Nowadays, despite the pall hanging over the 2007 race from this year’s equine influenza (EI) threat in Australia, we think nothing of racehorses being flown into Melbourne in the October of each year to contest the horserace that stops a nation on the first Tuesday in November, the Melbourne Cup www.melbournecup.com at Flemington racecourse which is raced under the auspices of the Victorian Racing Club www.vrc.net.au . However there has been an international flavour and global connections to the Cup since the inception of the race in 1861 when Archer was walked some 750km, or 450 miles, from Nowra to Melbourne to win the inaugural Cup then walked back home, then to return and repeat the incredible feat the following year. In the early days the prize wasn''t even a cup as such, it was a gold watch and £170 prizemoney. These days the prize is the cup trophy itself, made of 34 pieces of 18 carat gold.

When the First Fleet arrived in Port Jackson there were 2 stallions and 4 mares onboard and over the years horses had been arriving from the mother country and being bred so that by the time the Melbourne Cup was first run, there was a healthy population of horseflesh in the colony.

The first English bred runner in the Cup was Panic in 1865, foaled in 1858, carrying the steadier of 10.00 stone, and beaten 2 lengths into second place by Toryboy. Panic was a versatile beast, mixing racing with stud duties, and when he ran second he had already sired Nimblefoot, who went on to win the Cup in 1870.

Over the years New Zealand bred or trained runners coming over the Tasman Sea have been the bane of local trainers with Martini-Henri being the first NZ bred winner of the Cup in 1883, beating 28 other runners. Martini-Henri, by Musket, was by today’s standards a remarkable horse as he won the Victoria Derby at his very first race start and the Melbourne Cup at his second start, shades of Morston who won the English Derby in 1973 at his second start in a race and was immediately retired undefeated. Martini-Henri later sired the mare Mons Meg, foaled to English time, which went to England and won the Ascot Gold Vase over 2 miles in 1888.

In 1890, Carbine, another son of Musket, won the Cup. He is thought by many to be the greatest Australian racehorse ever, even though he was NZ bred and did his two year old racing in the Shaky Isles. Carbine or Phar Lap as the best horse to race Down Under has been argued over many a beer drunk in Australian pubs.
So successful was Carbine as a racehorse that bookmakers barred him from bets at any odds, not surprising when the horse was capable of winning twice on the same day, which he did on four separate occasions. His race record on retirement stood at 43 starts for 33 wins, 6 seconds, 3 thirds and 1 duck egg.
Carbine sired the champion Wallace here in Australia and later, at stud in England, and owned by William Bentinck, the Duke of Portland, sired Spearmint, who won the 1906 English Derby on Epsom Downs in race record time.

The list of successful descendants of Carbine continues through time with his most recent champion being the wonderful New Zealand mare Sunline - winner of 2 Cox Plates in 1999 and 2000 in her 13 Group One wins amongst her record of 32 wins, and winning over $11million in stakes, an Australasian record until smashed by triple Melbourne Cup winner (2003-2005) Makybe Diva’s $14.5million in stakes won..

American writer Mark Twain said of a visit to the Melbourne Cup in 1895 -
“Nowhere in the world have I encountered a festival of people that has such a magnificent appeal to the whole nation. The Cup astonishes me.”

In 1898 The Grafter won the Cup after running second the year before to his two year older full brother, Gaulus, a remarkable result in any era of horseracing. The Grafter had a rather large nose and was nicknamed ‘His Ugliness’ but that didn’t stop him later, when, after being sent to England, the past Melbourne Cup winner lined up in the six furlong Stewards’ Cup at what is now known as Glorious Goodwood and then climaxed his career by winning two rich handicap races, The City and Suburban at Epsom and the Prince Edward Handicap at Manchester, which was worth a huge for then £2,000.

In 1910, Comedy King, bred in England from the 1896 English Derby winner, Persimmon, was the first imported horse to win the Melbourne Cup.
5 times Melbourne Cup winning trainer Lee Freedman’s www.freedman.com.au great-grandfather, on his father''s maternal side, Bill "Midge" McLachlan, was a champion international jockey who won three Melbourne Cups on Prince Foote in 1909, Comedy King, and Westcourt in 1917.
Comedy King at stud later sired Artilleryman who won the Cup in 1919.

Sasanof, carrying the featherweight of 6 stone 12 lbs, in 1916 was the first NZ bred, owned and trained horse to win the Melbourne Cup. Two years later Sasanov proved it was no fluke when in the New Zealand Cup he inflicted one of the few defeats of the New Zealand champion Gloaming whose record on retirement stood at 57 wins, 9 seconds from 67 starts, his only unplaced run being when he unseated the jockey at barrier rise when his head became entangled in the starting tapes, the field taking off without him. Between October, 1919, and December, 1921, Gloaming won 19 races in succession, equalling Desert Gold''s Australasian record.

In 1919 favouritism at 6/1 for the Cup went to Lucknow, bred by King George V, from Minoru, who won the 1909 English Derby for his father King Edward VII. After Lucknow’s good win in the Caulfield Cup he could only finish a well beaten 4th to Artilleryman in the big one.

James Scobie trained 4 Melbourne Cup winners in 1900 with Clean Sweep, 1922 King Ingoda, 1923 Bitalli and 1927 Trivalve. Arthur ‘Scobie’ Breasley commenced his jockey career in 1928 at age 12 in Melbourne and he earned his nickname from that famous trainer, who he often rode for as a youngster. Breasley won the English Jockeys'' Premiership four times and his career total of 3,251 winners included more than 2,000 in England. He won two English Derbys, on Santa Claus in 1964 and Charlottown in 1966.

Scobie never won a Melbourne Cup though in 1933, on the aged (8 year old) Shadow King, he was beaten only a head by Hall Mark. The unlucky Shadow King had six attempts between 1929 and 1935 at winning the Cup, finishing 6th, 3rd (to Phar Lap), 2nd, 3rd and 2nd with Scobie on his back. He then missed the 1934 Cup won by Peter Pan then ran 4th, aged 10, to Marabou in 1935, at 100/1, with Breasley riding him for a second time. Shadow King was a mighty tough stayer.
Breasley also won the 1958 Prix de L''Arc de Triomphe at Longchamp, Paris, on Ballymoss, trained by Irishman Vincent O’Brien. O’Brien was the ‘Master of Ballydoyle’, until he retired and Aidan (no relation) came along to train for the Coolmore Stud in Tipperary www.coolmore.com , the syndicate which was founded by Vincent, his son-in-law John Magnier and the late soccer pools magnate, Robert Sangster who with his Swettenham Stud www.swettenham.com.au , won a host of races in Australia with some noble steeds, including 1980 Cup winner Beldale Ball.

In 1924, the English bred Backwood won the Cup. He was a grandson of St Frusquin, bred by the Rothschild family and himself a son of the great St Simon, and St Frusquin, as favourite, had ran a neck second to the aforementioned Persimmon in the 1896 Derby after easily winning the Two Thousand Guineas. In a tribute to St Frusquin, Marie, Leopold de Rothschild''s wife, had a silver model cast of the horse by Fabergé for Leopold''s 67th birthday.

1930 saw the wonder horse Phar Lap easily win the Cup by 3 lengths at 11/8 on favourite.

On the Saturday before the race, Derby Day, Phar Lap was being led back to his stable by his strapper Tommy Woodcock after doing light work at Caulfield racecourse when an attempt was made to kill the champion. A gunman in a passing car fired a shotgun, with the poor shot narrowly missing the horse which was bravely shielded by the strapper and a lead pony. The assailants sped off in the car at high speed, never to be caught.

Phar Lap, then trained by Tommy Woodcock, later went to Agua Caliente in New Mexico where he easily won against a crack field in a race that was billed as the richest race in the world. The Red Terror easily won the 10 furlong event by 2 lengths, breaking the track record.

A short time later and the Australian champion was dead – some say he ate grass tainted with weed killer, others say that a betting syndicate run by the Mob had a hand in the giant horse’s demise. Phar Lap died in a paddock near Menlo Park, California, with his head rested in the arms of the Australian who loved him above all the rest of the nation, Tommy Woodcock.

Woodcock, many years later in the 1977 Cup, trained a grand horse, Reckless, to run a close second to Gold And Black, trained by Bart Cummings and ridden by John Duggan. The year before, 1976, Reckless had run 4th to Kiwi mudlark Van Der Hum on a bog Flemington track.

Reckless was an amazing horse who took 34 starts to win his first race then went on to win the Sydney Cup, the Adelaide Cup and the Brisbane Cup, all over the 3200 metres, or 2 miles, and the bond between him and his trainer Tommy Woodcock, as was the bond between him as a young man and Phar Lap, will remain legendary in the annals of Australasian, if not global, horseracing.

In 1952, the Cup was won by Dalray, the NZ horse being ridden by Bill Williamson and trained by C C McCarthy. A grateful owner split the prize money of £9,800 between the jockey and trainer as it was estimated he won 5 times that in bets, which would equate to some $15,000,000 with today’s first prize-money.
Williamson went on to win the Prix de L’Arc de Triomphe at Longchamp on the French horse Vaguely Noble in 1968 and repeated the dose the next year on the Irish horse Levmoss at 50/1, drawing from Lester Piggott the compliment that ‘Weary Willie’ was ''the best big-race jockey in the world''.

Though he won most other big races in the world, the same Lester Piggott once mumbled that the Melbourne Cup was "just a handicap" and he couldn''t care less whether he won it or not. Could have been sour grapes on Lester’s part, but it fell on the deaf ears of Australians, sorry Lester!

In 1960 Tulloch was all the rage to win the 2 mile event but a rare poor ride by the maestro Neville Sellwood saw Tommy Smith’s charge suffer his only unplaced run in a career that finished with 36 wins, 12 seconds, and 4 thirds from 53 starts. He finished 6th that day to Hi Jinx, beaten 4 lengths and it is said he made up an estimated 46 lengths in the final 6 furlongs of the race. No horse, ever born, could have won from so far back in the field.

The late TJ Smith’s Tulloch Lodge training establishment premises, was taken over by his daughter, Gai Waterhouse at http://gaiwaterhouse.com.au
Seven Melbourne Cup winners - Hi-Jinx, Galilee, Silver Knight, Hiraji, Foxzami, MacDougal and Polo Prince all spent the early part of their lives at Seton Otway’s Trelawney Stud in New Zealand www.trelawneystud.com.nz before going on to win the great race. Arguably the most famous horse to carry the Trelawney brand is Tulloch, who never won the Cup but was bred, reared and sold by Trelawney then trained to greatness by the legendary Tommy Smith.
Neville Sellwood had previously won the Melbourne Cup on Delta in 1951 and Toparoa for Smith in 1955. Tragically he was later killed in a race fall at Maison Lafitte, near Paris, France in November, 1962. Riding for the Aga Khan''s stable and leading the French jockeys'' premiership with 102 winners, he rode the misnamed Lucky Seven on a wet track when the horse slipped, fell and rolled on him, causing severe internal injuries.

Fellow jockey, Yves St Martin, who by season’s end also rode 102 winners to share the premiership, presented the prize, a golden whip, to Sellwood''s widow.
Only five months earlier Neville had the racing world at his feet when he won the English Derby on the Irish-trained colt, Larkspur, owned by US Ambassador Raymond Guest and trained by the genius, Vincent O’Brien.

Raymond Guest, himself, was an astute horseman and also bred and owned Sir Ivor, ridden by the great Lester Piggott, to win the English Derby in 1968. In 1965 Guest had won the Preakness with Tom Rolfe, a horse that won a total of $671,297 after winning 16 races and placing 10 times in 32 starts. Guest also loved National Hunt racing and his champion jumper L''Escargot won the Aintree Grand National in 1975 after winning the Cheltenham Gold Cup in 1970 and 1971.

In 1965 British model Jean Shrimpton unwittingly triggered off an international controversy when she attended Victoria Derby Day at Melbourne''s Flemington race course on the Saturday before Cup Day. Shrimpton, then aged just 22, was known as ‘The Shrimp’, a nickname she greatly disliked and she was the world''s highest paid model, arguably the world''s first ‘supermodel’ and certainly the first to become internationally known by name. She was one of the ''faces'' of Swinging London, one-third of the world famous trio of Sixties supermodels alongside Twiggy and Veruschka. She was dressed in a sleeveless white mini-dress with a hemline some four inches above the knee, with two-toned low-heeled slingback shoes and an ankle chain. Most significantly she was not wearing the de riguer Flemington fashion accessories of hat, gloves and stockings.

However it was another of the fairer sex that stole the show three days later when the 4 year old mare, Light Fingers, ridden by ‘The Professor’, Roy Higgins, won the Cup from stable-mate, Ziema, giving trainer Bart Cummings the quinella and the first of his 11 Melbourne Cup winners, including 5 quinellas. Bart www.bartcummings.com.au was to quinella the race the next year too, with Light Fingers running second to Galilee.

Bart had come a long way from the 23 year old young man who strapped Comic Court, trained by his father Jim, and winner of the 1950 Cup.

Showing early promise with a couple of wins as a two-year-old in England, Beldale Ball was purchased by Robert Sangster with Australian racing in mind. As the horse showed a preference for dry tracks, the son of Nashua looked particularly suited in the Southern Hemisphere and so it transpired after he was transferred to Lindsay Park www.lindsaypark.com.au , the training establishment of the great trainer Colin (CS) Hayes, not too far from Adelaide in the wine growing region of the Barossa Valley. Come Cup Day in 1980 and Beldale Ball looked well in on only 49.5kg. He did have the outside barrier of 22 to contend with but John Letts rode him perfectly, taking the lead 2000m out and staying there where it mattered. Across the line and Beldale Ball was 1.5 lengths clear of his nearest rival My Blue Denim, with a further two lengths to the third placed Love Bandit.

Beldale Ball wrote himself into Australian racing history that day, becoming the first American bred winner of the Melbourne Cup – as well as Colin Hayes’ first success in the great race.

It was a just reward for Letts rode Rain Lover in Adelaide in 1968 and was promised the Cup ride, but lost the ride when the horse was transferred to a new trainer. Rain Lover went on to win the 1968 Cup by 8 lengths and narrowly repeated the dose the following year. However jockey Letts was later compensated when the Tasmanian horse Piping Lane, a despised roughie, won the Cup in 1972.

Beldale Ball’s Melbourne Cup victory was one of owner Robert Sangster’s finest racing moments, and there were many around the world over the years including two Epsom Derbies, four Irish Derbies, two French Derbies, three Prix de l''Arc de Triomphes, five Irish 2000 Guineas, three English 2000 Guineas and one 1000 Guineas.

That big race win also held a special place in Colin Hayes’ memory as he dedicated the win to his brother, Arthur, who had passed away only the day before.

1986 and it was At Talaq, again trained by CS Hayes who took the Cup, this time for Sheik Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum of Dubai, younger brother of Sheik Mohammed, whose Godolphin races all over the world www.godolphin.com .
At Talaq, by English Derby winner Roberto, followed up a win in the Group1 Grand Prix de Paris, with a third in the Italian Derby and fourth in Secreto’s 1984 English Derby before heading Down Under. At Talaq was second in the 1986 Caulfield Cup to Mr Lomondy and then won the LKS Mackinnon Stakes before the1986 Melbourne Cup.

The recent runaway Group 1 Caulfield Guineas winner, Weekend Hussler, sired by Hussonet, was foaled by Weekend Beauty and is descended from At Talaq on his dam’s side. The un-raced Weekend Beauty is by Hellisio, a Prix de l''Arc de Triomphe winner by the Northern Dancer horse Fairy King, from Not On Friday, a Group III winning daughter of At Talaq.

In 1993 Vintage Crop trained by Dermot Weld, ridden by Mick Kinane, won the Cup. Weld who trains near The Curragh racecourse www.curragh.ie in County Kildare, less than an hour from Dublin, Ireland, is a qualified vet and was also a very accomplished amateur jockey in his younger years. The Curragh is the head quarters of horse racing in Ireland since the first race took place in 1741 and is one of Ireland''s premier sporting venues.

Weld is renowned for sending his charges all over the world to compete in the best races and is the only European trainer to have saddled the winner of the prestigious Melbourne Cup in Australia, a feat he achieved twice with the brilliant Vintage Crop in 1993 and Media Puzzle in 2002. His champion stayer Vinnie Roe only failed narrowly to give him a third Melbourne Cup success when beaten by on-a-hat trick mare Makybe Diva in 2005.

Vintage Crop also won the Irish St Leger in 1993 and 1994 as well as The Curragh Cup in 1993 and 1995, before returning to Melbourne to run 3rd to Doriemus in 1995.

Weld is also the only European trainer to win a leg of the American Triple Crown after Go And Go sprang a surprise victory in the 1990 Belmont Stakes.

In 1994, Jeune (GB) 1989 16.1 hh - Kalaglow – Youthful, trained by David Hayes at Lindsay Park, following the retirement of CS, won the Melbourne Cup. Jeune, owned by Dubai’s Sheik Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum had a race record 42 starts for 10 wins,10 seconds and 7 thirds and was the winner of three other Group 1 races in Australia, his 5 wins in England including the prestigious Hardwicke Stakes at Royal Ascot.

The next year, 1995, David Hayes was to set a world record by winning 6 Group races on one day before heading off to train with great success in Hong Kong, then to return to Lindsay Park in 2005 after 9 successful years away and the tragic death of his brother Peter in a light plane crash in 2001. Tony McEvoy, uncle of Kerrin, the 2000 Cup winning jockey on Brew and riding alongside Frankie Dettori for the Godolphin stables, looked after the Lindsay Park operation from Peter’s death until David’s return from Hong Kong.

In 2002, Ireland''s Media Puzzle, bred by Moyglare Stud Farm and owned by Dr. M. W. Smurfit, romped home on the first Tuesday in November to become only the second horse from the northern hemisphere to win the Melbourne Cup, the previous winner being Vintage Crop, in 1993, also from the Kildare stables of Dermot Weld. The Dermot Weld-trained horse delighted the 100,000-strong crowd to scoop Australian horse-racing''s biggest prize. Starting from stall three at the Flemington track, jockey Damien Oliver appeared to be in control throughout the two-mile race.

Mr Prudent was second across the line with Beekeeper third. Vinnie Roe, Media Puzzle''s stable-mate and pre-race favourite for the race ‘that stops a nation’, finished a gallant fourth, carrying 59kg, after hitting the front rounding the home turn.

Weld said after the race, "After Media Puzzle ran fourth in the English St Leger I said in the enclosure ''I''ll win the Melbourne Cup with this horse''."
There was a touch of Hollywood about the winner as Media Puzzle, the chestnut son of Theatrical, could be the prettiest Melbourne Cup winner since Light Fingers. Even the white star between his eyes looks as if it was applied by a make-up artist with an eye for detail - in the shape of a perfect inverted teardrop.
It was an emotional victory for Oliver, whose jockey brother Jason died in a racing accident in Perth the week before the Cup. Damien Oliver had to attend his brother''s funeral next day and dedicating the win to his brother, blowing a kiss towards heaven after passing the post, said "It''s going to be hard to keep this together. I''d give it all back right now to have my brother back."
"To my brother Jason: I know you are up there, mate,'''' he said, "I couldn''t have done it without you, buddy. This one''s for you.''''

It was Oliver''s second Melbourne Cup win but his first, on Doriemus in 1995, was also dedicated to a lost loved one. His jockey father, Ray, was also killed in a race fall, at Kalgoorlie in 1975.

Tragically too, Media Puzzle was put down after shattering a leg near the finish line of the Ascot Gold Cup of 2006, won by Yeats, who was to then come to Melbourne and run 7th last year.

In 2005, Makybe Diva made history by being the first horse to win the Melbourne Cup three times, winning consecutive races in 2003, 2004 and 2005. Jockey Glen Boss rode Makybe Diva in all three of her Melbourne Cup wins, the first when trained by David Hall.

The Cup had been won in consecutive years thrice before, Archer, 1861-2, trained by Etienne de Mestre who went on to train 3 other winners of the Cup, Rain Lover in 1968-9, trained by former Broken Hill coalminer Mick Robins and Think Big in 1974-5, trained by Bart Cummings. Peter Pan won twice too, though not in consecutive years, 1932 and 1934.

Foaled in England, Makybe Diva was the first foal from Riverman mare Tugela and later, Tugela’s colt by Redoute''s Choice www.arrowfield.com.au , since named Musket, was sold as a yearling to Woodlands Stud for an Australian record $2.5 million.

Another Musket was the sire of 1890 Cup winner Carbine and that other great mare Wakeful''s (2nd in Lord Cardigan’s Cup in 1903, beaten ¾ length) sire Trenton, who himself was placed in the 1885 (3rd beaten a head, a head) and 1886 Melbourne Cups (2nd beaten long neck).

Makybe Diva''s 11th dam, Astrology, produced five-time American champion sire Starshoot, who became one of the most dominant American stallions of his era. The son of Isinglass led the American sire list in 1911, 1912, 1916, 1917, and 1919, and was in the top three on six other occasions. His progeny included American Triple Crown winner Sir Barton . Her 10th dam Saint Astra won the Prix de Diane, the French Oaks, in 1907. Saint Astra was the dam of Poule d''Essai des Pouliches (French 1000 Guineas) winner Diavolezza.

Her breeding certainly suggested she would stay the Melbourne Cup distance and Makybe Diva''s trainer for the 2004 and 2005 wins, Lee Freedman, says the mare has proved herself to be “one of the all-time greats ... I don''t think the country has seen a better horse in the past 30 or 40 years”. As well as her three Melbourne Cup wins, Makybe Diva also won a WS Cox Plate at Moonee Valley, a 3200metres Sydney Cup at Royal Randwick, an Australian Cup at Caulfield, setting an unofficial world record for 2000metres on turf, and the weight-for-age BMW at Rosehill Gardens in Sydney. In October 2006, a bronze statue of Makybe Diva was unveiled in the South Australian city of Port Lincoln, the home-town of her owner Tony Santic.

In 2006 Delta Blues, not Mississippi''s most famed cultural contribution to the world, as belted out by Charley Patton, BB King and John Lee Hooker, but a finely tuned racehorse from Japan took out the Melbourne Cup narrowly from fellow Japanese raider Pop Rock. Delta Blues, starting at 17/1 and a Grade One winner in Japan, beat his stable-mate Pop Rock 5/1 equal favourite by a half-head in a finish that left a high-class field floundering behind them on the 3200metre Flemington course.
The local Maybe Better (9/1) was a distant four and a half lengths away in third place. Delta Blues had been given a good winning chance by the pundits following his third-place finish behind the David Hayes trained Tawqeet, Melbourne Cup 5/1 equal favourite with the second horse Pop Rock, a fortnight before in the Caulfield Cup (2,400metres), one of the traditional lead-ups to the Melbourne Cup.
The six-horse international contingent provided both the surprises and the disappointments of the 2006 Melbourne Cup with the English galloper Land ''N Stars (200/1) finishing a meritorious fifth and the Coolmore horse Yeats (11/2), winner of the past two Ascot Gold Cups, finishing an inglorious seventh, despite Irish crooner Bono predicting that “Yeats would bite the arse of any of the Australian horses that dare to run against it”.
Jockey Keiran Fallon said the pace hadn''t suited his horse, "I had trouble getting the tempo right, it changed a lot."

The quinella pair is owned by Katsumi Yoshida, who, with his two brothers, operates the world''s biggest thoroughbred stud, Shadai Stallion Station. They also bred the recently retired world champion Deep Impact.

The victory also proved a triumph for pioneering trainer Katsuhiko Sumii, who last year prepared Japan''s first Grade One winner in the United States and he has also won major races in Dubai and Hong Kong, as well as home-base in Japan.

In 2005 and 2006, the author of this article, me, Andrew Beattie, died, and was thankfully revived each time due to the skills of my surgeon Professor David Morris and his team, during major surgical operations at St George Hospital, Sydney, Australia. Both operations were on Melbourne Cup Day.
Read my amazing story at www.theseptimuscurse.com .
Will my luck hold out in 2007, third time lucky? I believe it will, and my tip is another ‘blue’, Blutigeroo, named for his three owners who support the Melbourne football teams, the Carlton Blues, the Richmond Tigers, and the North Melbourne Kangaroos.
And if it wins and you clean up, then why not make a donation to the David Morris Liver Cancer Research Fund – details at the Help desk on www.telapages.com .
(Andrew Beattie).