MELBOURNE CUP THE FIRST TUESDAY IN NOVEMBER
three miles. It was the next year when Glencoe recorded a gruelling five wins in three days. After taking the Cup on the opening Thursday, he won the Spring Handicap and a handicap for four-year-olds on Friday, and won twice again the next day. First of those two was the All-Aged Stakes over a mile, attracting a field of five. At the end of the day he won the three- mile Queen’s Plate, admittedly in “a very slow time”. When Warrior, a six-year-old, won the 1869 Melbourne Cup on the first Thursday in November, the Victoria Derby had been switched to the preceding Saturday for the first time. Warrior won the two mile Essendon Stakes on Derby Day ahead of his Thursday victory in the Cup. He raced again the next day, Friday, in the Spring Handicap, beaten this time by the Cup runner-up, The Monk. Cup Day 1870 was postponed for a week because of rain— from the first Thursday to the second. So Thursday it remained until Wollomai’s year. The four- day formula with the Cup on a Tuesday—albeit the second Tuesday—was judged such a success that the VRC decided to replicate this schedule the following year. Cup Day became the holiday. By the workings of the calendar, this meant that
Tom Hales on Briseis, with 1876 Melbourne Cup-winning jockey, Peter St. Albans (left), who rode the filly to victory as an eleven-year-old. (Painting by Frederick Woodhouse)
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