THE MELBOURNE CUP.

Oamaru Mail, Volume I, Issue 173, 9 November 1876, Page 2

THE MELBOURNE CUP.

From some unaccountable reason, the telegram which announced the victory of Briseis was entirely mute as to the second and third horses, and it. was not until late last night that the. intelligence arrived. This was somewhat annoying,. as in most big sweeps a prize is generally allotted to both second and third, and a good deal oi curiosity consequently existed to find out the winners. It may not be out of place to mention that the Victoria Racing Club give £SO to the second, and £2O to the third horse in the Cup race. THE CUP. Briseis... ... ... ... 1 Sybil 2 Timothy 3 Time, 3 min. sees. Thirty-one horses started. A grand race, won by three lengths. From the columns of yesterday's Guardian we extract the following fist of the winners of the Cup since its inauguration : min. sec IS6'. De Mestre's Archer ... 3 52 1862, De Mestre's Archer ... 3 47 1863. Harper's Banker 3 44 1564. Fisher's Lantern 3 52 1865. Marshall's Toryboy ... 3 44 1866. Tait's The Bard 3 43 1867. De Mestre's Tim Whiffler...- 3 39 1868. Ta:t's Glencoe ... ... 3 42 ißii9. Saqui's Warrior 3 40 1870. Craig's Nimblefoot 3 37 1871. Tait'd The I'earl 3 39 1872. Tait's The Quack 3 39 187;-. Johnson's Don Juan ... 3 36 1874. Chiruside's Haricot ... 3 37 1575. Sharpe's Wollomai 3 38 1876. Wilson's Briseis 3 36J Only on one occasion has the " favorite" carried off the Cup, and that was in the case of Archer. For the last eight years the Cup has been won by outsiders, more or less. Toryboy started at 50 to 1, and 100 to 1 was laid against-The Pearl on the day of the race. Warrior started at 15 to 1, and that year Circsssian started at 3 to 1 and less. Metropolitan winners have proved delusions for the Melbourne Cup, although heaps of money have been thrown away upon them year after year at 3 to 1, ai' witness Circassian, Croydon in 1870, Dagworth, &c. Nitnblefoot was at 50 to 1, and in fact any odds a week before the Cup race, although his -winning the Hotham Handicap pulled Mm up to 15 or 20 to 1. The year The Pearl won nothing would go down but Pyrrhus, at 3to 1, A little before the Cup race of 1873, a party of gentlemen went down to. Wilson's, at St. Alban's, to look at Don Juan, and unanimously agreed that he was a carthorse, which it was a farce to start for the Cup. Nevertheless he did it in the quickest time on record. Haricot, never mentioned in the beHzng, ran clean away from everything in the race.