That’s because the owner-trainer John Tait entered two runners – Florence and the colt Pyrrhus – and this time he wanted the colt to win. Tait was the most successful racing man in Australia. He’d already won the 1866 and 1868 Melbourne Cups with The Barb and Glencoe. He raced Fireworks, the triple Derby winner of 1867/68. Impossible to countenance today, in that era an owner with two runners in a race could “declare” in the betting
PORTRAIT OF JOHN TAIT
ring which of his horses he wanted to win. Today, horses must run on their merits. Florence had the superior form, but Tait declared for Pyrrhus. In the running, both Florence and her jockey, Charlie Stanley, had other ideas. Some reports said that Stanley tried to slow Florence in the home straight, urging Pyrrhus to pass. Others suggest that he let Florence bolt. Either way she won comfortably. Who was the villain? Tait for not wanting his best horse to win, or Stanley for not following his trainer’s instructions? Opinions differed. Tait sacked Stanley, whose riding career soon ended. Stanley later boasted that he never wilfully lost a race. Tait went on to win two more Melbourne Cups. Who was the heroine? Florence, of course. For her Queensland Derby, she frightened away all but one of her competitors. She led throughout and won in a canter by several lengths, just as she did at Flemington. She is an Oaks legend. You can only beat who turns up on the day.
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