But the Cup of 1990 makes for an interesting venn diagram of the Kiwi representation in this year’s race.
The Phantom was trained by Murray Baker, who had many Cup runners and mentored Positivity’s trainer Andrew Forsman into training, the pair eventually becoming training partners.
Forsman wasn’t in partnership with Baker for that 1990 Cup beause he was, well, 10 years old.
But he still trains Positivity from the same Cambridge stable he shared with the now-retired Baker and has regularly had horses in Caulfield and Melbourne Cups.
Also in that 1990 Cup was Just A Dancer, trained by Graeme Rogerson, who has Sharp N Smart in tomorrow’s race.
The 75-year-old trains Sharp N Smart with wife Debbie and Rogerson also trained Efficient to win the 2007 Melbourne Cup, further proof of how often those who can get the Melbourne Cup path right can tread it time and time again.
That 1990 Cup will trigger nostalgia for New Zealand racing fans of a time when “we” were regularly major players in the iconic race, before Northern Hemisphere raiders and Australian mega stable relegated our horses to being the 100-1 chances they will be tomorrow.
There were nine New Zealand trained or ridden horses that year for trainers like Peter Hurdle (Mr Booker, third), Peter Hollinshead (Na Botto, fourth), David Walsh (Aquidity, sixth), Trveor McKee (Flying Luskin, eighth) Errol Skelton (Shuzohra, 15th), Ralph Manning (Rainbow Myth, 17th) and Mike Moroney (Selwyn’s Mate, 23rd).
Perhaps most remarkably of all much-loved Central Districts jockey Brian Hibberd finished seventh on Savage Toss riding for Lee Freedman, truly one of racing’s odd couples.
Back in those says Cooksley was known as The Iceman and not much has changed, his attitude to the Cup still all business.
“I will get excited if we look like we have a chance during the race,” he told the Herald.
“The horse was being floated down from Sydney overnight to avoid the heat and we have a good draw so it is worth starting.”
So what would the pragmatic Cooksley accept as a good result?
“Top five would be great but I’d still be really happy with top eight,” he says.
That is a long way from finishing second on The Phantom in 1990.
But the Melbourne Cup is a vastly different race from what it was 34 years ago.
Melbourne Cup
What: Australia’s most iconic horse race
Where: Flemington, Melbourne.
When: Tuesday, 5pm (NZ time)
Who: Stayers from all over the world including three trained in New Zealand.
Nabba back with a bang
Five months off then five winners in 24 hours.
That is the story of champion jockey Michael McNab’s stunning return to the saddle over the weekend after missing the entire start of the season.
McNab returned from his injury-enforced layoff at Tauranga on Saturday and quickly rode a winner but showed he had his eye right back in riding four of the first six winners at Ōtaki yesterday.
Quite remarkably the burst of winners has taken McNab to the top of the market to win his third jockey’s premiership even though his five wins for the season put him 23 behind leader Sam Spratt and 21 behind Craig Grylls.
The bookies care not and they have gone Nabba crazy, having him $2.20 to win the title in what would be one of the great racing comeback stories considering he only has nine months of riding to get that job done.
Michael Guerin wrote his first nationally published racing articles while still in school and started writing about horse racing and the gambling industry for the Herald as a 20-year-old in 1990. He became the Herald’s racing editor in 1995 and covers the world’s biggest horse racing carnivals.
