1876 Melbourne Cup

1876 Melbourne Cup
Melbourne Cup
LocationFlemington Racecourse
Date7 Nov 1876
Distance2 miles
Winning horseBriseis
Winning time3:36.25
Final odds13/2
JockeyPeter St Albans
TrainerJames Wilson
OwnerJames Wilson
SurfaceTurf
Attendance75,000
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The 1876 Melbourne Cup was a two-mile handicap horse race which took place on Tuesday, 7 November 1876.[1]

This year was the sixteenth running of the Melbourne Cup. The race is most famous for winning jockey Peter St Albans (real name: Micheal Bowden) who became the youngest Melbourne Cup winning jockey at 12 (he was actually a few days shy of his 11th birthday).[2] Briseis, who won the Doncaster Handicap at two, won by two lengths and was the first of three fillies to win the race the Cup. She also completed the VRC Derby and Melbourne Cup double.[3] Briseis won in a field of 33 and "The boy who rode the winner was carried around the pack and is the hero of the day" reported the Australasian Sketcher.[4] Both Peter St Albans and Briseis have now become racing legends.[citation needed][according to whom?]

This is the list of placegetters for the 1876 Melbourne Cup.[1][2]

Place Name Jockey Trainer Owner
1 Briseis Peter St. Albans James Wilson James Wilson
2 Sibyl Phelps
3 Timothy D. Nicholson Etienne De Mestre
  1. ^ a b "1876 Melbourne Cup MillersGuide". millersgudie.identika.com.au. Retrieved 27 May 2022.
  2. ^ a b "1871 to 1880 Melbourne Cup Winners". races com au. Retrieved 28 May 2022.
  3. ^ O'Reilly, Paddy (2016). "Briseis (1876)". Facts, Stats & Trivia of The Melbourne Cup. Melbourne: New Holland Publishers Pty Ltd. pp. 26–27. ISBN 9781742579054.
  4. ^ "The Melbourne Cup of 1876". Australasian Sketcher. Vol. IV, no. 48. South Australia. 25 November 1876. p. 6 (Adelaide Edition). Retrieved 30 September 2021 – via National Library of Australia.