1924 Victoria Derby 100 years since ... Spearfelt’s
BY ANDREW LEMON
A hundred years ago, Spearfelt won the Victoria Derby, in a romp, by six lengths. Three days later he finished third in the Melbourne Cup. He was an exceptional racehorse who went on to take the 1926 Melbourne Cup and the 1927 Australian Cup before becoming a top Australian sire. His son Dark Felt won the 1943 Melbourne Cup. His young owner, Douglas Campbell Grant of North Melbourne, bought Spearfelt at the 1923 Inglis Sydney Easter yearling sales for the proverbial song. Was Douglas Grant a lucky man? It depends on your definition of luck. Luckier than many of his generation, not least because he survived.
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