Australia’s most famous race, the Melbourne Cup, is known as ‘the race that stops a nation’. Victorians even enjoy a public holiday on the day! Communities and workplaces all over Australia down tools and get together, often around the BBQ, to watch this historic race.
Did you know the winner of the very first Melbourne Cup, Archer, was owned by Rowland Hassall?
It’s important to understand the significance of the horse in early Australia. Bear in mind that Archer won the inaugural Melbourne Cup in 1861, well before Henry Ford invented the car. Horses were the main form of transport, and working horses did the heavy lifting in industry and on the farm, making them without question the most valuable resource in the development of the new colony. Just like Formula 1 car racing today, the Melbourne Cup provided the testing ground for breeders to develop the best horse with the right blend of speed and endurance to suit Australian conditions.
Horses are not native to Australia, and transporting horses from England was a real challenge. When the Hassall Family arrived in Australia in 1798 there were very few horses in the colony. The early settlers were required to breed future generations of horses, and obviously had to develop a breed best suited to Australian conditions.
The Hassall family established some excellent farms around Paramatta and Camden where they built Macquarie Grove, considered some of the very best pastures in the colony. They farmed sheep, cattle and of course horses. Sheep provided the wool necessary to clothe Australia’s increasing population, as well as a major export for early Australia. The Hassall family were actively involved in the breeding and development of the Merino sheep, which adapted well to Australian conditions. History credits Macarthur with the early development of the sheep industry in Australia, yet we believe his neighbours - the Hassall’s - were actively involved.
Rowland Hassall’s son Thomas became the first ordained minister in Australia, tending a Parish stretching all the way to Goulbourn. Thomas needed to cover large distances to provide pastoral care to early settlers, and he gained the reputation as the ‘Galloping Parson’. Thomas needed a horse with stamina and endurance, and the necessary speed to travel between settlements. The Hassall family would have owned and bred horses, and were motivated to breed a good strong stock with a robust constitution, and the endurance required to cope with the vast Australian outback.
The Melbourne Cup is run over two miles (3200 metres) and is considered the ideal test of speed and stamina: the most desirable combination for horses in early colonial Australia. The history books tell us the winner of the first Melbourne Cup, Archer, was owned by Rowland Hassall and Tom Roberts.
There are a lot of Rowland’s in the Hassall family. Rowland H. Hassall was born in 1820 and died in 1904. He was the son of the first Rowland’s third son Jonathon and his wife Mary Rowse, making him the third generation of Hassall’s in Australia. He was also the nephew of the ‘Galloping Parson’, the reverend Thomas Hassall. Rowland H. Hassall was one of the early settlers in Braidwood, which is between Canberra and the coastal settlements at Batemans Bay and Nowra. It was here that Hassall became friends with fellow settler Tom Roberts, where they no doubt shared farming and business interests.
Tom Roberts was the brother of Elizabeth Jane Royds, who was married to a well-regarded horse breeder in the district, Thomas Royds. He was a partner in a farm called Exeter, also located in the Braidwood area. It was Exeter farm who imported the English stallion William Tell, the sire of Archer. Unfortunately, Thomas Royds - ironically an outstanding horseman - fell from his horse and died while chasing kangaroos in 1852. This was four years before Archer was born. Two years after Royds death, his widow, Elizabeth (Tom Roberts sister) married Rowland H. Hassall.
After his marriage Hassall, together with Elizabeth and her brother Thomas, continued to breed racehorses. They bred Archer, and at least one other Melbourne Cup winner, Tim Whiffler who won in 1867. Archer was born in 1856 at Hassall’s farm, a big strong colt by the aforementioned stallion William Tell, and from the mare Maid of the Oaks. Although Archer’s pedigree was very sound, for reasons unknown his owners preferred not to register their horses in the Stud Book, which placed him in the category of ‘short pedigree’: so officially, Archer was not considered a thoroughbred.
As was quite customary at the time, Archer was leased to his trainer Etienne de Mestre who had stables near Nowra. Archer was obviously an outstanding racehorse, and arguably one of the very best in Australian racing history. He was a tall 16.3 hands strongly built bay stallion with a long stride, and a pleasant nature. He wore the distinctive colours of all black with a black cap, and he often made his run from the back of the field with a powerful finish.
There’s an urban myth that Archer walked or was ridden from his home in NSW all the way to Melbourne for the Cup. Truth is that he travelled from Sydney, where he’d been racing, to Melbourne on 18th September (6 weeks before the Cup) on a steamship called ‘City of Sydney’ and arrived in Port Melbourne three days later. Archer was accompanied on that trip by his trainer Etienne de Mestre and his jockey John Cutts. While in Melbourne he was stabled at St Kilda Park, now known as Albert Park, where he was trained in the open spaces as well as the salt water at the local beach. It is believed that John Cutts was one of the first Aboriginal jockeys, who was given his opportunity as most of the colonial stockman had fled to join the gold rush which was at its peak at that time.
The first Melbourne Cup was run in 1861, and was quite an event. Leaving the straight the first time two horses fell, and another bolted off the track. Cutts held Archer back until the field settled, and then gave Archer his head to stride out along the back straight, steadily passing the other runners and he was leading as they entered the straight and continued to power home and win by an impressive six lengths. Archer started at 8/1, and it’s believed that his trainer, Etienne de Mestre, had some large bets and took a lot of money from the Melbourne bookies. The next day, Archer backed up in the Melbourne Town Plate, also at Flemington, and won again.
The following year – 1862 - the now six year old Archer was back in Melbourne for the second Melbourne Cup. This time Archer was 2/1 favourite and carried the top weight of 10 stone 2 pound, which is about 64kg. It was the largest ever field in Australian racing at the time with twenty horses assembled. Jockey John Cutts held Archer back where he was last by several lengths. Gradually Archer moved past tiring horses, and on entering the straight had a lot of ground to make up on the leaders. Archer continued to make ground with his long stride and took the lead about 200 metres from home to win by eight lengths. This remains the greatest winning margin in the Melbourne Cup, matched only by Rain Lover in 1968.
Not only did Archer win the first and second Melbourne Cups, he was well on the way to ‘equine immortality’ with the possibility of a third Melbourne Cup, but there were dubious bureaucratic issues with his entry. Apparently, the entry was logged via telegram in time, but there was a public holiday in Melbourne, and the telegram wasn’t delivered until after Cup nominations were closed. We may speculate the power brokers or bookmakers who stood to lose another fortune were highly motivated to ensure that Archer didn’t run. This caused an uproar in racing circles, and outraged many other owners, including all those from New South Wales who withdrew their horses from the race in protest. As a result there were only seven starters, all local Melbourne horses, attendance was down and the event was a disaster for the Victorian Turf Club.
The winner of the 1867 Melbourne Cup, Tim Whiffler was also owned and bred by Hassall and Roberts and leased to the trainer Etienne de Mestre. In a most unusual circumstance, there were two Tim Whiffler’s running in the 1867 Melbourne Cup. The winner, owned by Hassall was from Sydney and the other Tim was from Melbourne, to distinguish they were referred to as Sydney Tim and Melbourne Tim.
Rowland H. Hassall, his wife Elizabeth, and Roberts became extremely successful horse breeders, and were involved in owning and breeding many successful racehorses at the time, possibly including other Melbourne Cup runners. The area around Braidwood, where Hassall had his farm, became a popular horse breeding district. One of Australia’s legendary trainers, Tommy (TJ) Smith was born and raised in the district, and he trained the winner of the 1955 Cup Toparoa as well as the 1981 winner, Just a Dash. His daughter, leading Sydney trainer Gai Waterhouse, trained Melbourne Cup winner Fiorente in 2013.
Rowland appears to have been a friend of the Dangar family who were major participants in horse racing. The Dangar family purchased the Hassall family property Macquarie Grove at Camden in 1877, and they bred the champion Peter Pan, who won the Melbourne Cup in 1932 and 1934, in the golden years of racing, after Phar Lap’s famous 1930 Cup win.
Old Rowley won the Melbourne Cup in 1940 at the amazing odds of 100/1, but I haven’t discovered a family connection. We know it’s a Hassall name, my own grandfather, Rowland was known as Old Rowley, his son Rowland, and his son (my cousin) Rowley all carry the traditional family name. Even though we can’t prove a family connection, we know of at least one family member who had a ‘decent wager’ with the local SP bookie and won a small fortune. It’s likely that Hassall’s all over Australia cleaned up on the punt.
Horse racing is obviously part of my own DNA, and I’ve had an interest in quite a few, mostly slow horses, and enjoyed some nice wins in regional Victoria, but never at Flemington and never even close to a Melbourne Cup. The closest I managed to get to the Melbourne Cup was sitting next to the Cup winning owner on a flight to Sydney who graciously allowed me to hold his famous trophy. And if truth be known, I’m that guy at the Cup BBQ with beer in hand, proudly bragging that my ancestor, Rowland Hassall owned Archer. And when they don’t believe me, I just tell then to ask Google.
As we piece together the Hassall Family history in early colonial Australia, in this case their relationship with horse racing and breeding, we welcome any tidbits of information that can add to the rich history of the Hassall family in early Australia.
Written by John Hassall (AEJABA)
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