14 Magic VRC DERBY DAY Changed your mind and missed the winner of the Derby? You must be a drongo! Is that great piece of Aussie slang falling into disuse – like drop kick and flamin’ galah? The drongo who turned the name into a sometimes affectionate insult was a racehorse a century ago. As a thoroughbred, he was far superior to most but he never quite made it to the top. Magic sometimes works that way. Usually the result is happier. Last year a colt sired by the French Derby winner Almanzor magically transformed the lives of the Flannery family from Queensland. Manzoice was the third horse they had ever raced, and at just his sixth start he won the 2022 Penfolds Victoria Derby. Derby Day does that. It creates magic. If you can explain magic without spoiling the mystery, it has something to do with time travel. The past – here, 168 years of tradition at Flemington – intersects with today. A new Victoria Derby winner will appear. Many champions immortalised in the Australian Racing Hall of Fame first achieved recognition through the Victoria Derby. Eighteen winners went on to take a Melbourne Cup, the most recent Efficient who won the 2006 Derby and the 2007 Cup. The most famous was Phar Lap. An additional eighteen Derby winners became subsequent Cup placegetters. The roll call of champion Victoria Derby winners extends far beyond these. Tulloch, for a start, Tobin Bronze and Sailor’s Guide; in more recent times, Dulcify, Taj Rossi and Daryl’s Joy, Mahogany and Red Anchor. The sprinting champion, Sky High, won the 1960 Derby. Slip back further into Australian racing last century, between the two world wars. Whittier and Manfred are there. So too is Frances Tressady – the last filly to have won the Victoria Derby against the colts and geldings, exactly one hundred years ago. Inadvertently, she helped make the runner-up, Drongo, a household name. The Filly and the Drongo By Andrew Lemon
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy ODA1NTI=