The travelling Melbourne Cup 1888 at the TMAG

'Nowhere in my travels have I encountered a festival of the people that has such a magnetic appeal to a whole nation. The (Melbourne) Cup astonishes me!'

Mark Twain (Bernstein 1969:2)





Conservator Cobus Van Breda
Photos courtesy TMAG 2010

NOTES from TMAG News online

The 1888 Melbourne Cup is travelling Australia’s museums and galleries thanks to the generosity of Australian-born former President of the World Bank Jim Wolfensohn.

In 1988 he donated funds to enable the National Gallery of Australia to purchase and tour works of museum quality to regional and remote Australia.

The 1888 Melbourne Cup was on display in the TMAG Medals and Money gallery in April 2010. It is a spectacular trophy with three horses cast in silver weighing 800 grams surmounted on a large silver plated base.

Melbourne Cup Trophies

Interestingly the Melbourne Cup race originated from rivalry between the Victorian Turf Club and the Victorian Jockey Club, and is believed to be the brainchild of Captain F.C Standish, Chief Commissioner of Police in Melbourne.  The first Melbourne Cup was run in 1861, but there was no trophy for the first four years.  In 1865 with the Victorian Racing Club in control of the Melbourne Cup, a handsome silver cup valued at one hundred sovereigns was first presented to the winner in addition to the prize money.

The year 1888 was the hundredth anniversary of British settlement in Australia and while the various colonies were not yet welded into one federated nation, new Australians in all the colonies joined in a year of celebrations to mark the first century of the new land.

The Melbourne Cup trophy of that year was known as the Centennial Cup and had been ordered from England (Elkington & Co Birmingham).  The Victorian Racing Club also lifted the prize-money by adding 3,000 gold sovereigns (sovereign = £1) to the race, thereby making the race the most valuable handicap in the world.

There were twenty-eight runners in the 1888 Cup, based on past performances a number of them should not have been in the race.  They were eager to win part of the new £50,000 sweep run by Mr George Adams.

As the race was run, jockey Mick O'Brien (wearing the racing colours of black with white sleeves and scarlet cap) always had Mentor in a winning position.  With plenty in hand Mentor ran home a comfortable winner in 3 minutes 30 ³/₄ seconds, from Tradition second and The Yeoman third.

Mentor had been bred at Mr Donald S Wallace's stud 'Ballark' between Ballarat and Geelong. Wallace, a shrewd operator, enlisted the aid of a bookmaker to place £1,000 on Mentor at long odds in case the odds shortened by Cup day.  As Mentor won the Cup, Wallace collected £20,000.

Jockey Mick O'Brien was very popular with the average racegoer and he and his mount received a fine reception on their way back to the scale. In the evening O'Brien received a gold mounted whip, a tradition that continues for the winning jockey.
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