October
SeptemberThe original master
Let’s harken back to the mid 19th century when, from the then small coastal NSW hamlet of Nowra, an enterprising young horseman with a power-plus racehorse set the foundation for Australia’s most unique social and cultural event, the Melbourne Cup.
In the early 1850s, after three years as a jockey, Etienne de Mestre (born 1832) sought to further his involvement in racing and, in partnership with his older brother Andre, leased part of the family property Terrara to set up a comprehensive equine facility.
With abounding enthusiasm and ability, he acquired a select group of patrons. With a combination of his patrons’ horses and home-breds, de Mestre won several feature races including the inaugural inter-colonial Champion Challenge in 1857.
Veno, the NSW champion trained by de Mestre for George Taylor Rowe, defeated the Victorian champion at Flemington in front of 20,000 spectators.
In 1861 the De Mestre brothers inherited the remainder of Terrara on the death of their mother, and devoted the entire property to horses.
In the same year the Victorian race calendar listed a two-mile cup worth £700 to the winner, and Etienne immediately declared his tough stayer Archer would win it.
It’s history that he did, and big-punting de Mestre cleaned out many bookmakers backing Archer at prices from 8/1 to 6/1. In 1862 he duplicated the result at 2/1 — another big payday.
In 1863, Archer, de Mestre and staff arrived in Melbourne to be informed that Victorian race officials had contrived a sham to refuse his nomination.
Other interstate trainers boycotted the race in sympathy, and so it was that the third Melbourne Cup had only seven runners. Ironically, due to injury, Archer would have been unlikely to take his place anyway.
De Mestre would saddle up Archer only once more, without success. Plagued by injury, the horse was retired in 1864 to the paddock where he’d been foaled, on his owners’ property at Jembaicumbene, near Braidwood (NSW).
De Mestre continued to focus on the Melbourne Cup, winning it three more times for a total of five, a record that stood for 99 years.
Although successful as a trainer and owner, de Mestre did less well as an investor in Queensland property. At 51, in 1883, he was forced to auction off Terrara to pay his debts.
When his health began to fail, his friends organised a successful benefit race meeting for him, the proceeds of which allowed him to live quietly but comfortably until his death on his family dairy farm at Moss Vale in 1916, at the age of 84.
Woonona Beach (NSW)