THE RACE THAT STOPS A NATION

I remember when I was in Year 4 at Primary school the Melbourne Cup  was televised for the first time. The year was 1960. It was the year that Graham Thorne was kidnapped in Sydney in a bid to extort money from his parents who had won the Opera House lottery. The Olympic Games had been held in Rome. Elvis Presley, Bill Haley and the Comets and Jonny O’Keefe were being played on the radio.

In those days television was available for one month’s free trial. Now this was a good sales ploy because once television was brought into a home it very rarely ever returned to where it came from. Prior to this any television watching had occurred by looking through shop windows. Television had been introduced into Australia in 1956 and it is estimated that by 1960 1/3 of all homes in Sydney and Melbourne had a television set.

I come from a long line of punters and a search of Trove will show many examples of my Uncles and cousins being fined for illegally taking bets. In keeping with this family tradition Dad decided he would like to have television for the Melbourne Cup – the race that stopped a nation. He said however and he was adamant, that the television would be returned to Churchills from where he and Mum bought it when the month free trial was finished. To receive a signal you needed a mast and antenna to be fitted to the roof of the house. There was great excitement a couple of days before the running of the Cup when we came home from school to see the workmen erecting the aerial. We knew then that it was real and television was coming to Baird Street, the street on which we lived.

The day of the Cup arrived and Dad did not go to work in anticipation of the big event. Hi Jinx was the winner, a brown New Zealand bred mare at the odds of fifty to one. Hi Jinx was the sentimental favourite and my dad had placed a bet on this particular horse. Well because of that bet the television never did go back. Dad said that if he had lost his bet there would be no more television in our house. How lucky he was and more than that how lucky were we.

1960 was the 100th Melbourne Cup and the great thoroughbred Tulloch run in the Melbourne Cup that year and was unplaced (the only time in his racing career).

Those of you that have ever discussed Melbourne Cup with me know that I always have a bet on the Cup and I always have a bet on any mare in the field. Only nine mares have won the cup since Hi Jinx – Makybe Diva winning three times in a row. So I have had a couple of wins. People have assumed that this betting pattern, on my part, is because of my feminist leanings little do they know of this story. I always also have a bet on any grey horse in the Cup and sometimes you do find a grey mare……but my betting wins are few and far between.

Television was only turned on at particular times during the day in our household and if we had misbehaved television privileges were denied. We were not allowed to watch television after a certain time and this was very early on school nights and then only after our homework had been completed. 

I remember Hi Jinx fondly and I am thankful for her win as it enabled us to keep the “television.