With Phar Lap's (NZ) domination in the early 1930s coming at the expense of a number of well-credentialled entires including LS McKinnon's Carradale, the VRC decided to ban geldings from contesting their Classic showpiece and from 1932 until 1956 geldings were not permitted to take part.
During that time frame the race was won by 11 colts who would go on to sire stakes winners, the most successful of those being Talking (1936) and Hua (1937).
That era also saw four Derby winners go on to win a Melbourne Cup - Comic Court, Skipton, Delta and Hall Mark. And in 1955 it was won by Sailor's Guide who took his Group form overseas, taking out (on protest) the 1958 Washington DC International - earning himself inclusion in the Australian Racing Hall of Fame.
The 1957 winner is in there too, in fact he was one of the first inductees and deservedly so - the great Tulloch being one of Australia's most talented and beloved gallopers. His Derby win was recorded at his 19th start and what a win it was - leaving the talented, but oh so unlucky, Prince Darius (Persian Book {GB}) 8l in his wake.
Tulloch | Image courtesy of Wikipedia
The 1950s and '60s would see several more memorable Derby winners - the likes of Sky High, Daryl's Joy (NZ) and Tobin Bronze thrilling racegoers. The latter, with his movie star looks, was particularly popular and lived a deservedly long life.
The son of the VRC Oaks heroine Amarco (Masthead {GB}), whose third dam Sister Olive (Red Dennis {GB}) won the 1921 Melbourne Cup, Tobin Bronze was born in 1962, winning the Derby in 1965 and passing away in California the same year as Blevic won that race in 1994.
Standout Derby winners of the '70s
There were a couple of standout Derby winners in the 1970s - Dulcify (NZ) (Decies {GB}) and Taj Rossi.
The former's sadly short life was one full of drama. From winning his debut in Adelaide at one of the biggest prices in Australian history (300-1), to being banned from air travel by Ansett after he misbehaved on a flight to Perth, to a float breaking down on the way home leaving him stuck in a very hot Ceduna for two days - cooling off with swims in the Great Australian Bight.
Dulcify (NZ) | Image courtesy of Sportpix
Dulcify was having his sixth start when he won the Derby. He went on to claim the AJC Derby on protest and is most revered for his stunning 7l victory in the G1 WS Cox Plate which was so famously described by Bill Collins with the words “Dulcify's going to win by a minute - and that's just the way he might win the Melbourne Cup.”
As we all know, sadly that was not to be - Dulcify sustaining an injury after he was galloped on by the winner, Hyperno (NZ) (Rangong {GB}), during the G1 Melbourne Cup a couple of weeks later, with vets' unsuccesful aftercare it was decided the best decision was to allow Dulcify to rest easy.
Taj Rossi, meanwhile, was considered by the late, great Roy Higgins to be the best 3-year-old he rode whilst Bart Cummings was quoted as saying, “All along I have said that he is one of the best, if not the best, 3-year-old Australia has known in the last 50 years.”
Taj Rossi | Image courtesy of Sportpix
Not afforded great opportunity in regards to numbers at stud, Taj Rossi was represented by 108 winners amongst his 185 starters; three of whom were successful at Group 1 level including the G1 VRC Oaks winner Taj Eclipse who provided a young jockey riding in Cup week for the first time with his first major win - the champion apprentice Darren Gauci.
A career filled with controversy
The 1980s also saw a number of particularly classy Derby winners including Grosvenor (NZ) who joined the list of winners to sire a future winner of the same race - Omnicorp successful in 1987. And his daughter Kensington Gardens (NZ) produced the 1999 winner Blackfriars.
Red Anchor (NZ) was a brilliant winner on the back of taking on the older horses in the WS Cox Plate whilst another to create a big impression at Flemington was the handsome bold front runner Stylish Century (NZ) whose sire Double Century was the horse Dulcify relegated to second in the AJC Derby.
Red Anchor (NZ)
His was a career filled with unrest - a number of trainers, a near drowning incidence in the Flemington pool and a run in the G1 Japan Cup after he had galloped a circuit of the track riderless!
The first two Derbys of the 1990s were won by horses breaking their maidens in the race - Fire Oak (NZ) and Redding (NZ). Sixteen years after the latter's success it was also the first win for an up-and-comer in the shape of Preferment (NZ).
Mahogany (Last Tycoon {Ire}) looked to be a stayer of the future when he put 5l on his rivals in 1993 but following on from his win in the following year's G1 AJC Derby, he changed tack to prove himself one of the best sprinters of the era.
Mahogany | Image courtesy of Sportpix
Memorable moments this century
In the 22 runnings of the Derby this century there have been further memorable moments - in 2003 Elvstroem recording the first of his five Group 1 victories and in doing so becoming the fourth of the mighty Danehill's (USA) winners of the race.
The year after his 2016 win Efficient (NZ) - the first of Zabeel's (NZ) two VRC Derby winners - created his bit of history by becoming the first since Phar Lap to return to the scene a year later with Melbourne Cup success.
Trainer Robbie Laing was excited to claim a link to that legend with his bargain (a $4000 graduate of the Inglis Autumn Yearling Sale) buy Polanksi whose seventh damsire Friday Night (NZ) was Phar Lap's full brother.
Polanski | Image courtesy of Sportpix
A fact that led to some rather amusing coverage by journalists not quite au faux with breeding facts, one headline reading...
“Polanksi -a direct descendant of the legendary Phar Lap.”
Hmmm!
The COVID-19 lockdown Derby of 2020 provided another great story with AFL icon Denis Pagan turning his hand to training - teaming up with Steven King's son Lachlan King to win the race with longshot Johnny Get Angry (NZ) (Tavistock {NZ}).
