Cummings, who died in 2015 aged 87,
trained an astonishing twelve Melbourne
Cup winners in his long career, the last of
them in 2008.
In 2015, a local jockey, Michelle Payne,
won the race for local trainer Darren
Weir on the New Zealand-bred Prince of
Penzance, one of the rank outsiders in the
race – and the cheering has never since
stopped. Michelle was the first woman
ever to ride the winner of the Melbourne
Cup. Without rancour she expressed her
pride in taking the most coveted prize
against the best male riders in what she
characterised, with some justice, as still a
'chauvinistic sport'.
Every year creates an extraordinary Mel-
bourne Cup story. So why is that American
racegoers really know so little about one
of the greatest races in the world? All Cup
