NEW STABLEMATES
WHAT WEIGHT?: The Handicap conditions of the Newmarket saw Bernborough carry a staggering 9 stone 13 pounds to victory in 1946, defeating a field of 28. Bernborough was listed as being 17¼ hands with a mighty stride length. (VRC Collection)
The heaviest weighted horse ever, bar one, to win the Newmarket was magnificent Bernborough in 1946, defeating a huge field. He carried 9 stone 13 pounds (about 63 kg) and powered from back in the pack to get up at the finishing line. Those who saw that performance never forgot it. But the all-time weight-carrying record in the Newmarket (10 stone 2, or 64.4kg) belongs to Greenline in March 1930. He won on the very day when the three-year-old Phar Lap at odds-on took the VRC St Leger in a canter, by five lengths, and their mutual rival, Amounis, won the weight-for-age Essendon Stakes of 1¼ miles, his seventh successive victory. It was a Super Saturday for Sydney jockey Jim Pike, who rode all three of them. Greenline was a New South Wales gelding who first made his name with wins in the Carrington Stakes, the Challenge Stakes and The Shorts, all at Randwick, and the Hill Stakes at Rosehill. In the 1930 Newmarket, in the days of barrier starts, before starting stalls, Greenline had drawn near the outside in a field of 29. It worked to his advantage, keeping to the outside rail all the way to win. Two years later, after more success, Greenline returned to contest the Newmarket once more. The handicapper allotted him 10 stone 6 pounds (66.2kg). He finished third to Lady Linden (a Stradbroke Handicap winner), with Winooka second (a star performer who later raced in America). Greenline was magnificent in defeat. No other horse
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