Racism and the Melbourne Cup
By Jorge Andres
Australian history likes to recall its underdogs and battlers. Everyone seems to recall the game that Collingwood won against all odds, the horse that came from nowhere and the painter on the Harbour Bridge called Paul Hogan. But the national memory has a black spot — white actually — when it comes to the battlers who first inhabited this land.
Archer was the name of the horse that won the first Melbourne Cup in 1861. The 1984 film by the same name placed David Power, the strapper, in the jockey's seat. Power's claim to history: he was white, or at least not black.
In many other countries, at least some nominal pride is taken in the achievements of indigenous people who have fought the odds. Usually it's patronising or tokenistic, but it's not totally denied.
Australian history can't even bear the thought that a blackfella named John Cutts was the jockey on that first Melbourne Cup winner.
John Cutts worked for horse trainer Etienne De Mestre at his Terrara property on the Shoalhaven River in central southern New South Wales. Cutts rode Archer to victory in not only the first, but also the second Melbourne Cup. No-one can recall a younger winning jockey, and only five others have ever won two successive cups. Another one for the history book that is yet to be written.