FEATURE
THE 5 ELEMENTS
C hinese tradition, the horse is a symbol of vitality, speed and forward momentum – qualities that need no translation at Flemington. The Horse is the seventh of the twelve animals in the Chinese zodiac, cycling through every twelve years. So surely, if we can work out what else they had in common, we can predict the winner of the 2026 Lexus Melbourne Cup? Also alternating through the Chinese zodiac are five ‘elements’: Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal and Water. This means Galilee won in the year of the Fire Horse, Arwon in the Earth Horse year, Kingston Rule in Metal, Media Puzzle in Water, Protectionist in Wood. This year we return to Fire. And that matters – because the Fire Horse is no ordinary Horse year. While the zodiac cycles every twelve years, the Fire Horse appears only once every sixty years.
GALILEE 1966
ARWON 1978
Galilee was definitely a Fire Horse. He set the tracks alight. He branded greatness upon the name J.B. Cummings. The young Adelaide trainer had quinellaed the previous Melbourne Cup with mare Light Fingers and stallion Ziema in a photo finish. Now Galilee proved that this was no fluke as he beat Light Fingers by two lengths. Two Cup quinellas in two years! A year later Bart had his third Melbourne Cup with Red Handed. They called him ‘The Cups King’. Four decades later his tally reached an impossible twelve. When reporters asked him to nominate the best, he would say the bay gelding from New Zealand, Galilee. This Fire Horse won 18 races including a Toorak Handicap, Caulfield Cup, CB Fisher Plate, VRC Queen’s Plate and the Sydney Cup. He stands in the Australian Racing Hall of Fame.
Does that mean a champion always wins in the Year of the Horse? Arwon, of the Earth Horse year, was a champion in the eyes of his owners, trainer, jockey and backers when he beat a lacklustre field in 1978. Not that his win was a surprise: Arwon earned his Cup victory after a narrow defeat in Sydney’s Metropolitan, a win at Caulfield in the Herbert Power and a close second in the Caulfield Cup. Later he was placed in both the Sydney Cup and the Perth Cup and he won the 1980 Sandown Cup. Arwon had one previous name (he raced as ‘Flash Guy’ in New Zealand), several previous owners and three previous trainers before he came to George Hanlon in Victoria, certainly a champion mentor. And his champion Cup jockey, Harry White, shares with Bobbie Lewis the riding record of four Melbourne Cup wins.
Fancy a Gallop? | 31
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