The Melbourne Cup

Words: Unknown
Tune: Traditional (The Camooweal Races)



I went to see the Melbourne Cup
The Derby and the rest.
But of all the races I have seen.
The Cup it was the best.
There were but sixteen starters,
The pace was very fast.
And what we know, young Hales came home,
The winner at the last.

Go it Tommy Hales, my boy.
And I will back on you.
Hold him in a little while
And he will pull you through.
For if you win this race today,
You're the champion of the land.
And so he did, he won it too
The Melbourne Cup so grand.

Another from The Big Book of Australian Folk Song.:

The Melbourne Cup was collected in 1957 from Mr Brisbane, 81, of Hawthorn, Vic. He told me that when he was a boy he often heard songs of this nature being sung in the streets of Melbourne by broadside sellers. He said that frequently they were printed before a big race and were regarded as forecasts.

If this one belonged to that class then it was a sound tip, for the winner of the 1880 Melbourne Cup was Grand Flaneur, rider T Hales.


The Melbourne Cup is Australia's best known horse race.

The illustration to this post is a photograph of Grand Flaneur.