Racing: Law of averages on Jimmy Choux's side

Bonecrusher is one of two NZ-trained horses to win an AJC Derby in recent years. File photo / NZ Herald

A win by Jimmy Choux in Saturday's A$1.5 million Australian Derby would be momentous.

Not just because it would successfully cap one of the longest and most remarkable campaigns in memory by a 3-year-old.

And not just because it's the 150th running of the famous race.

Any Australian iconic event that has been won by just two New Zealand-trained horses in living memory is something very special.

Murray Baker's Nom du Jeu in 2008 and Bonecrusher for Frank Ritchie in 1986 are the only givens for this country.

Classic Mission's Derby victory of 1971 is the interesting one. Woodville's Syd Brown was at that time relocating to Sydney, where he remains to this day, and there has always been conflict as to whether Classic Mission should be recorded as Australian-trained or New Zealand-trained.

After such a magnificent run of form it would be fitting for Jimmy Choux to write his name into the record books for a race with an honours board that contains the names of Starcraft, Octagonal, Bonecrusher, Strawberry Road, Kingston Town, Dulcify, Tulloch and back to Phar Lap.

The race was first run in 1861 as the Randwick Derby Stakes, then the Australia Derby Stakes. Between 1873-1993 it was known as the AJC Derby, which changed officially to the Australian Derby in 1994 even though the AJC Derby tag remains.

It is significant that this will be the 50th anniversary of almost certainly the most sensational Derby run at Randwick, or perhaps anywhere.

In 1961, Mel Schumacher managed to get Blue Era to the finish just in front of Tommy Hill on Summer Fair.

On returning to the birdcage, Hill made the stunning complaint that Schumacher had held his leg as the two were fighting out the finish, holding Summer Fair back behind Blue Era.

Schumacher hadn't been aware a head-on camera was being used that day for the first time and the vision clearly showed the leg-holding incident.

Placings were reversed and stewards made the unprecedented announcement that Schumacher would not be fulfilling the remainder of his engagements that day because he had been disqualified for life.

Schumacher, who returned to riding six years later, became an iconic figure in Queensland racing and retired in 2001 aged 64.

He later spoke of the moment he became aware of the dreaded head-on camera while in the inquiry room.

"I thought 'what don't speak, don't lie', so I kept my mouth shut and walked off the course with a life disqualification.

"There were 80,000 people there that day and when I walked off, there was deathly silence.

"It was like a funeral ... mine."

Bonecrusher's 1986 Derby win underpinned his greatness.

He was backing up just seven days after a stunning last-to-first Tancred Stakes win at Rosehill. The heatwave that hit Sydney that week hampered any great recovery from that effort and Bonecrusher was showing clear signs of heat stroke on Derby Day.

Every other jockey rode to get him beaten, but in the closing 150m with horses all around him he refused to be beaten, his winning performance being one of his greatest.

There is a fabulous amount of history around the Australian Derby.

History that Jimmy Choux is a $2 favourite to join.