Wotan the wonder horse of Mangaweka won the Melbourne Cup

Portrait of Wotan and Australian jockey Ossie Phillips including an inset photo of the rider with trainer and owners in the Mangaweka Museum. Photo / Bevan Conley

Waverley-bred racehorse Kiwi is well-remembered for winning the Melbourne Cup in 1983 but it has been largely forgotten that a horse named Wotan from Mangaweka took the same prize almost 50 years earlier.

In 1936 few people had heard of the horse and its owners the Smith brothers who had already achieved some success with Wotan and other horses in their stable.

Chris Wilkinson-Smith of Whanganui is the grandson of one of Wotan’s owners, Pat Smith.

"My father Peter was just two when Wotan won the Melbourne Cup," he said.

"There won't be many people alive who remember the race."

Someone who did remember was the late Ken Smith who was older than his cousin Peter and wrote extensively about local history and the exploits of his three uncles - Pat, Bill and Bob.

"It was decided that Wotan should take place in the Melbourne Cup," wrote Ken.

"There was no fanfare of trumpets to herald the arrival of Wotan in Australia. Few people knew he had arrived. Fewer cared."

Someone who did care was trainer Jack Fryer from Hāwera who had previously trained the Smiths’ horses and was now based in Australia. He was also surprised.

"You could have knocked me down with a feather," he reportedly said.

The Australian bookies were said to have "fallen about laughing" and the race commentator was also disparaging.

"It's Wotan, a New Zealand horse which isn't out of hack class, and what he's doing here I wouldn't know," he said.

Even Australian jockey Ossie Phillips reportedly told friends he was riding Wotan just to collect a loser's fee.

And for most of the race, it looked as though the detractors would be proved right as Wotan trailed the field prompting the commentator to tell the big crowd at Flemington Racecourse that “Wotan is last, Wotan is still last”.

But in the last few seconds of the race, Wotan "came from nowhere" to pass the front runners and win.

The Smith brothers collected a winning stake of £7200 but the Australian press speculated that their winnings from bets were likely to have been in the realm of £30,000.

It was rumoured that they carried their winnings home in a sugar sack and also that they would have had no money to travel home if Wotan hadn't made his spectacular late dash.

The winnings would have amounted to a fortune in New Zealand as the country was emerging from a worldwide economic depression, and the Smiths were not the only big winners.

Ken Smith wrote about Walter Devon of Taihape who collected £50,000 for backing Wotan to win but he didn't learn of his own win until a week later.

A Melbourne reporter called the Taihape postmaster at 1.30am to try to track down the big winner.

“Do you know somebody in Taihape with the initials W D who has won £50,000?” he asked.

The postmaster with help from excited locals eventually tracked down Devon who was out on the hillsides trapping rabbits at the time. He is said to have given up his regular occupation to become a horse breeder.

Trainer Jack Fryer with Smith brothers Pat, Bob and Bill after the Melbourne Cup win. Photo / Mangaweka Museum

The three Smith brothers were from a family of 10 children who grew up in the Kawhatau Valley near Mangaweka.

Ken wrote that WWI had divided the Smith family and that his eldest uncle Jack was killed in the war.

His father Con was wounded three times and survived a gas attack in France.

Pat and Bill went to America where they ran a successful greengrocer business and when they returned, they formed a trio with younger brother Bob.

Wilkinson-Smith said he remembers learning about Wotan and the Melbourne Cup win as a child.

"It was probably when I was about six or seven. My grandfather Pat Smith lived with us until he passed away when I was about eight," he said.

Wilkinson-Smith said he believes his grandfather and great-uncles had honed their taste for adventure long before taking their horse to Flemington.

"They were adventurous risk-takers and they would travel to where things were happening, they ran a business in California when they were young men and they often travelled to Australia.

"Wotan was not the first horse they sent to Australia. They had great success with two of Wotan's older brothers; Gaine Carrington and Peter Jackson. They both ran in the 1932 Melbourne Cup and in the 1933 Melbourne Cup they finished third and sixth."

Wilkinson-Smith said Wotan's time of 3:21.25 in 1936 set an Australian record that lasted for years and still looks good by today's standards.

"By comparison, Phar Lap ran six seconds slower to win in 1930 and this year's winner in the wet was three seconds slower," he said.

"Wotan and the other horses were all bred from one remarkable mare named Left. We still breed race horses descended from that foundation mare on the family farm in Papaiti."

When writing about the Smith brothers and Wotan a few years ago, racing journalist Mike Dillon described their collective ability to keep quiet.

"The Smiths had a fierce reputation for making Marcel Marceau look like a loudmouth," he wrote.

And they never did reveal exactly how much they made on that momentous day in 1936.

The remarkable performance was captured on film and is available to watch on Youtube.