Six great Cupsets

SIX THINGS: The Melbourne Cup is notoriously hard to pick, but some years have been downright impossible...

6. Efficient (2007)

If Efficient had won the 2006 Melbourne Cup, no one would have been as surprised as punters when he actually won it a year later. In the spring of 2006, Efficient was unstoppable, winning five consecutive races, including the Group Two AAMI Vase at Moonee Valley and the Victoria Derby by two and a half lengths. He was entered in that year's Melbourne Cup, but was withdrawn when he didn't recover well enough from his Derby run.

By contrast, Efficient's 2007 spring campaign was a shocker, starting with the Group Two Memsie Stakes at Caulfield where he finished 10th, seven lengths behind race winner Miss Finland. At his next start he finished fourth in the Dato Tan Chin Nam Stakes, which was a sign of improvement, but he then ran unplaced in the Group One Turnbull Stakes and three weeks later finished ninth in the Cox Plate.

The grey gelding's poor form saw him enter the Cup with just 54.5 kilograms on his back, which was a huge bonus, as was the decision to reunite him with jockey Michael Rodd for the first time since his Victoria Derby win in 2006. The move paid dividends as Rodd sat back in the field early before pulling out to run home in the closing stages, beating Purple Moon by half a length, and becoming the first horse since Phar Lap to win the Melbourne Cup the year after winning the Victoria Derby.

5. Viewed (2008)

Bart Cummings' most recent Melbourne Cup triumph was perhaps his most surprising. He had two horses in the race, with Moatize thought to be the serious chance after winning the Saab Quality three days earlier. Viewed had won the Brisbane Cup, but was not considered in the same class as most of the rest of the field and started at odds of 40/1. In the end the race was one of the closest in Cup history, with Viewed just beating home fancied international runner Bauer in a photo finish. Electronic timing devices placed inside the saddle cloths of the horses showed that Bauer had actually run the race 0.01 seconds faster than Viewed. Cummings picked up his 12th Melbourne Cup win and his fourth in partnership with owner Dato Tan Chin Nam.

4. Rimfire (1948)

Students of sports trivia will know that this was the first Melbourne Cup decided using a photo finish, and it brought a mountain of controversy. Rimfire was a 66/1 long shot and was awarded the win ahead of 10/1 Dark Marne, which was well backed and appeared to have burst through on the rails for a win. Punters and Dark Marne’s jockey Jack Thompson swear that the camera got it wrong on the day. Six months later a similar controversy arose during the running of the Australia Cup and the camera was re-aligned.

3. Old Rowley (1940)

Old Rowley was a good, not great, racehorse in his day, but 1940 was not considered his day. By that time he was thought of as well past his prime and just making up the numbers in the Melbourne Cup field. Bookies rated him a 100/1 shot, which was probably justified seeing as he hadn't won a race since winning the AJC Plate over 3600 metres (now the AJC Queen Elizabeth Stakes over 2000 metres) in 1938. Further doubts over Old Rowley's credentials were raised with his poor showing in the Hotham Handicap (now the Lexus Stakes), but owner-trainer Jack Scully said the horse had suffered a bruised heel, requiring a lot of work to get him fit for the Cup. Whatever Scully did, it paid off as Old Rowley went on to win by three-quarters of a length from Maikai. Papers at the time described Old Rowley as "one of the plainest horses to win a Melbourne Cup".

2. The Pearl (1871)

In the 10 times the Melbourne Cup was run before the 1871 race, owner-trainer John Tait had won it twice (with The Barb in 1866 and Glencoe in 1868). Tait had two runners in the 1871 race: Pyrrus and The Pearl. Like many punters though, Tait backed the wrong horse, fancying the form Pyrrus had shown in the lead-up races. The Pearl, however, avoided a scrimmage at the mid-point of the race, which allowed the 100/1 longshot to move up and win the race by two lengths and become the first horse to ever win the Cup at such long odds.

1. Wotan (1936)

It wasn't just that nobody expected Wotan to win the 1936 Melbourne Cup, the great surprise was the manner in which he did it. Wotan absolutely brained them, setting what was then a record time by finishing the race in 3.21.25. The horse had brought up the tail of the field in that year's Cox Plate and was rated a 100/1 chance by the bookies. When he was last past the one-mile mark on that first Tuesday in November, punters appeared to have got it right. Race favourite Talking looked to have secured the Cup after passing front-runner Young Crusader, but Wotan stormed home from nowhere to grab a big win.

The views in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of BigPond Sport.

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