MELBOURNE GOSSIP.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXI, Issue 2561, 8 December 1888, Page 2 (Supplement)

MELBOURNE GOSSIP.

(FROM OUK OWN I'ORRESI'ON'DKNT.)

Sir; transit gloria mundi —that is, for niuiiili't read Cup. The Flemington saturnalia has come and gone ; and racing saddles are laid by ; the settling up has been effected ; the cup dresses are carefully put away ; the crowds have departed whence they came ; and now Flemington and its verdant amphitheatre lies deserted and alone, to recover from the crush and onslaught of ten times ten thousand invaders. Vnd so geht cs in tier welt— and so it goes—as my friend the German consul says ; and " pleasures pass and fade away." I think the Flemington Spring meeting will long be memorable in the annals of colonial racing, for unprecedented numbers of eager visitors witnessed it. I see it is computed that not less than 100.000 people witnessed the Cup race, and f can well believe it, for such black masses of heads on Hill, Flat and Stand I have never seen before. Strange to say, the first race meeting iu Melbourne took place just fifty years ago. I know two or three who remember it well. Could any greater contrast be imagined than then and now—than the primitive meeting on Batman's Hill in '3S, with its attendance of some two or three hundred, and the magnificent Flemington function of '88 with its crush of 100,000?

But the Cup !—the great Melbourne Cup ! Let me to it, for as everyone knows, it is the piece de resistance of the meeting. It is a bye-word throughout the length and breadth of Australia, frotn Cape Yorkc to Wilson's promontory ; from coaly Newcastle to far Roeburn ; in Northern Queensland cattle camps ; in smiling Tasmania ; in beauteous New Zealand ;in Fiji; in India ;in England—in fact, all over the Englishspeaking world. As our dear, dead Gordon says :

I hold him worse than an ass, Who shakes his head at a nick on the post, Or a quick thing over the jjrass. and so, without apology, I "go for " the Melbourne Cup, to the utter exclusion of everything else. It was run and won in Queen's weather. Derby Day, two days prior to it, was dreadfully sultry, and individuals of a despoudent turn of mind predicted awful weather for the great race-day. But good fortune ruled the day, and the weather was simply idyllic —cool, sunshiny, and with a soft south wind blowing, no dust about, and not a fleck or cloud in the azure sky. Par consequent, everybody was keen for enjoyment ; spirits ran high ; the ladies' dresses were perfection ; and in short, the great race was run under the most favourable auspices. Why, so contagious was the popular good-temper, that even a halfdrunken reprobate on the Flat being led off under sife convoy by a policeman, reflected it iu a humorous way. He had been kicking up a row in some way, and was being led off handcuffed." " Hooroo!" he yelled, holding up his handcuffed wrists as he passed the judge's box. " Ye'vo come to see the Cup, but I'm going to the Darbies." Twenty-eight horses faced the starter almost in front of the stand—twentyeight beautiful creatures iu the very pink of equine perfection. "Go!" yelled Mr Watson on his pot-bellied cob, and a roar from ten times ten thousand throats rose in the air as eight-and-twenty bodies sprang off at the word, and thundered past in a close column. Then the huge assembly seemed to be strnck as though dumb, every eye following the racing field, every heart beating high. This for about ten seconds, and then the flit shouts encouragement the lawn murmurs, the hill resounds with the names of the horses. The big bay Cyclops is seen in the front; Bravo tries to carry his yellow and black diamonds away from the ruck ; Carlyon is seen lying low to the ground and racing like a steam-engine; the stout Mentor keeps to the fore, Tradition just behind, There is not much of a tail till the hill round tho turn is mounted. Then one or two of the light-weights forge ahead, and a couple are seen to drop hopelessly in the rear. Race-glasses begin to tremble in excited hands, and one man just iu front of me, with a fearfully white face, dashes his down with a curse. His trembling hand refuses to hold them. And now the excitement culminates, and a continuous hoarse roar resounds from flat and stand, aud is echood and thrown bank from the hill. The leaders are round the turn. A few brief moments now and all will be over. Round they sweep, the jockeys' colours well nigh indistinguishable iu the melee. A magpie jacket aud scarlet cap is seen in the lead for a moment. Maroon and silver comes next. A black and white rider makes a sudden dash and forges ahead ; blue and white seems galloping strongly on the outside. "Tradition! Tradition!" screams someone. "The Yeoman wins ! The Yeoman!" " A pony on Mentor," brays a fat bookmaker, hoarsely, throwing his hat in the air. Louder and louder grows the din. Nearer aud nearer the post sweeps the field. A last keen cut with the whip, a final dig of the dripping spurs —and then only one name is hsard. "Mentor! Mentor !" and the Melbourne Cup of 'SS is over. It was a fine race —as good a one as I remember seeing, and was cleverly won, too. Mick O'Brien rode the winner, and he deserved his success, for ho rode him like an artist. Mentor is the property of Mr Donald Wnlhwi', l.hau whom there is not a morn popular spiirtsmnn in Australia. It is said he won i' 23,000 over tho raco. Lucky man! truly the gods have blessed him. lie has health, good looks, wealth and youth. He is for tho moment the most famous man on the coutincnt, and is blessed with tho most beautiful wife a man could desire. Mrs Donald Wallace, who is a well-known leader of fashion in Melbourne, is supposed to be the best dresser in this gay city. Sho is tall, blonde, and graceful, with a wealth of golden hair, and the carriage of an empress. Fortunate husband and beautiful wife ! truly their star ir in the ascendant. Everyone knows Mick O'Brien, tho jock, and all who know anything about racing remember his triumph on Le Grand and Sheet Anchor, how he won the Champion on tho former, and how in '8-3 ho steered tho latter to victory in the Melbourne Cup after one of tho most exciting finishes on record. He is hardly less popular than Tommy Hales himself, and his win was about as popular a one as there could havo been. He told mo himself, (but unluckily after tho race) that he had had tho greatest confidence in Mentor all through, and had backed him for some £5,000—50 that he nets a nice little thing out of it, does Master Mick, more phower to him !

And so passed the glory of the Cup. Its ashes are now laid ; but its eifects are not quite over. " Were you out at the races:'" I asked of an editorial friend, meeting him in Collins-street yesterday.

" Out !" he grunted in reply ; " yes—out of pocket," and this, I tim afraid, is what many and many are. Not that the Cup was such a good thing' for the bookies ; for Mentor was very heavily bucked. But then nine or ten other horses carried a lot of money, and somehow everybody I meet seems to have been unfertunato. The Oaks day, on the Thursday following the Cup, and the Steeplechase day, on the subsequent Saturday, were better for baokers ; but for both these important races the odds were very small, and hardly gave a choice for recouping. I enjoyed the Oaks day immensely, and it is a pleasanter function than tho Cup- It is the " Indies " day, and thero is not the crush and scramble that marks the othor. Tho race, too, which camo down to a mere match between the Hon. James White's Volley and the New Xoalander, Peavlshell, was enjoyable, for it mount the rivalry of two splendid fillies. The clever Mick O'Brien again rode the winner, the little New Zealander.

A " Cup " yarn to finish np with, which a proas friend told inn with infinite gusto on the course. He ha I come in company with, a lu'euch jrtutleman just out from Marseilles* on Exhibition business, and had npouf nil day pil-1 Rg him about and cfplniuing things, lirforc the Cup was

run, my friend went early to secure two seats mi tliß statu], and so "Mimn-eer' 1 and ho saw it all very comfortably fr)m their post of vantage, the Frenchman watched the race with the utmost attention, cheering lustily the while, and when it was all over, turned to his companion, and said, " Jiun T)ien [ mon ami. Never have I seen such politeness as in Australia. Tho people actually take off their hats at the finish." Aud until it was explained to him, he was lost in a whirl of admiration.