23 Cup winner Light Fingers (she won the Oaks in 1964) through to Faint Perfume in 2009. What has been forgotten is that Bart shares this record with the same James Wilson of St Albans. Wilson’s Oaks winners were My Dream (1868) who also won a Victoria Derby; Sunshine (1872), and then in successive years from 1875 to 1879 Maid of All Work, Briseis, Pardon, Melita and Petrea. Royal Maid’s win was in 1881. The last of the nine, sometimes wrongly attributed to the trainer’s son, was Nitre in 1899. Briseis, as is widely recognised, was an exceptional filly who that week also won the Derby and the Cup, a unique treble. Twenty years later the South Australian Auraria came close to repeating the feat: third in the Derby before winning the Cup and the Oaks. It is hard to single out the best of the rest. Frances Tressaday (1923) has to be one of them, the last filly to win the Victoria Derby, after Furious did the same in 1921. Carlita (1914), Wilari (1911) and Lady Wallace (1905) all won that double. Evening Peal (1955), like Light Fingers, won her Melbourne Cup a year later. Chicquita (1949) was South Australian-filly, Auraria, finished 3rd in the VRC Derby and won the Melbourne Cup before going on to win the 1895 VRC Oaks. (VRC Collection)
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