The Pharlap of Braidwood

Braidwood's Archer with one of his owners, T.J. Roberts, 1862, by Frederick Woodhouse. Image: http://adb.anu.edu.au/essay/1

Legend, myth – and controversy – abound when it comes to the richest "two-mile" horse race in the world, the Melbourne Cup. Certainly there's rarely been a dull moment in its 158 year history.

Ridgy-didge is Pharlap being shot at prior to his 1930 win, and a 12-year-old jockey, Peter St Albans (he's regularly listed as 13, but the race was eight days before his birthday), securing victory in 1876 against the largest field at that point (33 horses; there'd be 39 in 1890).

It's the Canberra region that can boast one of its greatest claims though: the place that's apparently produced the highest number of Cup winners to date is the nearby heritage bastion of Braidwood, NSW.

An hour east of the nation's capital, the small town made famous as the setting for films such as the 1920 Robbery Under Arms and The Year My Voice Broke (1987), is responsible for turning out six of those who were first past the post. And that includes the first one ever.

* This somewhat confusing newspaper report suggests Braidwood already had six Melbourne Cup winners by 1889 - although working out which they were referring to is difficult, and one wouldn't win until 1981.

The inaugural Melbourne Cup of 1861 was won by a strapping, treacle-coloured stallion with an unusual gait and an equally unusual habit of hanging his tongue out the side of his mouth as he galloped.

The following year, Archer would win the newly instigated race back-to-back - with more than a few others in between, including the Melbourne Town Plate, also 2-miles, and run the day after his first Cup victory.

Thereafter, any number of tales more tall than true grew about him, perpetuated in print and on screen.

He didn't, as was widely held, walk to Melbourne to compete in that first race – though he may have walked as much as 250kms to get to various racetracks. Nor was his jockey, Johnny “Cutts” Dillon, an Aboriginal man from Nowra, but the son of a Sydney clerk with English heritage, who rode Archer for 16 of his 17 starts.

Archer was the product of a sire and a mare owned by cattle farmer Thomas Royds. Whether the horse was foaled at his property at Ballalaba or Exeter Farm, both just outside Braidwood on the road to Cooma, has also long been debated.

What's known for certain is that Royds suffered an untimely death at just 27 in a riding accident, four years before Archer arrived in 1856. Royds' widow, Betsy, remarried, and her new husband, Rowland Hassall, took over the horses in conjunction with her brother, Tom Roberts, who'd also inherited the farm, Exeter. (Royds' two sons would later sue their stepfather to have their rightful interests recognised).

In 1860, the long-striding, large-framed, three-year-old Archer, was leased to Etienne Livingstone de Mestre, "studmaster and turf identity" to be trained at his property on the Shoalhaven River, near Nowra. De Mestre would earn his own fame for winning five Cups, holding the record for almost a century until Bart Cummings overtook him in 1977 (12 in total; the only other to achieve five is Lee Freedman).

Trainer of five Melbourne Cup winners, including Archer, Etienne de Mestre.

Having run badly in his two openers, of the remaining 15 starts of Archer's career, the horse would never be out of the top three (12 wins, for one of which de Mestre himself would ride, three third placings).

The Cup of 1861 was a somewhat sombre affair, overshadowed by the news of the recent deaths of the explorers Burke and Wills in their expedition to traverse the continent from Melbourne in its nether regions, to the Gulf of Carpentaria at its top.

Some 4,000 spectators turned out to watch 17 contenders. Flemington Racecourse was in poor condition; in areas, “the grass was still three feet high”. Three horses fell, and two had to be destroyed. Another bolted, and jockeys were seriously hurt.

Just two weeks before, Archer had injured one of his legs. Nonetheless, despite it being the slowest ever run at 3min 52secs, he won by six lengths - and the foundations of a national event were laid.

For his second Cup, Archer took on 19 others – the largest field in Australia at that time - carrying a weight of 64kg (one of only 3 horses to win carrying 60+), at odds of 2-1. For this outing, the crowd numbered around 7,000. Coming from the back, he'd streak ahead by eight lengths.

Archer's 1862 winning margin remains unbeaten (not even Pharlap did it), while he and Peter Pan (1932, 1934) would be the only two horses to twice win the increasingly prestigious race until Rain Lover in 1968 (equalling Archer's 8-length margin at that time) and 1969. Archer beat out Mormon in both Cups and that quinella of the same two horses coming first and second two years in a row has never been replicated.

So, could Archer have done what only Makybe Diva has and pulled it off a third time?

In all likelihood, the answer to that one is yes.

And the failure to make the Melbourne Cup for the third consecutive year does have the whiff of a stitch-up.

After Archer's second major success in securing a purse of almost 1,000 sovereigns, there'd been much muttering about takings being lost from Victoria to NSW. Come the 1863 event and the Victorian Racing Club declared de Mestre's official entry hadn't arrived in time due to a public holiday. Archer was duly scratched. De Mestre was rightly furious.

Even if he had run, he would have been handicapped with the greatest weight on record – almost 72kgs (when Makybe Diva won her third, she was carrying 58kgs).

There were the fewest horses ever to compete in a Cup – just seven, other trainers apparently boycotting in solidarity with de Mestre – but either way, many believe he and his powerfully-built horse could have done it.

The year after, again on being injured, Archer would be retired. His final port of call and place of eventual death seven years later at the age of 16, was back where it started, at Exeter Farm.

Those thoroughbreds who would come after him and secure Braidwood's place in Cup lore: Tim Whiffler 1867 - curiously, one of two horses of the same name in that year, again trained by de Mestre, who relented on his vow never to enter another Melbourne Cup after the 1863 debacle; Warrior 1869; Calamia 1878 (de Mestre); Bravo 1889; and Just a Dash in 1981 (bred by Australian equestrian and Olympic champion Neale Lavis at his Braidwood stud).

[NB: De Mestre's other winner, was Chester, in 1877, owned by member of the NSW Legislative Assembly James White.]

For the1861/62 efforts, de Mestre took home a “hand-beaten gold watch” on each occasion. The first “cup” was presented in 1865; Braidwood can claim the second oldest surviving original, won by Tim Whiffler, now held in the National Museum as part of its Melbourne Cup collection. 2019 marks one hundred years since the introduction of the three-handled Cup as we know it (the race also didn't come to be run on the first Tuesday in November until 1875).

[NB: The $175,000, 18-carat gold Cup also visited Queanbeyan in 2013, for its 175th anniversary year. The regional city's last direct connection with the Melbourne Cup was 1996 when local jockey Brent Stanley rode Arctic Scent, having ridden the galloper to victory in the Caulfield Cup a fortnight earlier.]

Tim Whiffler's 1867 Cup, in the collection of the NMA.

Out Braidwood way, there's a bridge and a picnic spot thought to be named for Archer. The Royds family descendants have a painting by renowned horse portraitist, Frederick Woodhouse, believed to be of the big galloper and his jockey, Johnny, who predeceased his charge by just three months.

At the Braidwood Museum, there's a tribute in honour of both Archer and the district's impressive racing pedigree, and Nowra's racecourse also bears his name.

Given its wide, rolling valleys, plentiful acreage and vitalising nature, are there yet more regional champions destined to enter those internationally recognised barriers?