The Group One Caulfield Cup has a rich history and a well-earned reputation as one of the world’s toughest handicaps. It requires a special blend of stamina and class to win it, and horses sourced from New Zealand’s National Yearling Sales have shown that they have what it takes.
NZB will celebrate the 100th anniversary of the National Yearling Sales at Karaka in January. That century of sales has produced more than 20 winners of the Caulfield Cup.
The first Caulfield Cup was run in 1879, and New Zealand’s affinity for the race was established well before the National Yearling Sales began in 1926. A total of 40 New Zealand-breds have won the great race, beginning with back-to-back successes by Maranui (NZ) (Malatua) and Aborigine (NZ) (Merriwee) in 1908 and 1909 – the latter a dead heat with Blue Book (True Blue).
Later in the 20th century, those early Kiwi-bred winners were followed by a series of top-quality sale graduates, many of whom rank among the most famous names on the Caulfield Cup honour roll.
Rising Fast 1954 and 1955
Bought for just 325 guineas from the 1950 National Yearling Sale at Trentham, Rising Fast (NZ) (Alonzo) went on to have a glittering racetrack career that earned him induction into both the New Zealand and Australian Racing Hall of Fame.
Rising Fast had 68 starts for 24 wins, 16 seconds and two thirds, earning £66,765 in stakes for owner Leicester Spring.
In 1954 he became the first horse to complete the Spring Grand Slam – the Caulfield Cup, Cox Plate (2040m) and Melbourne Cup (3200m). He is still the only horse to win all three races in the same season.
Rising Fast went on to successfully defend his Caulfield Cup title in 1955, and his other feature-race victories included the Caulfield Stakes (1800m), Turnbull Stakes (2400m), Feehan Stakes (1600m), Herbert Power Handicap (2400m), CF Orr Stakes (1600m), Blamey Stakes (2000m), Memsie Stakes (1800m), and two editions of the Mackinnon Stakes (2000m) and Fisher Plate (2400m). He was beaten by a nose in his attempt at a second Melbourne Cup.
Rising Fast is one of only seven horses to win two Caulfield Cups, and just two of those have done it in consecutive years – Rising Fast and the 1906-07 winner Poseidon (Positano). The only horse to record multiple Caulfield Cup wins since Rising Fast is Ming Dynasty (Planet Kingdom), who won it in 1977 and 1980.
Rising Fast was a life-changing galloper for Spring, who looked after the horse throughout a long retirement until his death at the age of 29 in 1978.
“The huge amount of money enabled me to purchase a sheep and cattle farm near Te Awamutu and build a home in Whakatane,” Spring wrote in his book Racing with Rising Fast.
