Big Day Down Under

One night in 1870 an Australian horse-owner named Walter Craig had a dream: the jockeys in the Melbourne Cup race were wearing black armbands, and leading the pack down the stretch was his own horse, a rank outsider named Nimblefoot. When Craig told about his dream, everybody got a good laugh; one bookmaker offered him odds of -L-1,000 to a cigar. But it meant nothing to Owner Craig when Nimblefoot, his jockey wearing a black armband, won the big race. Owner Craig had died the day before.

This is only one of the stories Aussies tell about the twomile, hell-for-leather cup race that is now far & away the biggest sporting event of teh Australian year. In 1930, when bookies were faced with bankruptcy if Phar Lap won, a car pulled up near the great horse after a workout and a rifle cracked several times. The bullets did not touch Phar Lap (and he ran and won). But in 1941 a horse name El Golea was shot by gamblers who had mistaken him for a stablemate, the red-hot Melbourne Cup favorite, Beau Vite.

Last week, after annual maneuvers off the coast, the Royal Australian Navy put into Melbourne in time to make some bets. They were joined by thousands of high-talking, high-betting landlubbers who overflowed hotels, slept on park benches. There was no overpowering favorite in this year's Cup, and no apparent skulduggery--although Count Cyrano, a lukewarm choice, fell in a workout two days before the race and had to be destroyed.

With the race wide open, a bumper field of 31 horses paraded to the post at beautiful Flemington course. There were nearly 108,000 Australians on hand to watch, and most of the commonwealth's other 7,000,000-odd stopped everything--even streetcars--while they listened by radio. At the start, a lightly regarded speedster named Bruin tripped to the front in the muddy going. Bruin was still leading in the homestretch when three other horses charged up from behind.

The one that charged fastest was Foxzami, a four-year-old bay colt bred in New Zealand and owned by a retired Sydney automobile spare parts dealer. Foxzami, whose fanciers had got odds of 16 to 1, won by a length and a half. The winner's purse: 8,750 Australian pounds ($19,687).

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