A stud etched in history
GEELONG’S St Albans Stud and its role in hiding the legendary Phar Lap in the lead-up to his 1930 Melbourne Cup win was given an airing earlier this month in this paper on Melbourne Cup Day.
St Albans Stud was once known as the home of the Melbourne Cup.
By 1901, five Melbourne Cup winners — Briseis, Auraria, Newhaven, Merriwee and Revenue — had been bred at St Albans Stud, while another, Aurum, had finished third. In addition, Don Juan, an import, who won the 1873 Melbourne Cup, had been trained there.
St Albans Stud was founded in 1872 by James Wilson, a Yorkeshireman whose training credits include the legendary Briseis and Don Juan.
The jockey who rode Briseis in its successful 1876 Melbourne Cup campaign was Peter Bowden, a 13 year old who was rumoured to have been an illegitimate son of Wilson.
The jockey died at Breakwater in 1898, and his funeral at Eastern Cemetery was attended by sporting identities from Melbourne, Ballarat and beyond.
Wilson’s son, James Jr, later trained Merriwee during its successful 1899 Melbourne Cup campaign.
By that time St Albans had changed hands several times, and by the 1890s it was in the hands of another Wilson.
William Robert Wilson, a South Australian who was not related to James Wilson, had bought the property in 1890, and continued the stud’s racing tradition.
But WR Wilson had created a sensation halfway through the 1890s when he decided to sell the property and livestock by lottery.
The lottery was run by George Adams, of Tattersalls, with 125,000 one-pound tickets. But Wilson had second thoughts halfway through the process and bought several thousand tickets himself in an attempt to keep the property.
A Seymour syndicate won the major prize and Wilson was able to buy back the bloodstock the syndicate did not want. Wilson bought back the property in 1896 and kept it until his death in 1900.
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