October
NovemberThe greatest
I read with pleasure Matt Baldwin’s letter regarding Tulloch (20/11) and I completely agree with him.
Tulloch is certainly the best horse to have raced in Australia in my lifetime. Phar Lap was prior to that, but I cannot conceive that he could have beaten Tulloch of the 1957 spring.
Tulloch won the Rosehill Guineas, AJC Derby, Caulfield Guineas, Caulfield Cup, Victoria Derby and C.B Fisher Plate, all by several lengths.
The official margin in the Caulfield Cup was two lengths but the film clearly shows him winning by almost four lengths and it would have been at least eight if the race was 100 yards longer.
He beat Prince Darius in by eight lengths in the Victoria Derby. Three days later, Prince Darius was beaten a neck in the Melbourne Cup.
Tulloch would have been odds on if he’d started in that cup, handicapped at 12 pounds over weight-for-age, but his owner did not want to run him and he was scratched, robbing Australian racing of something really special.
After his three-year-old season, Tulloch became really ill with a stomach virus and did not race again till he was a late five-year-old. He was never quite the same but he was still great.
His only unplaced run in 53 starts was in the 1960 centenary Melbourne Cup, when he finished a close-up seventh carrying 10.1 (64kg). He was ridden in an extraordinary fashion, in a rearward fashion, and had no hope of winning. The ride raised eyebrows everywhere, but not with the stewards it seemed.
It was remarkable that 10 days earlier Tulloch had won the Cox Plate, then 10 furlongs, in Australasian-record time, without toiling in the rear as in the Melbourne Cup. It was inexplicable.
Nevertheless, Tulloch will always live in my memory as the greatest.
Frankston South (Vic)