62 140 YEARS AGO A race carrying the name ‘Wangoom Handicap’ was first run on Tuesday 11 May 1886, over a distance of one mile. Only two years later the distance was reduced to six furlongs. From at least around early last century the WRC’s lists of winners of the Wangoom Handicap stretched back a little further to include a six furlong race that was run between 1880 and 1885. The reason for choosing the name ‘Wangoom’ is elusive but it is likely that it was chosen to honour Francis Tozer, the longtime owner of Wangoom Park and a giant of the first fifty years of racing in Warrnambool as an owner, breeder, administrator and steward. No race at Warrnambool has continuously carried its current name for as long as the Wangoom Handicap. 100 YEARS AGO The weight allocated to the great sprinter-miler Waranton in the 1926 Wangoom Handicap now reads like a typographical error. The son of St. Anton was burdened with 11.12 (75.3kg) in a field with a minimum weight of 6.7 (41.3kg). Back in the day handicappers challenged great horses, rather than treating them kindly. At Flemington on Derby day in 1925 Waranton won the Cantala Stakes (now the Champions Mile and run on Champions Day) over a mile. In the autumn of 1926 he finished third in the Oakleigh Plate and fourth (to Heroic) in the Newmarket Handicap. At his next start Waranton equalled the Australasian record for seven furlongs in the Bourke Welter at Flemington. After wins at Caulfield and Moonee Valley the gelding was freshened for a tilt at a race his owners and breeders, Bob and George Chaffey, from near Casterton, dearly wanted to win. Hughie Cairns was engaged to ride. Cairns restrained Waranton in the early stages of the Wangoom. About a furlong from home the gelding quickly asserted his superiority and won by three-quarters of a length, accompanied by the deafening roar of an adoring crowd. In the lead-up to the 1927 Wangoom all interest centered on what impost the handicapper would allocate to the weight-carrying champion. By this time Waranton had added the Futurity Stakes to his record, defeating the champion mare Valicare in the race in which the brilliant but erratic Manfred wheeled away from the tapes as they Wangoom Handicap First Run 1880
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