International Winners of the Melbourne Cup

We call them International Raiders – the horses that swoop in from another country with the aim of taking Australia’s most prized racing trophy, the Melbourne Cup. We don’t include New Zealanders – they’re considered part of our racing culture, and we consider some of the New Zealand bred horses, like Phar Lap, to be our own. The international raiders are the fly-in, fly-out types that became serious in 1993 when Vintage Crop and Drum Taps arrived by air and Vintage Crop won the Cup. However, Vintage Crop was far from being the first international horse to win the Melbourne Cup.

The first international bred Cup winner was Comedy King in 1910. Comedy King was sired in England by English Derby winner Persimmon , who was King Edward Vll’s greatest racehorse. His mother Tragedy Queen was bought by bookmaker Sol Green when she was in foal, and when the foal was born they were both shipped to Melbourne. In 1910 Comedy King was a four-year-old stallion and he beat the champion stayer Trafalgar by half a head. He later stood at Noorilim Stud in northern Victoria and sired many good horses including two who went on to become Melbourne Cup winners in their own right. Artilleryman won as a three-year-old in 1919 and King Ingoda as a four-year-old in 1922.

Fourteen years later the 1924 Cup was won by six-year-old stallion Backwood who became the second imported horse to win. He was from Ireland and his sire was Bachelor’s Double who was unbeaten as a two-year-old. Bachelor’s Doubles wins included the Phoenix Park Nursery Plate and the Railway Stakes at the Curragh. Between ages 3 and 5 he won, among other races, the Irish Derby, the City and Suburban Handicap, the Ascot Royal Hunt Cup, and the Great Jubilee Handicap at Kempton Park, placing second in the Doncaster Cup and Coronation Cup. Backwood was the fourth Melbourne Cup winner winner trained by R. “Dick” Bradfield.

The next imported horse to win was Beldale Ball in 1980. He was owned by Robert Sangster and was originally trained in Europe, then imported to Australia where he was trained by Colin Hayes with a Cups campaign in mind.

Colin Hayes also trained the next overseas horse that won the Cup. This was At Talaq in 1986 who was owned by Sheikh Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum. During the 1980s several international owners were attracted by the lucrative prizemoney on offer for the Cup.

The beautifully bred Kingston Rule was bred in America and won the 1990 Melbourne Cup for owners Mr & Mrs David Hains and trainer Bart Cummings. He went to stud in 1991 at Ealing Park Stud, in Euroa where he still serves a handful of mares each year.

1993 was the watershed year when overseas horses were brought to Australia just to take a tilt at the Cup and then return home afterwards. This was the year that Vintage Crop won for Irish trainer Dermot Weld.
Jeune was a British horse owned by Sheikh Hamdan Bin Rashid Al Maktoum of Dubai. Jeune performed well in Europe and the Sheikh sent him to Australia at the end of four-year-old season to be trained by David Hayes, whose father Colin had given the Sheikh his first Cup winner. Jeune won the 1994 Cup.

In 2002 Media Puzzle gave Dermot Weld his second Melbourne Cup after an outstanding win in the Geelong Cup where he broke the course record and looked as if he could have easily gone round again. He was taken back to Europe and had to be put down after shattering a leg in the Ascot Gold Cup.

The great mare Makybe Diva is considered an Australian racehorse by most punters, but she was born in England and was shipped to Australia by owner South Australian tuna fisherman Tony Santic when she was around 18 months old. She won the Cup in 2003, 2004 and 2005, breaking her own weight-carrying record for a mare in that final win. It is likely that no horse will ever match her record of three consecutive Melbourne Cups.

In 2006 the Melbourne Cup was won by the Japanese horse, Delta Blues who finished a nose in front of a second Japanese horse, Pop Rock. Both horses returned to Japan shortly afterwards.

An interesting fact is that the jockey of the first overseas bred Cup winner Comedy King was Bill McLachlan. Bill was the great grandfather of Lee Freedman, who trained the greatest overseas bred Cup winner of them all – Makybe Diva.

Small world!!

Jo Jackson

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