1974 Melbourne Cup
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1974 Melbourne Cup
The 1974 Melbourne Cup was a handicap horse race which took place on Tuesday, 5 November 1974 over 3200m, at Flemington Racecourse. The race was won by the gelding Think Big, trained by Bart Cummings and ridden by Harry White. The runner up was Leilani also trained by Bart Cummings, and third place went to Captain Peri. The winning margin was one length with a further length to third place. This win gave Bart Cummings his fourth Melbourne Cup win and his third quinella of the race. Bart went on to record twelve Melbourne Cup training victories. Bred by the estate of the late L. A. Alexander, Think Big was purchased by Bart for Dato Tan Chin Nam at the Trentham yearling sales in New Zealand at a price of $10,000. Think Big was sired by Sobig and his dam Sarcelle was by Oman. Think Big also won the 1975 Melbourne Cup for Bart and was once again ridden by Harry White. As well as two victories on Think Big, Harry White also won the 1978 Melbourne Cup on Arwon and the ...
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Melbourne Cup
The Melbourne Cup is an annual Group 1 Thoroughbred horse race held in Melbourne, Australia, at the Flemington Racecourse. It is a 3200-metre race for three-year-olds and older, conducted by the Victoria Racing Club that forms part of the Melbourne Spring Racing Carnival. It is the richest two-mile handicap in the world and one of the richest turf races. The event starts at 3:00 pm on the first Tuesday of November and is known locally as "the race that stops the nation". The Melbourne Cup has cemented itself as a part of Melbourne and Australian culture, having been run every year since 1861 (except for an intermission during World War I and World War II). The day of the race has been a public holiday for much of Victoria since 1876. It was originally run over but was shortened to in 1972 when Australia adopted the metric system. This reduced the distance by , and Rain Lover's 1968 race record of 3:19.1 was accordingly adjusted to 3:17.9. The present record holder is ...
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Peter Cook (jockey)
Peter John Cook (born 15 December 1950) in Sydney, Australia is a retired Australian jockey. Some of his achievements include winning the 1981 Melbourne Cup (Just A Dash) and 1984 Melbourne Cup (Black Knight), the 1976 and 1982 Cox Plates ( Surround and Kingston Town), the 1979 Doncaster Handicap ( Belmura Lad) and the 1988 Oakleigh Plate ( Snippets). In 1991 he suffered permanent heart damage following an incident whilst using a sauna A sauna (, ) is a room or building designed as a place to experience dry or wet heat sessions or an establishment with one or more of these facilities. The steam and high heat make the bathers perspire. A thermometer in a sauna is used to meas ... in the jockeys' room at Canberra racecourse. He officially retired from riding in 1994 and had a short stint as a trainer. Peter Cook is often compared to his father, champion jockey Billy Cook.Brasch, D. (2011). ''Jockeying to the top: the story of horseracing legend Peter Cook''. New Holland ...
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1974 In Australian Sport
Major events in 1974 include the aftermath of the 1973 oil crisis and the resignation of President of the United States, United States President Richard Nixon following the Watergate scandal. In the Middle East, the aftermath of the 1973 Yom Kippur War determined politics; following List of Prime Ministers of Israel, Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir's resignation in response to high Israeli casualties, she was succeeded by Yitzhak Rabin. In Europe, the Turkish invasion of Cyprus, invasion and occupation of northern Cyprus by Turkey, Turkish troops initiated the Cyprus dispute, the Carnation Revolution took place in Portugal, the Greek junta's collapse paves the way for the establishment of a Metapolitefsi, parliamentary republic and Chancellor of Germany, Chancellor of West Germany Willy Brandt resigned following an Guillaume affair, espionage scandal surrounding his secretary Günter Guillaume. In sports, the year was primarily dominated by the 1974 FIFA World Cup, FIFA World ...
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Pat Hyland (jockey)
Pat Hyland (born in Victoria) is an Australian retired jockey and horse trainer who is best known for riding What A Nuisance to victory in the 1985 Melbourne Cup. His son, Chris Hyland, is also a successful horse trainer.Chris Hyland
Famously, he won racing's Grand Slam – a ( What A Nuisance), (Affinity), Golden Slipper (

John Letts (jockey)
John Richard "Johnny" Letts (born 28 July 1943) is an Australian former jockey whose career spanned almost 30 years, retiring from race riding in 1988. Letts began riding as an apprentice in 1959, aged 16 years old and eventually rode over 2,300 winners. He was immortalized by winning the Melbourne Cup twice on Piping Lane in 1972 and Beldale Ball in 1980. Apart from his Melbourne Cup successes he rode a host of big race winners including three SAJC Adelaide Cups on Rain Lover (1968), Grand Scale (1976) and Amarant (1983). He also had success in the 1977 AJC Epsom Handicap on Raffindale, the 1975 Victoria Derby on Galena Boy and the 1980 VRC Australian Cup on Ming Dynasty The Ming dynasty, officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming was the last imperial dynasty of .... In recent years, Letts has been prominent as ...
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Colin Hayes
Colin Sidney Hayes (16 February 1924 – 21 May 1999) was an Australian champion trainer of thoroughbred racehorses based in Adelaide, South Australia. During his career he trained 5,333 winners including 524 individual Group or Listed winners. He won 28 Adelaide and 13 Melbourne Trainers' Premierships. The C S Hayes Stakes is named in his honour and run annually at Flemington Racecourse. Hayes was elevated to Legend status in the Australian Racing Hall of Fame in 2018, a feat only achieved by two other horse trainers, TJ Smith and Bart Cummings. Early days Hayes was born in Semaphore, South Australia on 16 February 1924. His father died when Hayes was 10 years old. On leaving school he gained employment with the South Australian Electricity Trust as a boilermaker, but his love of horses soon led him to purchase a steeplechaser named Surefoot, for £9. As an amateur rider, Hayes rode Surefoot himself, with his best result being a third in the 1948 Great Eastern Steeplec ...
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Malcolm Johnston (jockey)
Malcolm Johnston (born 19 October 1956) is a retired Australian jockey. Johnston was raised in the rural town of Forbes, New South Wales. He went to Sydney, as an apprentice jockey underneath trainer Theo Green, riding his first winner in Sydney at Rosehill in 1973. Johnston would go on to win three Sydney apprentice premierships, as well as winning the overall jockeys title when still an apprentice, riding 107.5 winners in the 1975–76 season. He won a further two jockeys premierships in 1977–78, and 1986–87. Johnston is most renowned for his association with the horse Kingston Town which he rode in 25 of the horse's 30 victories. Johnston retired in 1993, having ridden over 2,000 winners, including 37 at Group One level. In 2018, Johnston was inducted into the Australian Racing Hall of Fame The Australian Racing Hall of Fame is part of the Australian Racing Museum which documents and honours the horse racing, horseracing legends of Australia. The museum offici ...
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George Hanlon
George Hanlon (July 1917 – 28 January 2010) was an Australian race horse trainer. Inducted in the Australian Racing Hall of Fame in 2002, Hanlon trained three Melbourne Cup winners; Piping Lane in 1972, Arwon in 1978 and Black Knight in 1984. Born in South Australia, Hanlon died in 2010, aged 92, at a nursing home in Geelong, Victoria Geelong ( ) (Wathawurrung language, Wathawurrung: ''Djilang''/''Djalang'') is a port city in Victoria, Australia, located at the eastern end of Corio Bay (the smaller western portion of Port Phillip Bay) and the left bank of Barwon River (Victo ... where he had been living for the past year and a half. References 1917 births 2010 deaths Australian racehorse trainers Sportspeople from Geelong Australian Thoroughbred Racing Hall of Fame inductees {{Australia-horseracing-bio-stub ...
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Tommy J
Tommy may refer to: People and fictional characters * Tommy (given name), a list of people and fictional characters * Tommy Atkins, or just Tommy, a slang term for a common soldier in the British Army * Tommy Giacomelli (born 1974), Brazilian former footballer also known as simply Tommy Arts and entertainment Film and television * ''Tommy'' (1931 film), a Soviet drama film * ''Tommy'' (1975 film), a British operetta film based on the Who's album ''Tommy'' * ''Tommy'' (2015 film), a Telugu drama film * ''Tommy'' (TV series), a 2020 American drama series Music * ''Tommy'' (The Who album), 1969 ** ''Tommy'' (London Symphony Orchestra album), 1972 ** ''Tommy'' (soundtrack), a soundtrack to the 1975 film ** ''The Who's Tommy'', a stage production, premiered 1992 * ''Tommy'' (The Wedding Present album), 1988 * ''Tommy'' (Dosh album), 2010 * ''Tommy'' (EP), a 2017 EP by Klein * ''Tommy'', a 2022 EP by Kiesza * ''Tommy'', a 1965 album by Tommy Adderley * ''Tommy'', a 1970 ...
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Battle Heights
Battle Heights was a notable New Zealand thoroughbred racehorse. A son of Battle-Waggon from the mare Wuthering Heights, he was foaled in 1967 and was trained throughout his career by Tim Douglas. Douglas was a farmer and all-round horseman based in Morrinsville in the north-eastern Waikato province of New Zealand. As well as being a successful racehorse trainer, he was an accomplished polo player and bought Wuthering Heights, a young thoroughbred mare, with the intention of including her in a consignment of polo ponies purchased for the Sultan of Brunei. That plan had to change, however, when it became apparent that Wuthering Heights was pregnant, forcing Douglas to retain her. She subsequently produced a foal whose sire was believed to be a non-thoroughbred stallion, after which Douglas decided to breed from her himself. Battle Heights was the fourth full thoroughbred foal produced by Wuthering Heights (the previous three, Gold Heights, Monty and Arctic Heights, also becam ...
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Piping Lane (horse)
Piping Lane (foaled 1966, died 1996) was a brown Australian Thoroughbred racehorse gelding by Lanesborough out of the mare Londonderry Air by Piping Time. Piping Lane came to prominence by winning the 1972 Melbourne Cup over 3,200 metres at odds of 40/1. Piping Lane was owned by R.E. Prevost of Epping Forest, Tasmania and his racing had been confined to Tasmania, where he had won $12,638, prior to April 1972. He was then purchased for $6,000 by Ray W. Trinder, then 69, and a licensed amateur jockey and also an owner-trainer. Trinder had purchased the horse with the specific aim of winning the Melbourne Cup. Piping Lane was sent to be trained by George Hanlon of Melbourne. He was allotted 48 kg in the cup and with many top jockeys unable to ride at this weight John Letts of Adelaide South Australia was given the ride. John Letts had not ridden on the Flemington course before and had stated "We're only here to make up the numbers" regarding his chances of winning. Thus Pipin ...
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Noel Harris
Noel Graham Harris , also known as "Harry" or "NGH", is a former jockey in Thoroughbred racing in New Zealand. He is notable for having ridden 2,167 raceday winners in New Zealand which is the fourth highest total behind Chris Johnson, David Walsh and Lance O'Sullivan and he has won the jockeys' premiership in both New Zealand and Singapore. In 2018 Harris was inducted into the New Zealand Racing Hall of Fame. In 2025 Harris was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit, for services to the thoroughbred racing industry. Riding career Noel Harris was apprenticed at Woodville to his father, John William (Jock) Harris who was a leading jockey both on the flat and over jumps before becoming a horse trainer. Noel rode his first winner at Foxton on 16 May 1970 and took out the 1971–72 apprentice jockeys' premiership at 18-years-old before sharing the national jockeys' premiership with David Peake the following year. Harris achieved 34 Group One wins, including al ...
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