BACK-TO-BACK: Zaaki runs it back! After success with James McDonald in the saddle in 2021 (left), he teamed up with Jamie Kah and put on a traditional bold, front-running performance in 2022 (right). (George Sal/Racing Photos & Scott Barbour/Racing Photos)
Flemington race called the Coburg Stakes. Hurtle Fisher’s horse Courtenay (sired by Yattendon), ridden by Tom Hales, won the inaugural race. There is much early Flemington history wrapped up with those names. In 1919, to honour Septimus Miller, a notable former VRC Chairman, the race became the Cantala, named after his grand property at Caulfield. From 1960 the race was shifted from Derby Day to the final day as a sponsored race, first as the Tattersalls Memorial then as the George Adams Handicap. The former Perth champion Aquanita set the scene with successive wins in 1960 and 1961. After 1985, the 1600 metre race changed name several times more with a succession of sponsors: Ampol, Honda, Nissen, Chrysler and, from 1998 to 2016, Emirates. Returning briefly to Derby Day in 2016 as the Cantala and then the Kennedy Mile, the race reverted to the final day as one of the three feature Champions Day races in 2022. Finally there is the TAB Champions Stakes, the 2000-metre championship. It links itself to the historic L.K.S. Mackinnon Stakes, first run as such in 1936 to honour the memory of the late VRC Chairman. Previously it had been the Melbourne Stakes with a lineage stretching back to the era of the earliest Melbourne Cups. In 2016 the race was switched to the final day, won by Awesome Rock. By sleight-of-hand perhaps, the Mackinnon that year was called the Emirates Stakes – but became the Mackinnon again when Trap For Fools won in 2018. Prestidigitation? Wizardry? Whatever, let the magic continue.
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