Trove Tuesday – Melbourne Cup Day – My brush with fame

I’ve talked about my family links to racing and the Melbourne Cup a couple of times before, and here about the trucks.

Probably one of the last times I went in the truck to the races with either my Pa or my Dad was to the 1969 Melbourne Cup 

– with Rain Lover who went on to win his second consecutive Cup.  It was soon after this that we moved five hours away to live in the country.

If you're thinking about backing Green Moon today because he won last year, think about this:

Only four horses have won successive Melbourne Cups:

- Archer in 1861 and 1862

- Rain Lover in 1968 and 1969

- Think Big in 1974 and 1975

- Makybe Diva in 2003, 2004 and 2005.

Peter Pan won two but over three years, in 1932 and 1934.

Rain Lover was special, not just because I got to pat him but because he won his second Melbourne Cup with an unheard of weight increase of 9 kilograms! 

This was almost double the increases of the other horses in their second wins. 

He was carrying 60.5 kilograms.

(Top weight in today's Cup is 58.5kg)

For the genealogists, horses have family trees too, and Rain Lover, Think Big and Makybe Diva were all descendants of Carbine. 
Carbine holds the ‘weight-carrying record’ of 66 kilograms, for the 1890 Melbourne Cup where he defeated 39 starters and set a record for the race.

(Today's Cup has just 24 starters)

More than half of the Melbourne Cup winners, including Phar Lap, have been descendants of Carbine – quite a sire! 

Carbine’s skeleton is displayed at the Australian Racing Museum at Melbourne’s MCG.