Almanac Books: An Extract – ‘Touchstone: Racing, Racing Men and Racehorses’ by RM Griffiths & MG Bird

 

Leading up to the Melbourne Cup next week the Footy Almanac presents an extract featuring a great racing man, Samuel Griffiths, the great grandfather of Almanacker Richard Griffiths from Touchstone by Richard and Murray Bird.

 

The first edition of this rollicking read has sold out but a reprint is in the pipeline. If  you are interested in a copy please email Richard for details: [email protected]

 

 

 

 

Touchstone: Racing, Racing Men and Racehorses
The life and times of Samuel Griffiths 1865-1937 – RM Griffiths & MG Bird.

 

Samuel Griffiths witnessed his first Melbourne Cup in 1877 at the tender age of nearly 12 years. That day set him off on a life-long journey devoted to the Turf. He was to become a newspaper editor, handicapper, historian, horse trainer, jockey, journalist, newspaper proprietor, racecourse judge, roustabout, stipendiary steward, bloodstock agent, writer and more. He was a devoted husband and father, adventurer, entrepreneur, race-track philosopher, storyteller, truth-seeker, and a raconteur. He was eccentric, humble, humorous, opinionated, and, most importantly, ethical. Extensively researched and written from the heart the story to be told is of the life and times of Samuel Griffiths – he led a fascinating life

 

 

Extract from Touchstone – The 1877 Melbourne Cup.

 

In 1877, just prior to his twelfth birthday, Sam attended his first Melbourne Cup in the company of 70,000 race goers. The massive crowd was swelled by turf enthusiasts from across the colony of Victoria and smaller numbers from the other colonies of Australasia. The Cup’s importance to a Melbourne population of less than 300,000 was clear. On a population basis, if the same proportion of people from London attended the Derby that year, over four million patrons would have been present at Epsom Downs.

 

Horse racing was emerging as the premier sport in Australia. The rugby and Australian football codes in winter, and cricket in the summer, were a long way behind the turf in the consciousness of the broader Australian public. Cricket and footy were popular sports, but while horse racing in Britain may have been referred to as the “sport of kings”, in Australia, it was the king of sports.

 

Sam viewed the 1877 Cup from a stone wall on the steeplechase course. The stone wall and the steeplechase course were on the inside of the main course and accessible from an area then known as the Flat. As the name suggests, the Flat did not avail the punters of an elevated viewing position; other than the stone wall. The stone wall was also located near the winning post. It was the only elevated viewing-position on the Flat for a diminutive eleven-year-old.

 

On the first Tuesday of November in 1877, the stone wall was packed with enthusiastic onlookers and punters; all of them straining to catch a glimpse of the big race. As the Cup-field thundered to its conclusion down the Flemington straight, Sam recalled his uncontrollable excitement when seeing champion jockey Paddy Piggott making the winning move on his mount, Chester. Race reports indicate that Chester received severe interference on the home turn, seemingly ruining his chances of winning, only for Piggott to lift the horse with his vigorous riding, and bring it back into contention.

 

Young Sam had placed a wager on Piggott and Chester, and when the pair hit the front he jumped in the air, lost his balance and teetered precariously. In attempting to break his inevitable fall, he clutched at the nearest person. This caused a chain reaction as Sam plummeted to the ground with half the people on the wall cascading downwards with him; with all the tumblers consequently missing the race finale. Sam’s embarrassment was brief:

 

The curses flung at me were loud and deep. Who cared! Chester had won and I raced off to collect a fortune. About twenty shillings I think.

 

Of his own life, the Chester story was the first of hundreds of turf anecdotes that Sam was to share. He shares his sense of his excitement that day. I have tried to equate it with my own thrill of witnessing my first VFL Grand Final 90 years later, in 1967. That day set me on the road to a life in footy.

 

Having never experienced the thrill of the punt, I searched for others’ descriptions. I also wanted a deeper understanding of Sam’s early fascination with the turf. Racing aficionados and literary-types pointed me to the literature of Australian contemporaries: authors like Adam Lindsay Gordon, Andrew Barton ‘Banjo’ Paterson and Henry Lawson.

 

 

More from Richard Griffiths can be read Here.

 

More from Murray Bird can be read Here

 

 

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