The Australasian
“When I ran in the Cup two years ago, I made a mistake in giving instructions to Bob Lewis” – Harry Telford Sporting Globe 1931
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Besides Eric Connolly and Alex McAuley training Nightmarch to the minute, Connolly also knew he could rely upon Harry Telford’s ludicrous training regime to continue unabated throughout the carnival. Many believe Phar Lap’s greatest achievements were his winning the 1930 AJC Plate, 1930 Melbourne Cup, 1931 VATC Futurity Stakes or the Agua Caliente in 1932. Inside the racing tent, others would believe this horse’s most stunning achievement was surviving Telford’s often gruelling training and heavy racing schedule. Even by 1929, it was becoming an established fact Phar Lap was something of a freak. Not simply because of his racing record, rather how the horse could withstand Telford and be constantly raced.
* John Robertson
Another anticipated bonus came Eric Connolly’s way when jockey Jim Pike had no way of making the weight to ride Phar Lap in the 1929 Melbourne Cup. His weight restriction due to Phar Lap still being a three year old. What came next seems, in hindsight, incredible. To some people’s astonishment, Harry Telford chose Connolly’s lifelong friend, 50-year-old lightweight jockey Bobby Lewis for the Cup run. Connolly would often say, “Life ain’t holding a good hand, its playing a poor hand well.”* In this case he was playing a reasonable hand brilliantly. Friendships to one side, you could understand why Telford thought Lewis a smart choice. Lewis had already ridden four previous Melbourne Cup winners: 1902 (The Victory), 1915 (Patrobas), 1919 (Artilleryman) and his most recent in 1927 (Trivalve), also a three year old. Yet for one of the Melbourne Cup’s most brilliant jockeys riding arguably one of the greatest front running horses of all time, Harry Telford’s instructions to Lewis before the 1929 Melbourne Cup appears absolutely incomprehensible. It does give one the impression Telford was either being overly cautious or dumb as a bag of hammers.
* "The Oyster and the Wizard" dp robertson
In later years, Telford openly blamed himself for losing the Cup and in hindsight, so he should have. Now whether or not Eric Connolly gave his friend Lewis cue cards, when he asked Telford for race instructions, the reply could hardly be described as proactive. Later Tommy Woodcock states, “I am sure Lewis could have won that race had he not been hampered by instructions.”* Pretty fair assessment considering Harry Telford’s baffling directions on how to ride one of the best horses in racing history. Lewis asked, “Harry, there’s nothing to make the pace and they are sure to go slow. What’ll I do?” Telford amazingly replied, “If they walk, you walk.” adding “If they go fast you go fast.”** Really? That’s your instructions? For Phar Lap! Most punters watching Phar Lap race figured if the field went slow, he would quickly become a dot in the distance.
*Sporting Globe 21 November 1936
** Sporting Globe, 9 November 1932
Harry Telford may have confused the Melbourne Cup with “Follow the Leader”, for as it transpired much of the race was indeed run at a canter. Hardly surprising due to an ordinary field in fear of being run off their feet at any moment. It threw Phar Lap’s rhythm completely out of whack. The experienced Bobby Lewis gave the increasingly annoyed crowd the impression of simply not having enough strength to hold Phar Lap back as he fought him tooth and nail around Flemington until his horse, and maybe Lewis, were totally spent.
It is race history, by the time Bobby Lewis did finally let Phar Lap go, even with his huge 14 pound heart, the champion horse never looked like winning. Meanwhile, Lewis had managed one of the very worst rides of his career while being the focus of a great deal of suspicion and derision. Phar Lap could not sustain the pace as Nightmarch and the New Zealand gelding Paquito came thundering over the top of him to win easily.* Eric Connolly was, of course, delighted. Even at the time, Lewis’ excuse of not having the strength to hold Phar Lap was highly debatable. It certainly produced a slew of theories as to what could possibly cause this result and those doubts have never gone away. It probably didn't help when his friend Jim Pike was asked if Phar Lap was an easy horse to ride,
“Yes, he’s a very easy horse to ride. He’s a very mellow horse, I think even a baby could ride him.”
* Paquito was owned by Canterbury pastoralist H.A. (Henry Arthur) Knight, most famous as the owner of Limerick (a horse that retired second only to Gloaming’s earning record and should be closely considered as a Hall of Famer). Paquito also came third behind Loquacious and Nightmarch in the 1929 Metropolitan. Knight died in 1935 leaving an estate of £160,000, Limerick to his daughter and £50 for a memorial headstone for his favourite horse. His other horses of any note were Ballymena (won 1923 AJC Derby, 1924 NZ St Leger and beat two of New Zealand’s favourite sons home, Gloaming and The Hawk to win the 1924 Hill Stakes – when it was being run at Rosehill Gardens rather than Randwick) and Malaga (1921 Auckland Cup).
**Max Presnell, Sydney Morning Herald October 29, 2014
***Movietone 1930 Melbourne Cup
*Sporting Globe 28 November 1936
**Melbourne Cups - The Victory, 1902; Patrobas, 1915; Artilleryman, 1919; Trivalve, 1927 and gained five minor placings. He also won eight Victoria Derbies, eight Victoria Racing Club St Legers and five Fisher Plates -
*** “Jack Sings tells how he became a jockey” Sporting Globe, 3 July 1940
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EA25MjdH_Dg
1929 Melbourne Cup (You Tube)
One of the most unfortunate aspects of Lewis’ riding in the 1929 Cup was that the champion jockey spent the remainder of his life defending himself against slurs, innuendos of him being on the take and having sabotaged Phar Lap’s 1929 chances. In his nationally syndicated life story published a few years later, Lewis attempted to set the record straight. He explained how he rode pace work with Phar Lap before Jim Pike’s win in the VRC Derby. In the same race, knowing he would be riding Phar Lap a few days later in the Cup, Lewis on 100 to one outsider Third King watched Pike trying to hold the mighty gelding until he simply broke loose and won easily from Carradale.* Knowing Pike was considered the strongest jockey riding in Australia, Bobby Lewis claimed he was worried how on earth he was going to hold Phar Lap in the Cup, if there was no pace on. Adding to his dilemma was Telford telling him, “We don’t want any pace on. You canter to the half mile. They’ll never spurt home with him.” Lewis claims he was alarmed, replying, “I’ll never hold him. He nicked off with Jim Pike on Saturday in the Derby.” Telford reiterated, “Hold him as slow as you can to the half mile.” Adding to his reasons for the terrible ride, Lewis also claims Phar Lap was galloped on and then entering the straight was hit by Carradale trying to run to the outside. All in all, it turned out to be a horror show with both Nightmarch and Paquito flying past Lewis in the straight with Phar Lap lucky to even make it in third.** Lewis added in his story,
“I rode Phar Lap to his (Telford) instructions, as I have done all my life as a jockey. It has always been my object to carry out the owner’s or trainer’s instructions if possible.”**
* Sporting Globe 2 November 1929
** The Herald 5 December 1933
Years later, not only was Tommy Woodcock highly critical of Bobby Lewis’ ride, even more so was jockey Scobie Breasley. The third legend into the Hall of Fame after Phar Lap and Bart Cummings, Breasley was scathing in his assessment of Bobby Lewis. Considering Phar Lap, “…the best horse I’ve ever seen” according to Breasley, made Lewis’ ride all the more painful to watch. For all his brilliance and outstanding record, Scobie Breasley never rode a Melbourne Cup winner.
“Whether he kicked him out of the start or not I don’t know, he was running very freely and wanted to go and old Bob Lewis was trying to hold him and he pulled him all over the course. And even going up to the mile and a quarter to the mile he was pulling him around all over the place and even pulling him out near the outside of the track. Coming back on trying to get him to settle but the horse wanted to go and he wouldn’t settle. And I really thought and have always thought had he let Phar Lap stride along, leave him alone instead of pulling him around he would have been 100 years in front and they would never have got near him. I would have been delighted to swap ride with him halfway. It would have been great and I’m sure I would have won.”*
* Phar Lap documentary (You Tube)
While you hear a tone of either wonderment or suspicion in Scobie Breasley, Tommy Woodcock seeing his beloved horse ridden so badly, and brutally, his reaction was far more visceral. Young Woodcock thought it incredibly dumb to have Bobby Lewis riding Phar Lap in the Cup. Being so close to Phar Lap, Woodcock also looked upon Lewis’s ride with even greater distrust.
“Bobby Lewis, he didn’t go very generous with Bobby Lewis and of course Bobby stirred him up pretty well at the barrier and of course when he did he jumped out and couldn’t hold him, fought him all the way until about the three furlong post and when he let him go to race he went back into the field and then he finished on again and finished third. He had a dreadful mouth after the poor horse, he could hardly eat for three or four days after, his mouth was cut about that much.”*
* Wositzky, Jan & Woodcock, Tommy, “Me and Phar Lap”
By the reception Lewis received on his return to scale from a raucous crowd horrified by his riding, he explained to the press just how the whole thing went pear shaped on him.
“The slow pace was all against my mount while it suited Nightmarch and Paquito down to the ground. I was afraid it would be a muddling run race and that is what beat Phar Lap. I let him stride out from the seven furlong post but it would not have been wise to have him go at his top at that stage. He hung out all the way due to the slow pace. The way in which the race was run reminded me of the cup won by Posinatus, though I didn’t ride in that race.”*
On the other hand, Roy Reed was naturally jubilant by what had just transpired.
“I had a splendid run. Nightmarch was always there being third for most of the way. I did not have to check him at any stage. He didn’t pull when the pace was slow and galloped kindly throughout. It was a treat to ride him as he gave no trouble. I was still third at the home run and as soon as heads were turned for home I pulled him to the outside and he came right away at the finish. I did not have to use a great deal of vigour towards the finish and did not put the whip on him. He is a great stayer and a great horse. In New Zealand I rode him only twice but this is my fifth win on him.”*
* Sportng Globe 6 November 1929
What is not so well documented, Eric Connolly made yet another fortune when he picked up £180,000 for himself and others, which included bets for Louisson, and all those associated with the Nightmarch stable including McAuley, Reed and Nightmarch’s strapper Harry Donovan. Bets probably extended to Connolly’s friends Lou Robertson and of course Bobby Lewis, for a job well done. Like many in racing, even Tommy Woodcock, who considered Lou Robertson one of the very best trainers he had ever seen, knew of the long connection between Robertson and Connolly and particularly Eric Connolly and Bobby Lewis. Champion Grand National jockey and trainer Fred Rimell once commented on one of Jim Old’s pathetic rides, “If Jesus Christ rode his flaming donkey like you just rode that horse, then he deserved to be crucified!”* So many punters watching their hard earned cash being transferred into Eric Connolly’s coffers, held the same opinion of Bobby Lewis after this horrible 1929 Melbourne Cup ride. An opinion still held by the racing fraternity at the time of the great jockey’s death in 1947. Many still believed had it not been for Lewis, Phar Lap would have easily won the 1929 Melbourne Cup.
*Biteback Dictionary of Humorous Sporting Quotations By Fred Metcalf
In most instances, Phar Lap’s woeful Cup run should have warranted a closer examination by the VRC stewards. Punters all over Australia, and New Zealand, lost thousands by the unexpected result and not a peep from officialdom. Some wondered if the stewards were watching the same race as everyone else. By the time you are fifty years old and considered the best jockey in the land, Bobby Lewis knew where the bodies were buried. Among them, the hundreds of rides for VRC chairman Lachlan Mackinnon where some of those results were also a little mysterious. It was rumoured by Tommy Woodcock that Lewis mentioned to Mackinnon should he see the inside of a stewards’ inquiry, he would mention the horses pulled under his instructions.* Unsurprisingly, the whole brouhaha blew over with the only casualty being Lewis’ now trashed reputation.
* Tommy Woodcock conversation with Simon Wincer 1984
Eric Connolly played his cards very close to his chest. For decades it was almost impossible for him to personally approach a bookie unless hurriedly placing bets in the middle of a race, for which he was a past master. Just making his way into the betting ring produced an instant hoard of punters ready to pounce onto anything Connolly chose to back, like seagulls on a chip. It also meant anything Connolly was backing saw those odds instantly shrink on first contact. Most of Connolly’s betting during 1929 and 1930 were placed through an army of trusted commissioned agents. For Alf Louisson, who was not considered a big better, his brief association with Connolly reaped huge dividends. Louisson publicly acknowledged his manager’s role in winning a Melbourne Cup. He also acknowledged, by losing the Metropolitan, Connolly managed to avoid Nightmarch receiving a ten pound penalty, which would have been difficult to overcome in the 1929 Cup run home. Louisson took home the Epsom, Cox Plate and Melbourne Cup and for a supposed non-better, £90,000 in stakes and proceeds of bets laid by Connolly.* Noting how Eric Connolly coped with the intense pressure of holding, in today’s value, tens of millions of dollars’ worth of bets, Alf Louisson stated, “His temperature probably rose from zero to freezing point.”
* Hickie, David “Gentlemen of the Australian Turf” 1986
Both the 1929 Caulfield and Melbourne Cups were connected to what was to transpire the following year. But there was one more race through the 1929 spring that can also be connected to this 1930’s dubious Caulfield-Melbourne Cup double. Run in the next meeting after the Melbourne Cup, the program includes the Batman Stakes, Flemington Stakes and VRC Handicap. It also includes the C.B. Fisher Plate. The Fisher Plate remained a star studded affair. Many believed Amounis probably should have won the Caulfield Cup in 1929 but for the brilliant riding of Billy Duncan on High Syce. The same could also be applied to the Melbourne Cup where people were still mystified how Nightmarch could possibly have beaten Phar Lap. From questions to flashes of anger, most aggrieved punters came to the conclusion there was only one reason why Phar Lap came a distant third – Bobby Lewis.
In the Fisher Plate, Jim Pike rode Phar Lap again. Maude Vandenberg lined up the bookies, challenging them straight up with her backing of Amounis, and most were courageous enough, or foolish enough, to pick up the gauntlet.* The field included Black Duchess, Winalot, Second Wind, Lineage, Balmerino, Petheus, Temoin, Quick Reward, Kidaides, Prince Don, Mollison, Highland alongside Phar Lap, Nightmarch, Amounis, High Syce and Carradale.* However, many trainers and owners had not been enjoying this carnival and particularly competing unsuccessfully against Phar Lap. Most acknowledged the Melbourne Cup an aberration not about to be repeated in the Fisher Plate. They began vacillating whether to stay or go in the Plate. With this stellar field remaining intact, Maude Vandenberg made hay, having a field day placing her bets at much longer odds than Amounis warranted. Then it happened. As the spectre of Phar Lap loomed, horses started being entered into other races on the program. The Fisher Plate may have been the meeting’s feature race, for the other trainers and owners, those other races on the program without Phar Lap were at least winnable.
* Truth 10 November 1929
One by one, a steady procession of horses being swapped out of the Fisher Plate and as far away from chasing Phar Lap as possible. Second Wind won the VRC Handicap from Prince Don. Balmerina moved over to the Final Handicap and came third while Temoin ran third in the Batman Stakes.* Yet again the bets for Amounis were on early and with the presence of both Nightmarch and Phar Lap still in the Fisher Plate meant the odds for him remained incredibly attractive. Then Nightmarch withdrew on the Friday followed by Phar Lap’s very late scratching on Saturday morning. Punters were ropable. Maude Vandenberg, on the other hand, almost shot out the lights with a champagne cork before the race even started. By the time they did run, this star studded line up had been whittled down to a three horse match race. The only other horse besides Amounis and High Syce would be VRC chairman Lachlan Mackinnon’s colt, Carradale. Most racing critics accepted this would be a two horse race between Amounis and High Syce. Carradale may have presented as a good colt but was never in the same class as either the Caulfield Cup winner High Syce or the extraordinary Amounis.
* Sporting Globe 9 November 1929
In a race where punters were genuinely divided between their backing of High Syce and Amounis, most noted the older horse having far fewer races over the spring than High Syce. Predictably, Carradale, was made to look as if he should have been entered into a Selling Plate for while Amounis wiped the floor with High Syce, Carradale fared even worse. Amounis allowed the other two horses some ground only to swallow them up on the run home. The win was impressive but even more impressive were the betting wins of Maude Vandenberg, Billy Pearson and Frank McGrath. In isolation, the Fisher Plate was just another very good weight for age win for Amounis. In what was to transpire with the 1930 Caulfield Cup, the Fisher Plate in 1929 starts looking very much like a dress rehearsal.
A week after Nightmarch showered Eric Connolly and the connections in riches, he suffered a near fatal heart attack.
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