Think Big: The 1975 Melbourne Cup

Winning a Melbourne Cup twice as a racehorse is a rare feat. Many have tried. Five have succeeded, in a span of 164 years. Four were absolute champions, worthy of their place in the Australian Racing Hall of Fame. Three famous stallions: Archer, Peter Pan, Rain Lover. One legendary mare: Makybe Diva, who scaled the heights three times.

There was a fifth horse in this elite club: Think Big, the gelding.

His racing career did not quite shine like the others. In total he achieved eight wins. He won just twice at Group 1 level: his two Melbourne Cups. But before dismissing him as just ‘a handicapper’, we should, well, think again.

Now, let’s have a look at the other multiple winners.

Archer won the first two Melbourne Cups. Both times he travelled from New South Wales – not walking, as stories used to say, but by sailing ship, which was no easy voyage. In both wins he was ridden by Sydney jockey, John Cutts Dillon, beating the top class Melbourne horse, Morman. The second time, Archer won carrying 10 stone 2 pounds, which is 64.4 kilograms.

His dual Cup triumph was not repeated for another seven decades. Peter Pan won his two Melbourne Cups with a gap year between. He, too, was from New South Wales, a handsome chestnut with a legion of admirers. His wins were in 1932 and 1934. Bill Duncan rode on the first occasion. The second win was on a heavy track. With Darby Munro in the saddle, he carried 9 stone 10 pounds, or nearly 61.8 kilograms. Peter Pan accumulated 23 wins and seven placings in his brilliant career.

Rain Lover, from South Australia, was the next dual winner, in 1968 and 1969. What a champion! His weight the second time was 9 stone 7, or 60.3 kilograms. All the way up the straight under the vigorous riding of Jimmy Johnson, Rain Lover fended off a determined challenge from the lightly-weighted Alsop, with 12 kilograms less on his back. In total, Rain Lover won 17 good races with 18 placings.

Makybe Diva won the first of her three successive Cups in 2003 with the light weight of 51 kilograms. The second time she carried 55.5 kilograms. When she and jockey Glen Boss made racing history with her third Melbourne Cup in 2005, she carried 58 kilograms. This represented two kilograms more than weight for age for a mare. Her career tally of 15 wins included an Australian Cup, Sydney Cup, Tancred Stakes and a Cox Plate.

How does Think Big compare with these? At his first Cup victory, he carried the relatively light weight for a five-year-old of 53 kilograms. This gave him a two kilogram weight advantage over his champion stablemate, the mare Leilani who had just won the Caulfield Cup. Trained by Bart Cummings, both horses reached peak form at the same time. On Derby Day, three days before the 1974 Cup, Think Big won the 2500 metre Hotham Handicap, while Leilani won the 2000 metre weight-for-age Mackinnon Stakes.

Harry White had been reluctant to ride Think Big in the Hotham after the horse’s underwhelming run a week earlier in the Moonee Valley Cup. But the jockey was buoyed by the optimism of Bart Cummings. In the preceding year Think Big recorded five wins, plus a good third in the 3200 metre Brisbane Cup behind Igloo, a Melbourne Cup placegetter. The trainer was proved right.

On the strength of his Hotham Handicap win, Harry White happily took the mount in the Cup. The punters expected the classy Leilani to have the edge. She started sentimental race favourite, with Think Big at 12/1. But she could not hold him off in the final stages of the race. They passed the post first and second, respectively. It was Bart’s fourth Melbourne Cup, and his third winning quinella.

The 1974 racebook shows the owners as ‘Mr R. O’Sullivan and Mr C.N. Tan’. Mr Tan is remembered more formally in Melbourne Cup history as Dato Tan Chin Nam – 'Dato' being an honorific title in Malaysia. After the 1974 win, Dato Tan bestowed a share in Think Big on his friend Tunku Abdul Rahmen, the retired inaugural prime minister of independent Malaysia.

For a while, this seemed an empty gesture: Think Big did not win any more races for a full year. But Cummings and White kept the faith, aiming for a second try at the Cup. The 1975 victory is the true measure of Think Big’s ability.

To win the Melbourne Cup for the second time, Think Big had to carry an extra 5.5 kilograms, meaning 58.5 kilograms, on a damp track.

Once again he had to defeat a well performed stablemate, this time Holiday Waggon, recent winner of the Moonee Valley Cup. Serious punters dismissed Think Big’s chances after a plodding run in the Mackinnon on Derby Day. But that race was too short for him. He was a different horse when it came to the Melbourne Cup.

There was now a dream that Think Big might return for yet another Melbourne Cup, despite not winning a race since his 1975 triumph. The VRC handicapper thought he was up to the task, allocating Think Big 62 kilograms. The only horses ever to have won with more were Archer, Carbine, Poitrel and Phar Lap. He remained a contender until a few days before the 1976 Cup, when it became clear to Cummings that the horse’s racing days were over.

Think Big had already given Harry White his own special place in Melbourne Cup history. Harry went on to win two more Cups, in 1978 on Arwon and in 1979 on Hyperno, equalling Bobbie Lewis’s jockey record for Melbourne Cup wins. After Think Big retired, the jockey repaid the favour by giving the gelding a lifetime retirement home at his farming property at Gisborne. By his reckoning, this was a champion superior to all the others.

Start small. Think big.