THE MELBOURNE CUP. (From the "Argus.")

Te Aroha News, Volume IV, Issue 178, 13 November 1886, Page 1

THE MELBOURNE CUP. (From the "Argus.")

With a pull at the bell-rope, Mr Mile* gives the signal to prepare for the great race of the year, and the Melbourne Cap for 1886 i» about to be run under happy auspices. In thr- paddock on Derby Day it was not difficult to get a glimpse of all the three-year-olds in turn, but he who wishes to see much of a Cup field before the start must not let the grass grow beneath his feet. Long before the time of saddling or starting people clustered about the end of the avenue or bottleneck leading to the paddock, flere the Cup horses, which have bt-en kept in their boxes until the last moment, come filing through smothered in hoods and barred blankets. The lads riding or guiding them are subject to a crossfire of interrogations from either side—a perpetual 4 What's that?"-and in the serious spirit of the hour they generally give the correct answer. Only the legs of the horses are to be seen beneath the rugs, but the le^s of a Cup hor3e are hia interesting features. The crown worked in one eaddle-cloth with three horseshoes interlinked beneath it, fixed oue of the Lord Carrington's horsed plainly enough, but few owners put even their initials ftpon their horsecleths. Many people aeizj the opportunity when the Kensington Stakes ie being run to get an uninterrupted view ot the Cup horses, and the loyalty of the stable lads in wearing the colours of their employers is a great assistance to cadual race-goere in identifying the horses.

In the Paddock. The filing out from the paddock could hardly be called a parade in this case, one or two straggling out amongst the troopers and tha crowd loug before the course was cleared, and a dozen others uppearing en masse after a long interval. The brown huree, Kecall, with his mane in plaits, and hia stout haunches shining, was an improvod animal as compared with the R§call of the < aulfield Cup. Buolka carried hie red and white jacket next, but Saturday was deemed to have blighted his prospects. The etout South Australian colt leonomy, as he moved along, gave the impression of substance and lasting power" rather than pace. Tha deep bay, with flowing black mane and tail, waa muscular almost as a roadster, and as he ambled up the straight, the easy-rocking-chair action of an old stock horse was suggested. Gold and black were hie colours, but so far his spring career had been all gold The Cup race was to represent the duller tone. The burst of cheering told that old Commotion, was next m the train. For at leant two hours before the race the horse under the lower t-heds was ringed about with adiniriog friends, the old fellow, as usual, with his ears back, threatening to eat any one who came within reach of his teeth. He came oue with one foreleg in white bandage?, and, although bright and fairly hard, bore in his superfluous flesh evidence of indulgence on the training ground. Crossfire, as an Oaks filly, gained some little attention, and after yesterday she will bo more noticed than ever. Jack Roach, the light weight of the race, followed on her heels. Everyone had a chance of seeing Silvermine in the paddock, McGrade being ihe first jockey down from the weighing-room. Mr White's three came through the passage together, the Derby winner, with Hales in the baddle, leading, and the nervoue-looking pony Hexham bringing up the rear. Even the Derby winner was overshadowed in height by Monte Christo. When thia horse was firat seen at Flemington, a lumbering overgrown foal amongst the starters for the Maribyrnong Plate in the Spring of 1884, everyone said, " What a four-year-old he will be." Yet here he was a four-year old, and still as unsatisfactory in his doings as the silver-t/roy Despot, whom in colour he bo much resembles. Mr Barnard rather flattered this big son of Chester wheu he gave him Sst to carry, JN either Little John nor hia colour was saowy, yet how many eyes were rivited upon him a& he came alon^r, and many wondered whether Crac knell was to repeat the Darriwell coup. The Western hor^e has something of the bulldog in his appearance. In his opening gallop he propped along in euch extraoidinary fashion that no one was much enamoured of his pace. JSext in the line and most conspicuous was Metal, a grand up standing brown horse, who would bo invincible in a show ring. Cyclopg ia growing m-re like his relative Malua bYery day, the colour and points of the two horses being wonderfully alike. Not a few in the paddock mistook the one-eyed horse for the Ingliston crack. Myall King and Lancer passed out without much notice, and theu came Arsenal, every inch an aristocrat. The brown horse bad a most commanding carriage, holding hia head high like Grace Darling, and with a re ia that, would have doubled the value of a park horso. Malua, carrying his owner, comes next. Few horaes have carried hia weight in the Melbourne Cup, though back in the, sixties, Archer, the first great Cap winner, carried 21b. more, with the all , black jacket, to victory against a field ot nineteen. When the struggle of chestnuts was at its climax on Saturday, this greatest of St. Albans, sons was taking a two-milea gallop on the training grounds light under the very noses of touts and backors absorbed in the race for the blue riband. It fceema a most legitimate ambition for a racing man to ride hia own horse, but Mr Inglis only took the mount when every effort to get 9 firstclass professional horseman failed. For a time backers of the horee were cheered by the rumour that Batty would ride him, and the Cup course would have been no novelty to the steeplechase jockey, for he rode Wollomai to victory in 187b, theyear following that memorable spring when Ash worth with his famous Melbourne rush Bnatched the Derby from Stockbridge and Batty. Close upon the great gun came Brayo, a light clean-looking bay, in shape not unlike Plausible, the third horse for the Cup in Malua's year. The forehead band of the horse'a bridle was mitred with the stable colours, cardinal, and gold. Th&

chestnut colt Lord William carried a mauve jacket corded with red. The traditions of the race were against his colour. Until Saturday, when the "chesinut Derby" was run, no horee of the colour had won the race,'and the only chestnut, that ever won the Melbourne Cup wasGlencoe. Britisher's Ught bay skin shone with the gloss of a superb condition, and the blood-like son of John Bull seemed fit td race for a fortune. The rumours floating, about the paddock placed^im^as the first horse of the Powling Forest contingent for this occasion. Sheet. Ancnor, looking stout, bright, and maecular, followed his stable companion. Long before the race a score of mining speculators were patiently waiting on the benches where Mr Loughlins horses always saddle, to get a look at the districts crack. The winner of the last Melbourne Gup carried, io addition to 171b of extra weight, some marks of his hurdle race experiences On his fore leg just above the knee one of the Grand National hurdles had left a little hillock, while the graze of a batten was also noticeable above his stifle joint. Highland Chief, as one of the fcrlora division, had no frieude, but the next horee received much notice, and deserved it all. When Trenton last appeared at Flemington it was .in colours that have been worthily borne in many a hard-run race. All Victorians associate the rose and black stripes with Mr Hurtle Fisher's memorable, victories. What memories that racing jacket invoked ! It eeemed to bring into association with the great racers of today the names of Angler, Seagull, Charon, Lantern, Lady Heron, Sour Grapes, Explosion, Fiplioak, Nathalie, and Foneila. The orange jacket now borne by Trenton has yet to gain distinction. It had been easy enough to pick him out in the paddock.' A yellow flower through hid bridle, the white and orange scarf of the stable boy, and the initials on the horse rug all helped to identify Trenton. Grace Darling, in moving with her head high in the air, her legs cloee to the ground, has a stride as characteristic as the action of Malua himself. Both seem to glide over the turf, in contrast to those horses who pound it when gallopiner. Grace Darling's ■table companion, The Ghost, is a t> pical specimen of the pile driving raceheree. Ben Bolt, who was led into the paddock just as the bell struck for starting the Kensing ton Stakes, was late in the train, the Caulfield Cup winner, with his squarely cut tail and peculiarly arching crest, suggesting, in appearance, those pictures of English flyers that adorn the pages of the "Sporting and Dramatic News." Bohemian was next, his dark brown coat barely relieved by a few silver thread* in his flowing tail. The horse'e fore legs had a bulbous look, by no means suggestive of bars of sti-el, and he limped most decidedly in his opening breather. Last of all was Meteor, his jockey in the white, black sleeves, and cherry cap, worn by Nicholson in his last race. j j ! I I i

The Race. As the horses ranged in line, a crowd of people gathered behind them, and before anyone tfould pick out the positions, they came without a waver into line, the red flag fell, and to a splendid etnrr the Cup horsea were in motion. The great performers seemed to come to the front in a body, Trident, Malua, and Commotion threading out of the cluster, and leading the charge. At the tan the gold jacket, on Silvermine, was the foremost point in the mass of colour, and on his left flanks showed faintly the green spots on a white ground of Recall. The Caulfield Cup favourites were making the pace, as Britisher and Boolka also could be picked out of the front division as the field came to the tan crossing. As tu3 hordes Passed the Stand. oniveraui attention coutred on the dark horse Little John, who was plodding along, 50 yards behind any other in the race, and already most dcci eivety beaten. The dust that {lew from beneath the horses' feet bhowed that the tun was firm and fast. Rounding the curve -to the rwer Bravo went up to Silvermine, but the Sydney horee disputed possession for an instant only, and us ho retired Arsenal appeored arnorjgst the leaders. Under cover of a cloud of dust by the bridges changes took place that no race-glaes could have noted, the one thing manifest to all being the forward dash of Hexham, whom Huxley was driving along In the interests of Trident. When the fi eld frtrung out, and became a confused line of colour in the distance, it suggested faintly the idea of some great coloured centipede, with it hundred legs dangling under the white railing that marked the course. The horses were gallopiner hard, but nofc yet racing. The riders were eitting npriuht, their arms rigid with the strum on the oit, the loose silken sleeves throbbing in the wind. One or two in the leidinjr division were shaking their heads and clinking their bits in protest aguinst the irkfiome tension of the bridle rein.

As the Back Was Gained, Arsenal was drawing up slowly, very slowly; a great many mistaking the colours for the gold and black bars of Isonomy. The gallant little Hexham still held his own, and, as the leading horees quickened, the chestnut, too, strode along faster than ever, and held his place. After passing this point the Derby winner showed for the first time in the front of the group, Hale'e blue jacket being flanked by the cardinal of Kitawa and the gold of Silvermine. Isonomy, though nearing the end of the mile and a half that was supposed to be his limit, yet galloped strongly. In the first dozen, as they turned

Into the Bend, were the colours of at least three horeee whose victory meant ruin for the ring. Trident had taken third place; the red and black jacket of Ben Bolt, confuted for A moment with the somewhat similar costume on Myall King, waß moving watily on the outer edge of the crush, exactly as it waß carried in the approaches to the straight at Caulfield ; and the brilliant orange-of Trenton appeared like the jacket of a second jockey on Meteor, immediately to vhe left of the New Zealandor. There is h moment of doubt as the horses run obliquely towards the crowd, and the lea* i erg appear only as part of a line in which no horse holds advantage. Loungers On the long, cool grass of the bend had a glimpse through the dust of the staring ©yea and wide red nostrils of the horses, and of a dozen facee, rigid and serious and white with the intense strain of those flying three minutes. One rider, a mere flash of blue in the ruck, screams something to a right-hand rival, and just as the whips begin to crack like the flying sparks of a bush fire, the 28 horses plunge out Into the Straight, And in full view of tho thousands wheel for home, ' Two of Mr White's horses are in front. Hexham has done his work well, and still struggles gamely at the head of the field. Like Volcano in the Derby, the little horse is being ridden out. At his heelß is Arsenal, still a stranger to thousands; Trident is third, the brighter chesnut Lord William almost at his side. Bilvermine partly obscures the half mourning of the filly Crossfire, and three great horses in Trenton, Ben Bolt, and

Sheet Anchor are all side by side, both I Colley and Robertson hustling their 1 horeoe forward for a final run. From half way down the race was hardly ever in doubt. Hexham gave up the lead to Arsenakand then Trident made bis effort. "VTFor a minute, as the people shouted Ms ,nam©,in,,the froDzyA^hat .take's possession of ther^crpwd in; the If st'^ few seconds, of the struggle,' x the Derby Ahorse Beemedjto be gaining, bu:;b a.doien atiides showed, Jhat he could never reach the post With AWe'nal/^RdbertPon, on Trenton; had ridden hard almost from the turn, »and when Sheet Anchor failed, only Trenton and Silvertnine wore at a dangerous. The bay horfae outlasted the black and «- coming From the Distance with a final rush on the outride, £ot within a long neck of the leader as the poßt was gained. -*■ < - Arsenal had Won, but ap he came back to the weighing sheds scarcely a cheer except, the plaudits from the ring, was raised in his honour, Robertson, most unfortunate of horcetuai in having so often had to content himself with second in a big race, had to lift his hat to rounds of ringing cheers— a compliment to both horse and rider. Silvermine, the greatest place horse in Australia, * was third, and Trident next to him,! so that although beaten, the favourites made a gallant struggle. It was something of a coincidence that the Derby winner of thin year should have, finished in exactly the same place as that tilted in the last Cnp race by Nordenfeldt, winner of that year 8 Derby. When Arsenal was led along the lawn after the race there was an ominous huth, which told tout tbo winners by this eon of Goldsbrough were tew and far between. The silence seemed an undeserved slight upou, a handeome horse, who had won a most genuine race, though the time was a couple of seconds slower than Sheet Anchor's record of last year.