No horse has ever won the Caulfield Cup - Melbourne Cup twice, but no horse has come closer than Rising Fast.

Biography

TRAINER: Jack Winder, Ivan Ticker, Fred Hoysted

OWNERS: Leicester Spring

RACE RECORD/STAKE MONEY: 68 starts: 24 wins, 17 seconds, 2 thirds/£66,765

Major Wins 

• Melbourne Cup
• Caulfield Cup (twice)
• W.S. Cox Plate
• C.B. Fisher Plate (twice)
• L.K.S. Mackinnon Stakes (twice)
• C.F. Orr Stakes

About

Rising Fast can lay claim to have been the greatest handicap stayer ever to run in Australia.

Like most great horses, Rising Fast was intelligent and observant: he was fascinated by anything that moved, from his animal friends, to aeroplanes, to motor cars. As a racehorse he was endowed with a "big race" temperament, and could rise to the occasion with immense displays of strength and stamina.

Purchased at auction in 1950 for just 325 guineas, he did not race as a two-year-old. As a three and four-year-old in New Zealand he won seven races from 22 starts in mediocre company.

Brought to Australia in 1954, he rapidly showed his true qualities when he was switched from sprint races to longer distances. In the spring of 1954, he established a record sequence by winning in succession the Turnbull Stakes, Caulfield Stakes, Caulfield Cup, W.S. Cox Plate, Mackinnon Stakes, Melbourne Cup and C.B. Fisher Plate.

In 1955 he won a second Caulfield Cup carrying a record weight of 9st 10lbs (61.5kg). Penalised for this win, Rising Fast had to carry a huge 10st (63 1/2kg) in the Melbourne Cup. In a roughly run race, in which he twice suffered interference, he was narrowly beaten by the lightly weighted Toparoa.

Rising Fast was retired in 1956 with the then record stake money of £66,765.

Rising Fast was inducted into the Australian Racing Hall of Fame in 2002.

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