100 years since ... Spearfelt's 1924 Victoria Derby

His young owner, Douglas Campbell Grant of North Melbourne, bought Spearfelt at the 1923 Inglis Sydney Easter yearling sales for the proverbial song. Was Douglas Grant a lucky man? It depends on your definition of luck. Luckier than many of his generation, not least because he survived.

Tall, dark and handsome, as in the story books, Douglas Grant at the age of 20 in 1914 had gained his father’s permission, just weeks after the outbreak of war, to enlist with the Australian Infantry Force. He fought at Gallipoli and then on the Western Front in France, where in 1917 he was gassed, and evacuated to hospital in England.

Diagnosed with ‘cardiac dilatation’ or enlargement of the heart, he was eventually sent home to Australia to convalesce. There was plenty of time to study the racing news.

Four years later, using deferred army pay and on the advice of Melbourne trainer Vin O’Neill, Douglas Grant bought the yearling who became Spearfelt.

The studmasters at Widden, where Spearfelt had been raised, had a high opinion of the colt. ‘Very full of class, all wire, fine head,’ they noted, long before the sale. Journalists loved the family tree. The sire was an imported English stallion, Spearhead, son of an English Derby winner, Spearmint, grandson of the mighty Carbine himself. There was an English Oaks winner high in the pedigree. So why did he sell for just 120 guineas when the top priced colts fetched thousands?

The story was later told. Spearfelt’s Victorian breeder, John Vincent Smith, had decided to dispose of most of his classy horses. In 1921 he sold a well-bred mare, Lady Champion, with her new Spearhead foal at foot, to the Thompsons at Widden Stud. Alas, on the ship’s voyage to Sydney, Lady Champion died. The little foal survived, hand-reared, later put to foster mothers at Widden. As a yearling, the colt was undersized. Superstition about orphaned foals deterred potential buyers. Not Grant.

Spearfelt grew. He showed promise as a two-year-old: second at Caulfield to Heroic at his first start before winning good races at Flemington and Randwick. In those early contests, Grant appeared as owner in race books as ‘Mr D.C. Kamesburgh’, in partnership with O’Neill. His ‘nom-de-course’ was a tribute to the name of the mansion on North Road, Brighton which became Anzac Hostel for recuperating soldiers.

The racehorse’s success story nearly came unstuck at the end of that three-year-old season when Spearfelt fell heavily in the 1925 Sydney Cup at Randwick. He recovered but for a year his confidence deserted him. Grant bought out O’Neill’s share in 1926, just before those most lucrative wins in Spearfelt’s career. O’Neill persisted as trainer, Hughie Cairns the winning rider.

When Spearfelt retired with over £28,000 in earnings—a huge sum for the times—Grant sold him to Queensland studmaster, Tom Jennings, for a further 1300 guineas.

There is another twist to this story. Smith, the breeder of Spearfelt, had long nursed an obsession to breed a Melbourne Cup winner, buying properties and particular horses to achieve his goal. As far back as 1900 he purchased Carbine’s Australian son, Wallace, at auction, put him to all his best mares at his Bundoora Park stud, and restricted the number of outside mares. Wallace duly sired two Melbourne Cup winners—Kingsburgh and Patrobas— but neither were from mares owned by Smith.

In his quest J.V. Smith engaged the best trainer in the land, James Scobie, the best jockey, Bobbie Lewis, and together they had huge success in other big races—but, as a team, never took the Cup. Oaks winners and Derby winners, yes, but never the Cup. After Wallace died, the ageing Smith more or less gave up his quest, selling Bundoora Park, progressively reducing his bloodstock. Hence the sale of the ill-fated Lady Champion and her foal, to Widden.

Smith died in Toorak in March 1922. He never knew his greatest ambition would be achieved. In the record books, J.V. Smith is the breeder of Spearfelt, winner of the 1924 Victoria Derby— and of the 1926 Melbourne Cup. Was Smith a lucky man? As we say, it depends on your definition.