The Wyndham Cup

Bruce Stewart Contributor

This Saturday the time honoured Wyndham Cup will be run at the Young Quinn Raceway and researching the race back as far as 1960 has thrown up some interesting facts.

• New Zealand Cup winner Lunar Chance trained at Gore by Keith Lawlor won the 1974 edition of the Cup as a three year old.
• The oldest winner on record was Knowing for Brendon McLellan in 1986.
• For nearly all of its recent history the race has been run over 3200 metres. The first horse to break the four minute barrier was Lord Forbes in 2010, who paced the journey in 3-58.6.
• When Tact Halsey won in 1996 in a time of 4-03.2, he smashed the race record by an incredible six seconds. His record stood for fourteen years before Lord Forbes lowered it in 2010.
• The race record is held by 2014 winner Franco Ledger who recorded 3-57.0.
• Franco Ledger is the only horse to have won the Cup twice (2012 and 2014).
• Alan Beck is the most successful driver in the Cup’s history reining four winners – Tact Halsey (1996), Feverish (2000), Franco Novella (2003) and Flamin Tact (2006).
• Local names that have had success in the Cup include Ray Todd who trained 1961 winner Joylyn, Alex Townley trained and drove Jacobite in 1964, Alex Milne senior trained Risdon Lea to win the 1982 edition. She was driven by his son Alex junior who also trained and drove Shot to win in 1988. Snow McLellan won with Knowing in1986, Ron Johnstone trained and drove Fallimento to win in 1978, Colin Lee drove Salamah to win for Pine Bush trainer Robert Allison in 1980 while Des Baynes has trained two winners of the Cup (James Dee 1984 and Gotta Minute 2018). Hori Lee prepared Popsicle to win in 1991 driven by his son Gordon, locals Eric Smyth and Henderson Hunter teamed up to win with Can Annie Go in 1992 while Hamish Hunter has had three winners on his home track - Franco Ledger (2012 and 2014) and Devil May Care (2016).
• Local reinsmen Craig Ferguson (The Wrath Of Robyn) and Mark Hurrell (Sagwitch) have also won their local Cup.