1974 Melbourne Cup: Harry White and Think Big

It is 50 years ago since Harry White took the ride on Think Big to record his first Cup victory and the fourth of twelve for trainer Bart Cummings.

But leading into the Cup it was another Cummings horse that was all the rage. Namely, the high-profile Leilani.

High profile in that she was raced by prominent Melburnians Andrew Peacock and Ian Rice along with their wives Susan Peacock, later Sangster, and Elizabeth Rice.

Andrew Peacock, ‘the colt from Kooyong’, was a prominent politician and Foreign Minister at the time under the Fraser Liberal government.

He would go on to lead the party and all but win the 1990 federal election. In racing terms, let’s just say, he lost in a photo by a ‘bob of the head’.

Similarly, Ian Rice was a successful businessman responsible for introducing the KFC franchise to Australian shores. He was a Melbourne City Councilor and would also become a dual premiership president of the Carlton Football Club in 1981 and 1982. He also ran twice for the position of Lord Mayor of Melbourne.

But back to the 1974 Melbourne Cup. Leilani was the 7/2 favourite fresh from victory in the Caulfield Cup and a star 3YO filly of her year having won the AJC Oaks in the autumn by 5 lengths.

Not much you couldn’t like about this near-black mare and with a campaign which also boasted victories in the Turnbull Stakes, Toorak Handicap and Mackinnon Stakes, she was the public elect.

With a re-allocated weight of 55.5kg – including a 3.5kg penalty for winning the Caulfield Cup – the handicapper didn’t miss her, but she looked well up to the task.

Think Big, on the other hand, was your typical Cummings New Zealand stayer targeted for one race and one race only. The Melbourne Cup. He struck ultimate form the Saturday before winning the Hotham Handicap (now The Archer, run in mid- September) and with an attractive weight of 53kg for a 4YO gelding stormed down the centre of the track to beat the popular stablemate by a length.

At the 150th Melbourne Cup Symposium in Canberra back in 2010 highlighting the importance of the Melbourne Cup, the Honourable Andrew Peacock recounted in his dry, self-deprecating way, “I got over Essendon losing (by 83 points) the 1983 Grand Final when I was No.1 ticket holder – eventually … and managed to regroup after losing the 1990 federal election to Bob Hawke, despite recording more votes … but I never quite got over losing the 1974 Melbourne Cup with Leilani.”

Think Big had been on a handicapper’s preparation in the spring of 1974, racing with seven lead-up runs including The Metropolitan Handicap (last); Coongy Handicap (7th) and Moonee Valley Cups (8th). Until victory in the Hotham Handicap three days before, he hadn’t seen the winner’s stall since the Queensland Winter Carnival when securing the Sir Winston Churchill Stakes.

But this was a typical Cummings preparation of a horse programmed to peak on the First Tuesday in November. He was the previous year’s Flemington winner of the Carbine Club Stakes on Victoria Derby Day and only needed to get into the 1974 Cup field with a reasonable weight to be a serious threat. With a third in the Brisbane Cup to Igloo, Cummings knew he would improve and he knew he would get the two miles.

White was also in fine form and, along with Roy Higgins, was on a short list of Cummings preferred riders. Bart was a very good judge of horse flesh but an even better judge of people – particularly jockeys!

In his autobiography titled, ‘Bart – My Life’, Cummings said of Harry White “As a rider, he had good soft hands and great patience.

“The more relaxed riders came from Victoria, in my observation, and none of them was more relaxed than Harry White,” he is recorded as saying.

In the same reference he reflected on the 1974 Melbourne Cup and his own fourth Cup victory, “Harry desperately wanted to get on Leilani in that Cup. We were having a bit of a jockey shortage at the time. Roy Higgins and Mick Mallyon were both suspended after infringements in the Caulfield Cup.

“And I’d booked Peter Cook for Leilani in the Mackinnon and the Melbourne Cup. Peter was the son of a great rider in Billy Cook (1941 and 1945 Cups) and at the time was emerging as one of the very good younger jockeys.

“I wouldn’t be moved on this and to Harry’s (temporary) chagrin, he had to ride Think Big. After the Hotham Handicap win, however, Harry began to have second thoughts; maybe he was on a good thing after all!,” Cummings added.

It was also the first of four Cup victories for owner Dato Tan Chin Nam who, with his famous checkerboard silks, would also part own and race Saintly (1996) and Viewed (2008).

Like several Cummings Cup winners, Think Big was bred in New Zealand, secured for $10,000 at the Trentham Sales. His sire Sobig was a winner of the 1964 Great Northern (New Zealand) Derby and would be a strong source of stamina siring a number of quality stayers including 1972 Caulfield Cup winner, Sobar and star weight for age performer, So Called, a winner of the 1978 Cox Plate.

The victory was the third quinella in the race for Cummings and saw the emergence of White as an elite judge of pace and a quality rider of stayers, although in a career boasting three Newmarket Handicaps and four Lightning Stakes victories, he was just as adept to the short course at Flemington as he was at a distance.

In the 1974 Cup, Cummings recalled “White let him (Think Big) drift to the rear and at the half mile a number of tired horses were falling back on him from the front portion of the field. To his credit, White held his nerve and guided Think Big steadily through the weakening pack, avoiding the worst of the interference. But he didn’t get clear until the furlong.

“White said he didn’t give himself a chance until the 300-metre mark, when Think Big ‘was really starting to wind up, so I pulled him out wide, and hoped for the best’.”

For Cummings and White, it would be ‘déjà vu’ the following year with Think Big, only the third horse in the history of the race to win back-to-back Melbourne Cups. He’d carry 58.5kg to victory that year, the highest weight successfully carried in the Cup in the past 50 years.

They would also combine together in 1979 when another New Zealand bred horse, Hyperno, would duly salute, albeit narrowly, over Salamander ridden by Cummings’ ‘other’ rider, Roy Higgins. Higgins notably had the option on the winner.

For White, Melbourne Cup history will record him as the joint record holder, with Bobbie Lewis, on four Cup victories. He had 24 rides in the race for four wins and no minor placings.

It was a race that White said in one of his last interviews before his passing in October, 2022 “I felt like it was my race”. With four wins in six years, it was a claim hard to refute.

When asked about the result of the 1974 Cup, Cummings said, “I beat myself! I won’t deny it – a part of me was disappointed that Leilani got beaten. But it’s a nice consolation when the winner is the stablemate.”