a bigger poison scam after winning the world's richest race in Mexico 'Agua Calinte' in 1932 beating world's best horses. Phar Lap's name was all over the news and even the Los Angeles Radio asked the listeners to declare a one minute silence after his tragic death. His stuffed hind was brought back to Australia and while millions of Australians and New Zealanders were mourning, put on display at the Melborne Museum.

Even today, he is one of the most popular exhibits at the Melbourne Museum. A blockbuster movie 'Phar Lap' also immortalised Australia's greatest racing champion who paid the price for sports with his own life. Phar Lap had won more than 37 races out of his 51 starts including the 1930 Melbourne Cup, Cox Plate, Victoria Derby. VATC Futurity Stakes, and he managed to amaze everyone by winning races at times he missed the start.

Mostly, he was brave to run and win within hours after being shot at, and returning back to win again and again without showing exhaustion. Phar Lap gave Australia and New Zealand hope and glory at the time of depression.

Traditions

The Melbourne Cup has 145 years old traditions. Clerks of the course is one of them, clerks keep order in the grounds and tracks, dressed in red and white they ride with and around the runners before and after races, are accompany winners to the show ground areas. Clerks of the course are accomplished riders and mostly retired jockeys. And their horses are also retired race horses, the most famous is 'Sub Zero', the 1990 Melbourne Cup winner, now at the age of 18, although retired of racing, he still works as a clerk of the course.

One of the main features of this famous Flemington race grounds is the Bronze statue of 'Phar Lap' raised in 1988 at the main pedestrian entrance.

The beautiful area where horses are stabled while awaiting the races is called the 'birdcage', inspired by historic Newmarket racecourse of England. 'Birdcage' was also the place fabulous lady race goers were on display in the past. There are 130 stalls allocated for racehorses at the birdcage and with small fountains, spring rose beds and walking spaces for horses, 'birdcage' is a beautiful place that people can come and see their favourite horse face to face. 'Carbine' is a horse that shares a place in history with Phar Lap as the greatest champion of Australian racing. He was not only the great - great grandfather of Phar Lap, but also carried a record weight of 65.5 Kgs for the 1890 Melbourne Cup race in a huge field of 39 race horses. He won the race, and was hailed as a hero.

Victorian Racing Club decided to preserve the wooden stall Carbine used to be housed at when he came for races at Flemington more than 110 years ago. It is on display near the Birdcage area.

Melbourne Cup 2006

The Melbourne Cup is always a dramatic event. The promising English race horse 'Carte Diamond; fell and got injured while preparing for the 2005 Melbourne Cup, his trainer had high hopes for him for this years' cup and yet the veterinary checks concluded he was not ready for this years run either. Another English horse called 'Wunderwood' arrived for the Melbourne Cup and just days before, his cup hope ended in tragedy when after an injury the horse had to be put down.

Today, the event draws more than 700 million of television audience over 120 countries and even a larger audience on the internet. Spring Racing is actually a Victoria - wide festival, where many thoroughbred race horses compete in various races at various race grounds in Victoria. They have many different categories with trophies and the best of the best then can be entered for the biggest day of the year, the Melbourne Cup Day, which is held on the first Tuesday of November each year, and is declared a public holiday since 1870.

Melbourne Cup day is surrounded by the four day spring racing carnival at Flemington, where many final races take place, many different cups and plates to be won and each has its own standards and price money. During those four days, the Victoria Racing Club offers more than 14 million dollars worth of prize money.

Today, the gold 'Melbourne Cup' Cup itself is valued over 80,000 Australian dollars and the winning horse wins for his owner three million of dollars as price money.

The total value of the Melbourne Cup prize money is said to be AU$ 5,100,000 and until the tenth place there are various prize monies.

Spring Racing Carnival is known well for its fashion. Men and women dress in their best and most expensive clothes and arrive in style.

Transport to the venue is by various stylish ways, starting from the free tram which runs during the four day carnival to Flemington Race grounds from the city, some reach the venue by cabs, and some by limousines.

23 Horses

Also are the people that come by ferries and boats, and some wealthy that arrives by helicopters that is specially run for the Melbourne Racing Cup Carnival. Among the stylish are famous actors, models, politicians, former jockeys and champion horse owners, sports stars, sometimes the representatitives from the Royal Family and even the Prime Minister of Australia himself.

This year's Melbourne Cup was a highly anticipated event with many overseas horses and the best Australian horses. A total number of 23 horses ran the race including last year's second place winner 'On a Jeune', and high-reputed horses from England, Ireland, New Zealand, USA, France and Japan.

A total of 418,000 attended the four-day's spring racing carnival this year and only on the Melbourne Cup day there was a crowd of 106,691.

The last few seconds of the Melbourne Cup was a heart pounding event, with hundreds of thousands of people cheering madly from every corner of the grounds.

While the famous Irish horse 'Yeats' was leading the pack of the horses from the beginning, there emerged two horses through the crowd side by side.

The two horses dashed passed 'Yeats' before anyone could take a breath and reached the finishing line surprising the overwhelmed crowd as the first two horses to win both first and second places for Japan. 'Delta Blues' became the 2006 Melbourne Cup champion, ridden by his Japanese jockey Yasunari Iwata, while his stable mate 'Pop Rock' won the second place with his Australian jockey Damian Oliver.

This was the first time that two overseas runners has won both first and second places in the Melbourne Cup, and 'Maybe Better' made Australians proud by winning the third place. Then there was ' Land 'n stars', 'Yeats' and 'Glistering' from England and Ireland, while 'Activation' and 'Mandela' from New Zealand that also was among the first ten place getters.

Melbourne Cup continues to fascinate every sports fan around the globe with its fashion, history, legends and mostly, because of its magnificent horse champions.