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1954 Melbourne Cup
The 1954 Melbourne Cup was a two-mile handicap horse race which took place on Tuesday, 2 November 1954. Rising Fast became the first and to date only horse to complete The Spring Grand Slam by winning the Caulfield Cup and Cox Plate before winning the Melbourne Cup which was part of a string of seven straight wins. Behind him was 7/1 shot Hellion by 1 1/4 lengths and 200/1 outsider Gay Helios. The race is also noteworthy because the great racecaller Bill Collins called his first Melbourne Cup. This is the list of placegetters for the 1954 Melbourne Cup. See also * Melbourne Cup * List of Melbourne Cup winners * Victoria Racing Club References 1954 Events January * January 1 – The Soviet Union ceases to demand war reparations from West Germany. * January 3 – The Italian broadcaster RAI officially begins transmitting. * January 7 – Georgetown-IBM experiment: The fir ... Melbourne Cup Melbourne Cup 20th century in Melbourne 1950s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Melbourne Cup
The Melbourne Cup is a Thoroughbred horse race held in Melbourne, Australia. It is a 3200-metre race for three-year-olds and over, conducted by the Victoria Racing Club on the Flemington Racecourse in Melbourne, Victoria as part of the Melbourne Spring Racing Carnival. It is the richest "two-mile" handicap in the world and one of the richest turf races. The event starts at 3:00 pm on the first Tuesday of November and is known locally as "the race that stops the nation". The Melbourne Cup has a long tradition, with the first race held in 1861. It was originally run over but was shortened to in 1972 when Australia adopted the metric system. This reduced the distance by , and Rain Lover's 1968 race record of 3:19.1 was accordingly adjusted to 3:17.9. The present record holder is the 1990 winner Kingston Rule with a time of 3:16.3. Qualifying and race conditions The race is a quality handicap for horses three years old and over, run over a distance of 3200 metres ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Flemington Racecourse
Flemington Racecourse is a major horse racing venue located in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It is most notable for hosting the Melbourne Cup, which is the world's richest handicap and the world's richest 3200-metre horse race. The racecourse is situated on low alluvial flats, next to the Maribyrnong River. The area was first used for horse racing in March 1840. Overview The Flemington Racecourse site comprises 1.27 square kilometres of Crown land. The course was originally leased to the Victoria Turf Club in 1848, which merged with the Victoria Jockey Club in 1864 to form the Victoria Racing Club. The first Melbourne Cup was run in 1861. In 1871 the Victoria Racing Club Act was passed, giving the VRC legal control over Flemington Racecourse. The racecourse is pear-shaped, and boasts a six-furlong (1,200 m) straight known as 'the Straight Six.' The track has a circumference of and a final straight of for race distances over . Races are run in an anti-clock ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rising Fast
Rising Fast (1949 - 1978) was a champion New Zealand-bred Thoroughbred racehorse who is the only horse to complete the Spring Grand Slam, winning the Melbourne Cup, Caulfield Cup, and Cox Plate in 1954. He also won the 1955 Caulfield Cup and came second in the 1955 Melbourne Cup. Breeding Rising Fast was bred by brothers Frank and Bruce Robertson at their Platform Lodge farm at Greytown in the Wairarapa. He was a bay or brown gelding by Alonzo (GB) and from the mare Faster, by Mr. Standfast. Alonzo was a poorly performed racehorse having only won one race on the flat and one over the hurdles in England. Faster was unplaced at her only two starts, but produced seven winners from ten foals. Rising Fast was purchased at the 1950 New Zealand National Sales for 325 guineas by first time racehorse owner, Leicester R. Spring. 1954 racebook Image:1954 VRC Melbourne Cup Racebook P1.jpg, Front cover of the 1954 VRC Melbourne Cup racebook. Image:1954 VRC Melbourne Cup Racebook P2.jp ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jack Purtell
John Michael Purtell (1921 – 8 March 2017) was an Australian jockey who rode three Melbourne Cup winners. Career Purtell, also known as 'Gentleman Jack’, rode his first race in 1936 at the age of 15. He was an apprentice jockey to Ted Temby at his Mordialloc, Victoria stables. He won his first race on Bonus at Mentone, Victoria in April 1937. Purtell rode more than 1700 winners including three Melbourne Cups. He was suspended only once. The best horse he rode was Comic Court to 19 wins even though he opted not to ride it in the 1950 Melbourne Cup. He won seven Melbourne Jockey Premierships – 1946/47, 1948/49, 1949/50, 1950/51, 1954/55, 1960/61 and 1961/62. In January 1953, he suffered severe head injuries in a race fall at Caulfield Racecourse. Purtell rode Fighting Force when it triple dead-heated with both Pandie Sun and Ark Royal in the 1956 Hotham Handicap, a rare event in racing. He retired in 1966 at the age of 45 and he became a Stipendiary Steward at the Vic ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1953 Melbourne Cup
Events January * January 6 – The Asian Socialist Conference opens in Rangoon, Burma. * January 12 – Estonian émigrés found a government-in-exile in Oslo. * January 14 ** Marshal Josip Broz Tito is chosen President of Yugoslavia. ** The CIA-sponsored Robertson Panel first meets to discuss the Unidentified flying object, UFO phenomenon. * January 15 – Georg Dertinger, foreign minister of East Germany, is arrested for spying. * January 19 – 71.1% of all television sets in the United States are tuned into ''I Love Lucy'', to watch Lucy give birth to Little Ricky, which is more people than those who tune into Dwight Eisenhower's inauguration the next day. This record has yet to be broken. * January 20 – Dwight D. Eisenhower is First inauguration of Dwight D. Eisenhower, sworn in as the 34th President of the United States. * January 24 ** Mau Mau Uprising: Rebels in Kenya kill the Ruck family (father, mother, and six-year-old son). ** Leadership of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
1955 Melbourne Cup
Events January * January 3 – José Ramón Guizado becomes president of Panama. * January 17 – , the first nuclear-powered submarine, puts to sea for the first time, from Groton, Connecticut. * January 18– 20 – Battle of Yijiangshan Islands: The Chinese Communist People's Liberation Army seizes the islands from the Republic of China (Taiwan). * January 22 – In the United States, The Pentagon announces a plan to develop intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), armed with nuclear weapons. * January 23 – The Sutton Coldfield rail crash kills 17, near Birmingham, England. * January 25 – The Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union announces the end of the war between the USSR and Germany, which began during World War II in 1941. * January 28 – The United States Congress authorizes President Dwight D. Eisenhower to use force to protect Formosa from the People's Republic of China. February * February 10 – The United States Seventh Fleet helps ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bill Collins (racecaller)
William Henry Collins OAM (23 September 1928 – 14 June 1997) was an Australian racecaller and radio and television personality who earned the reputation for being able to accurately call the winner of even the closest of races. Known as "The Accurate One", he was well known for his call of the Melbourne Cup each year. One of his most notable commentaries was the 1986 Cox Plate, dubbed the " Race of the Century". Collins also called important races internationally including the UK, US, South Africa, New Zealand, Hong Kong and Singapore. Collins died on 14 June 1997 from cancer. Radio and television broadcasting Collins' radio career began in the early 1950s in Sale, Victoria, and in 1953 he moved to Melbourne where he worked as a racecaller for the radio station 3DB, and appeared on television hosting the musical comedy program '' Sunnyside Up'' at HSV-7, leading to a Logie Award in 1959 for ''Outstanding Performance''. He would later host the Saturday Night "Seven's Pen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Handicap (horse Racing)
A handicap race in horse racing is a race in which horses carry different weights, allocated by the handicapper. A better horse will carry a heavier weight, to give it a disadvantage when racing against slower horses. The skill in betting on a handicap race lies in predicting which horse can overcome its handicap. Although most handicap races are run for older, less valuable horses, this is not true in all cases; some great races are handicaps, such as the Grand National steeplechase in England and the Melbourne Cup in Australia. In the United States over 30 handicap races are classified as Grade I, the top level of the North American grading system. Handicapping in action In a horse handicap race (sometimes called just "handicap"), each horse must carry a specified weight called the impost, assigned by the racing secretary or steward based on factors such as past performances, so as to equalize the chances of the competitors. To supplement the combined weight of jockey and s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Spring Grand Slam
{{Refimprove, date=April 2008 The Spring Grand Slam is a series of three Thoroughbred horse races held in Australia each Southern Hemisphere spring. The series consists of the Caulfield Cup, the Cox Plate, and the Melbourne Cup. There is no official Triple Crown for these Melbourne races, but racing fans consider these three Group 1 races to be the major interconnected component of the spring carnival package, while also acknowledging that only a superhorse could win them all in the same season to complete a grand slam. The only horse to win the Spring Grand Slam is the New Zealand-bred champion Rising Fast. About the Spring Grand Slam The "Spring Grand Slam" in Melbourne is considered by some in the racing industry to be more difficult to win than the famous Triple Crown in the United States because the Australian races contain many more variables. The Triple Crown — involving the Kentucky Derby, Preakness Stakes and Belmont Stakes — is contested only by three-y ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Caulfield Cup
The Caulfield Cup is a Melbourne Racing Club Group 1 Thoroughbred horse race held under handicap conditions, although the Melbourne Racing Club is in the process of turning the race into weight for age (WFA) conditions. This is for all horses aged three years old and older. It takes place over a distance of 2400 metres at the Caulfield Racecourse, Melbourne, Australia in mid October. The prize money is A$5,000,000. History The race has become one of Australia's richest Thoroughbred horse races. The race is held annually on the third Saturday in October, the third day and final day of the Caulfield Carnival. Performances in the Caulfield Cup are one of the possible qualification methods for a run in the Melbourne Cup which is held 16 days later. During World War II the race was run at Flemington Racecourse and in 1943 the race was run in divisions. Race qualification The field is limited to 18 starters with four emergency entries which is decided by a ballot system. The ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cox Plate
The W. S. Cox Plate is a Group 1 Thoroughbred horse race for horses aged three years old and over under Weight for age conditions, over a distance of 2040 metres (approximately 1m 2f), that is held by the Moonee Valley Racing Club at Moonee Valley Racecourse, Melbourne, Australia in late October. The race has a purse of A$5,000,000. History The race is named in honour of William Samuel (W. S.) Cox, the racing club's founder. It was first run on Saturday 28 October 1922 with a purse of £1,000. Between 1999–2005 the event was included in the Emirates World Series Racing Championship, a global "grand prix" of horse racing. The series included the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot, the Japan Cup, the Dubai World Cup, the Arlington Million, the Hong Kong Cup, the Canadian International Stakes, the Grosser Preis von Baden, the Irish Champion Stakes, the Breeders' Cup Turf and the Breeders' Cup Classic. 1938 & 1948 racebooks Image:193 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
List Of Melbourne Cup Winners
This is a list of the winners of the Melbourne Cup. The Melbourne Cup is Australia's major thoroughbred horse race. It is run at Flemington Racecourse in Melbourne. Each year, internationally bred or owned horses compete in the race. Since 1882, New Zealand–bred horses have won 40 Melbourne Cups, British-bred horses five, American-bred horses four, Irish-bred horses four, German and French-bred horses two each, and Japanese-bred horses one. Retrieved on 2009-7-25 Winners * The shortest-priced favourite in Cup history was when he won in 1930 at 8-11 ($1.72). * |
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