SCHWEPPES THOUSAND GUINEAS: Wednesday, October 14

BMW CAULFIELD CUP: Saturday, October 17

THE three-day Caulfield Cup carnival continues to grow in popularity and regular spring visitors regard it as more than just an exciting lead-up and stepping stone to Melbourne Cup week at Flemington in November.

Melbourne Racing Club attracts the carnival spotlight for The Age Caulfield Guineas meeting on October 10, the midweek Schweppes Thousand Guineas feature on October 14 and then the best lead-up to the Flemington two-mile, the BMW Caulfield Cup on October 17.

Day one of the MRC carnival is highlighted by the $1 million Group 1 Caulfield Guineas, 1600m. The past two years this 3YO classic has been won by top-liners Weekend Hussler and Whobegotyou. It is set to attract a terrific field again this time, headed by Denman and Trusting.

The $500,000 Group 1 Thousand Guineas takes centre stage at the midweek meeting of the Caulfield carnival. This feature, regarded as the most prestigious set weight feature for three-year-old fillies in the land, is modeled on the English 1000 Guineas and run over 1600m.

The crowning show-piece of an amazing week of elite racing, the Caulfield Cup is regarded as the best guide to the Melbourne Cup. Eleven horses have completed the big double, including Poseidon (1096), The Trump (1937), Rivette (1939), Rising Fast (1954), Even Stevens (1962), Galilee (1966), Gurner’s Lane (1982), Let’s Elope (1991), Doriemus (1995), Might and Power (1997) and Ethereal (2001).

The Caulfield Cup was first run in the autumn on 1879 and won by Newminster. In 1881 it was switched to the spring, meaning there were two winners that year - Blue Ribbon in the autumn and Master Avenel in the spring. It was not the only occasion that there were two Caulfield Cup winners in the same year. This occurred again in 1943 when the race was run in two divisions to accommodate the massive number of entries.

What is still considered the worst race fall in Australian turf history occurred in the Cup of 1885, when 16 of the 44 runners fell, resulting in the death of jockey Donald Nicholson.

SOME INTERESTING CAULFIELD CUP STATISTICS

Here are a few interesting Caulfield Cup statistics for racing history buffs:

MOST successful jockeys: Scobie Breasley (won the Cup five times), Damien Oliver (four).

MOST successful trainers: Bart Cummings (6 wins, Tommy Smith 4).

LONGEST priced winners: Saint Warden 1943 at 100-1, Northwind 1935 & Taufan’s Melody 1998 at 66-1; Blinky Bonny 1884 & Imposera 1988 at 50-1.

SHORTEST priced favorites: Tobin Bronze 8-11 (ran 6^th), Tulloch 4-6 (won), Manfred 5-4 (won).

PROTESTS: 1893, Tim Swiveller won but disqualified for causing interference; 1969 Nausori won by lost on protest to Big Filou.

FALLS: 1885, 17 of the 44 runners fell on the turn into the straight resulting in the death of jockey Donald Nicholson (worst fall in Australian racing history); 1906, 7 horses fell.

HIGGINS MEDAL AWARDED TO MOST SUCCESSFUL JOCKEY AT CARNIVAL

The 2009 Roy Higgins’ Medal will be awarded to the jockey who rides the most winners during the three days of the Caulfield Carnival.

The medal will honor champion Roy Higgins, MBE, the greatest living Australian jockey.

Higgins was born in Koondrook on 5^th June 1938 and, after starting his career at Deniliquin in 1953, he went on to ride more than 2300 winners, including almost every major race in Australia.

He retired in October 1983 after 106 Group One wins among 247 at Stakes level and still shares the record (with the late Billy Duncan) of 11 Victorian jockeys’ premierships.

Higgins also left his mark on the Caulfield Cup, with his 1969 win on Big Philou still being the only successful protest in the history of the race that was first run in 1879. He also shares (with Dwayne Dunn) the record of four wins in Victoria’s richest race for two-year-olds, the Blue Diamond Stakes at Caulfield’s autumn carnival.

Higgins, who will be a guest of the Melbourne Racing Club, will present the medal after the last race of the three-day carnival, on BMW Caulfield Cup day. Last year’s inaugural winner was Damien Oliver.

Higgins said he was honored the Melbourne Racing Club again had chosen to recognize the top jockey of the Caulfield Spring Racing Carnival with a medal bearing his name.

Victorian Jockeys’ Association chief executive Des O’Keefe congratulated the Melbourne Racing Club and said the medal would be cherished by any jockey riding at the Carnival.

“Every jockey would consider it an honor to win the medal named after one of Australia’s greatest riders,” he said. “It is a massive bonus that Roy Higgins will be at Caulfield to make the presentation.”

Winners take priority in points scoring. If two or more riders have an equal win tally after the last race on final day then the number of second-placegetters ridden will be used as a count-back. If a further split is necessary, third–placegetters will be taken into account and then, as a last factor, fourth-placegetters will come into the equation.

A dead-heat will be treated as a half-win (or half second or third placing should a count-back be required).

More than one Roy Higgins’ Medal would be awarded only in the unlikely situation of two or more riders finishing the Carnival equal on wins, seconds, third and fourths.

Melbourne Racing Club chairman, Mr Peter Young, said there could be no more prestigious acknowledgement for a medal than to carry the name of Roy Higgins who was an inaugural inductee in the Australian Racing Hall of Fame.

Chief Executive Officer of the MRC, Mr Warren Brown, said the medal would not only acknowledge the outstanding career of Roy Higgins, but would help recognize the major role and contribution jockeys played in the success of the Caulfield Cup Carnival.

HISTORY OF THE MELBOURNE RACING CLUB

THE Melbourne Racing Club conducts 60 race meetings annually at two venues - Caulfield and Betfair Park Sandown. The club employs 1,400 staff, peaking to 2,000 during the spring carnival.

The diverse and professional organization of the present day is a far cry from the fledgling outfit that began its life as the Victoria Amateur Turf Club more than 125 years ago.

The first chapter of the VATC story was written in 1875 when six thoroughbred enthusiasts assembled at Craig's Hotel in the township of Ballarat.

The purpose of the meeting - involving Ballarat Turf Club Secretary E.C. Moore, Norman Wilson, his brother Hector, Herbert Power, A.E. French and F.D. McLeod - was to discuss the idea of establishing a racing club to provide opportunities for the swelling number of amateur riders who were keen for competition.

When the convivial gathering at Craig's Hotel concluded eight hours after its commencement the previous evening, those founding fathers had agreed on the framework for the establishment of the Victoria Amateur Turf Club.

Ballarat's Dowling Forest Racecourse was the location for the first VATC race meeting on Friday, March 24, 1876 - a program that featured six events, five of which were over obstacles.

Buoyed by the success of the meeting, the VATC searched for a permanent Melbourne-based home and quickly focused its attention on the site at Caulfield where, back in 1859, a track had been crudely fashioned from the heath, sand hills and snake-infested swamps.

Sparingly used in its early years prior to being obtained by the VATC through a Crown grant, the course had been almost lost to racing at one point and turned into a cemetery. Laying to rest those uncertain beginnings, it was here where, through the vicissitudes of more than 125 years of VATC occupation, Caulfield Racecourse has grown into an integral feature of Melbourne's sporting and social life.

Having found its Melbourne home, the VATC held its first meeting at Caulfield on August 5, 1876, with the card closely resembling the inaugural fixture at Ballarat.

The Club soon phased out the programming of amateur events and by 1879 had introduced the Caulfield Cup into its autumn schedule.

In 1881, the Club introduced the Caulfield Guineas for three-year-olds and the Toorak Handicap, a mile race for open age horses. Even more significantly, the Caulfield Cup was switched to the spring and the race was held twice in the same year - once in the Autumn and again in the spring.

This programming masterstroke created the exalted Cups double that underpins Melbourne's Spring Racing Carnival - the Caulfield Cup followed by the Victoria Racing Club's famous Melbourne Cup at Flemington - a pair of staying handicap races that, along with the Moonee Valley Racing Club's Cox Plate, remain the pinnacle of achievement in Australian racing to this day.

PHOTOGRAPHS COURTESY OF MELBOURNE RACING CLUB