13 LEILANI: THE WILL TO WIN The Group 1 TAB Australian Cup has a history stretching back 162 years. Prominent among the champions on its honour roll is the stellar mare, Leilani – fifty years ago. For those who saw it, the win stays fresh in the mind. Think of the greatest race mares of recent decades – sprinters and stayers. Before Winx and Black Caviar, there was Makybe Diva. Before Makybe Diva, there was Sunline. These champions won the hearts not just of racing fans, but of all Australia. Before them, there was Leilani – the beautiful black or brown New Zealand-bred filly by Oncidium from Lei. It is fifty years since she won the Australian Cup as a four-year-old mare, in March 1975. It was her thirteenth win in her first twenty starts, and what a collection of victories these had been. After taking the Princess Handicap (Adrian Knox Stakes) and AJC Oaks at Randwick as a three-year-old, Leilani in the spring of 1974 won the Turnbull Stakes, Toorak Handicap, Caulfield Cup and Mackinnon Stakes. She came into the 1974 Melbourne Cup as a firm favourite but, ridden by Sydney jockey Peter Cook, was beaten into second place by her dour stablemate, Think Big. Right from the start, Leilani had secured more than her share of publicity, as much for her good looks and ability – she won at her first start in South Australia – as for her glamorous, high-profile owners. Bart Cummings secured a lease of Leilani as a yearling filly from her breeder, Ian MacRae, and throughout her turf career she raced in Australia under the partnership of Andrew and Susan Peacock and Ian and Elizabeth Rice. ABOVE: Peter Cook rode Leilani to victory in the 1974 L.K.S Mackinnon Stakes on Derby Day. She the ran second to stablemate Think Big in the Melbourne Cup just days later. (VRC Collection) OPPOSITE: Painting of the mighty Leilani by Michael Jeffery. (VRC Collection)
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