Derryn Hinch stole a Melbourne Cup from Lloyd Williams
As super owner Lloyd Williams celebrated a Melbourne Cup victory he had no idea Derryn Hinch was plotting to make off with the spoils of victory. This is what Hinch did when he stole the Cup.
Entertainment
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Broadcaster Derryn Hinch had admitted to ‘stealing’ a Melbourne Cup from super owner Lloyd Williams.
Hinch made off with the 1985 Melbourne Cup won by What A Nuisance, which was owned by Williams and the late Melbourne restaurateur Dennis Gowing.
Williams added his seventh Cup to his trophy cabinet on Tuesday with the victory of Irish galloper Twilight Payment in Australia’s greatest race.
“Yes I did, I did steal the Melbourne Cup,” Hinch confirmed on the Herald Sun Sacked Showbiz podcast of a wild night after the 1985 Cup.
“I’d been at this restaurant (Gowing’s in East Melbourne) and they were both sitting there, the two owners, with the jockey and they were saying they were going to win the Melbourne Cup.
“I said, ‘well if you do give me some of it for Save the Children.’
“First off Lloyd promised me 10 per cent of the winnings and then Dennis offered me 10 per cent of the winnings, and in those days 10 per cent was a lot of money.
“What a Nuisance, I tipped it on air. It won and that night we first of all went to the Southern Cross Hotel for the trainer’s dinner and I got up and made a speech about how great these guys were and the $120,000 in total they had promised for Save the Children and the Variety Club.”
Hinch then headed to the famed Maxims restaurant in Toorak Road where the Williams family was celebrating.
“Dennis Gowing turned to me and said, ‘Lloyd already has a Melbourne Cup’,” Hinch recalled, noting Williams won his first Cup in 1981 with Just A Dash.
“He said, ‘they promised me if we won I would get it for the first six months’, and I said ‘have you still got the limo here?’ I said, ‘OK, when I give you a nudge in the ribs just take off, trust me, just take off’.
“Suddenly I see Mrs Williams (Lloyd’s wife Sue) put the Cup down on the table, I’d belted him in the ribs, I grabbed the cup, I raced outside, not knowing it was worth about $70,000, and we are in the limo driving back to his restaurant and I am waving it out the window.
“I am lucky a tram didn’t hit it and take it to Chatswood.
“We took it back to Gowing’s restaurant and he passed it around all the tables full of champagne so everybody could have a drink from it.
“So yes it is true, I have been known to steal the Melbourne Cup.”
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