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POSINATUS WINS THE MELBOURNE CUP. The Melbourne Cup. tbe most valuable handicap of the world, was rim over the famous Flemington track at .Melbourne, November 4. The distanee of the race is two miles and it was won by J. Chambers llve-vear-old gelding, Poslnatus, carrying OS pounds, with B. Allens five-year-old bay inare, Be-loe, 17 pounds, second, and A. G. Whites three-year-old colt, Ulvus Isle, 01 pounds, third. Twenty horses ran and the time scored, 3:31, suggests a slow track in favor of the light weights. The net value to the winner was 3S,4S5, the second horse taking ,000 and the third ,000. Concerning the tljree placed horses autl their owners, "An Australian," said in London Sporting Life of November 5: "The Australian public naturally love the favorite to get home, but when he fails the next best thing Is to have the sensation of the unexpected to marvel over and gossip about. Posinatus has not been a champion. In moderate company he failed rather badly In the Hawkesbury Spring Handicap of one mile and a quarter, carrying 121 pounds, such a little while back as September 2S, but that would not mean that he would he a good horse for the ring, or that a fair number of the general public would not reap advantage from his success. His owner, Mr. .1. Chambers, is one of the shrewdest racing men in Australia. Dozens of big coups have been brought off by his stable In richly endowed handicaps. Yet despite his extraordinary knack of winning with horses at very long odds, he has no actual following outside his own district, which adjoins the coal country at Newcastle in New South Wales. "Possibly he has never done anything more remarkable than winning the Melbourne Cup with Poslnatus. Euglishmen should be pleased, since tile live year-old hay gelding is by imported Fortu-nn : us out of tlit- New Zealand-bred mare Waaka-tika. His two-year-old record Is summed up in the mournful word unplaced. It was not that he flew at big game; lie was actually a midget among the minnows. At three years the story is even balder, for It reads no record. The spell did him good, because, after finishing nowhere in some country races, he struck form at the Australian Jockey Club December meeting and subsequently won three minor handicaps of one and a quarter miles in moderately good time. Tills year his track form was so good that he was made the metlium for a pluuge at Hawksbury. but failed to give 2S pounds away to Sir Vive, a .gelding which claimed 7 pounds allowance. "Bclove, the properly of Barney Allen, one of the most venturesome and plucky bookmaker-owners of Australia, Is a beautifully-built five-year-old bay mare bv llautbrion Adoration. Hautbrion, of course, boasts St. Simon blood. Like Posinatus, the- mare had a very modest career as a two and three-year-old. Out of six tries as a youngster she could not get iuto a place and as a three-year-old the best she was callable of was to run fourth in a third-division handicap at a small suburban meeting near Melbourne. You can hardly name any form that would lie poorer. l.st year she was sent traveling, and change of air improved her. She won in the eounrvy, she won In the suburbs, she won in Melbourne, she went over to -Tasmania and took the Hobart Cup. one and a half miles, carrying 104 pounds, in 2:30. That was in January . In the following April she went across to Sydney and finished second in the City Tattersalls Cup, 1 3-S miles, varryiug 100 pounds in 2:23, although in March she had been nowhere in the Sydney Cup, two miles, with only Oil pounds in the saddle. Beautifully bred, of splendid size and quality, ruuning back on one side to St. Simon and on Hie other to Minting, Ulvas Isle would iudeed have been a fraud if he had not achieved something cn the race course. He is a lovely grown bay or brown colt, with a blaze down the face, and is owned by a rich squatter. He was bought as a yearling for 050 guineas, which at the time was considered a falrlv big price, but when he appeared as a two-year-old most judges admitted that he promised to be cheap at the money. As a two-year-old ho was only started, in two races; consequently he was not overtaxed, but his form was sufficiently good to justifv his being entered for the principal races of the present season. As a young three-year-old he ran unplaced in the Chelmsford Stakes, in which Duke Foote beat Berragoon. At the end of September he was beaten half a length by Tofua. which is bv imitfirted Featherstitch, in the Hawkesbury Guineas of one mile, when he carried 117 pounds. He probablv started in the two Derbys, but did not get placed". Let Into the Melbourne Cup at the minimum. 01 iwunds, ho has, as I anticipated, proved the three-year-old that could, witli weight off, turn the tables oh the champion Berragoon."
