Race a salute to war horses

SYDNEY: Australian horse Bill The Bastard won a desert race staged to distract from a military offensive that brought down a 400yearold empire.

A century later the Jericho Cup has been revived at Warrnambool as Australia’s longest flat race. The 4600m race for Australian and New Zealandbreds, to be ridden by highweight riders, will be held on December 2 and the field will run through open paddocks and on the Grand Annual Steeplechase course.

The race, marking 100 years since the first Jericho Cup, will commemorate the servicemen, women and Walers — the mounts of the Australian Light Horse Brigade — who served in the Middle East. It is the brainchild of former Victorian trucking magnate Bill Gibbin who was inspired after reading

about the nation’s greatest war horse, by historian Roland Perry.

The original Jericho Cup was an elaborate ruse to distract Turkish forces on the eve of the charge of the Light Horse at Beersheba in 1917. The Australianled offensive is considered the world’s last great cavalry charge.

The race was run over three miles of desert sand. It was won by Bill, a Waler 17 hands high who earned his second name for the habit of throwing his riders. He was ridden bareback by Aboriginal light horseman Jackie Mullgah.

Gibbins hopes the race will become established on the racing calendar. — AAP