Melbourne Cup winning jockey could have been 12-year-old kid

It wasn’t another jockey who likely robbed 12-year-old John Kavanagh of the 1865 Melbourne Cup – it was bad spelling.

Toryboy races to victory in the 1865 Melbourne Cup ahead of Panic.

It’s taken more than 150 years, but the jockey who in all likelihood won the 1865 Melbourne Cup can finally receive credit where it’s due.

Victoria Racing Club historian Dr Andrew Lemon believes a 12-year-old named John Kavanagh probably rode Toryboy to victory that year, but has never been acknowledged for his triumph.

And the mix-up all began with a simple spelling error.

Kavanagh is the subject of a new episode of the free In Black and White episode on Australia’s forgotten characters:

Dr Lemon says it’s always been known that John “Cavanagh”, 18, won the Cup in 1871, riding The Pearl at odds of 100-1.

But his research reveals it was probably the second time John won the Cup, six years after Toryboy triumphed at 50-1 in 1865 – when the jockey was only 12.

According to official records, “Kavanagh” was the winning jockey in 1865, and “Cavanagh” in 1871.

“It’s always been assumed those two jockeys are different people,” Dr Lemon says.

Toryboy (grey), winner of the 1865 Melbourne Cup. Painting by Samuel Salkeld Knights. Picture: State Library Victoria.

Newspaper reports going back more than a century insist they were two different jockeys.

As our stablemate, The Weekly Times, reported in 1912: “These jockeys were not identical.”

But Dr Lemon now believes in all likelihood they were one and the same.

Decades after the event, reports claimed the 1865 winner was a Eugene “Nuje” Kavanagh, the son of a South Melbourne hotelier, but Dr Lemon says records suggest no such jockey existed.

What’s more, the teenager named as John “Cavanagh” who won in 1871 always spelled his surname as Kavanagh.

His parents were Kavanaghs, he was born Kavanagh, he married as Kavanagh, he placed a newspaper notice as Kavanagh, and he died as a Kavanagh.

Also, in all results in Sydney and Melbourne in 1864-77, races were won sometimes by “Cavanagh” and sometimes “Kavanagh”, but the two names never competed against each other.

In short, it appears a whopping spelling blunder led to the erroneous belief that two different jockeys won the 1865 and 1871 Melbourne Cups.

Racehorse Toryboy, winner of the 1865 Melbourne Cup.

While John Kavanagh was only 12 in 1865, pre-teen jockeys were not unusual in colonial days.

Peter Bowden, aka Peter St Albans, was 11 when he won the Melbourne Cup in 1876.

John Kavanagh never claimed to have won the Cup twice, but no-one ever interviewed him for his life story.

The most compelling evidence is a report from The Herald in 1865, after the “Wirth’s Whip” was awarded to the winning jockey at the Haymarket Theatre after the Cup.

“Before the burlesque was performed, John Cavanagh, the rider of Mr BC Marshall’s Toryboy, the winner of the Melbourne Cup, was presented with a silver-mounted whip by Mr Collins,” The Herald reported.

“The lad appeared in his colours, and after bowing his acknowledgments left the stage.”

Prominent 1800s racehorses including The Pearl (top), the 1871 Melbourne Cup winner.

The rival Argus newspaper also reported the event, spelling his name Kavanagh, but omitting the boy’s first name.

“The thing that really fascinated me was that that is a contemporary report naming the jockey as John Cavanagh, not Eugene Kavanagh,” Dr Lemon says.

“I wouldn’t say it’s an open and shut case, but I do believe that there was only one Kavanagh riding in that period, I believe it was John Kavanagh.

The ornate end of the silver-mounted whip presented to John Kavanagh, the winning jockey of the 1871 Melbourne Cup.

“And I think unless somebody who’s a descendant of a mysterious Eugene Kavanagh … can come up with a silver-mounted whip inscribed to the winner of Toryboy, then I reckon there’s a pretty strong case that there was one Kavanagh that rode both of those horses.”

Listen to the interview about John Kavanagh with Dr Andrew Lemon in the In Black and White podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or web.

See In Black & White in the Herald Sun newspaper Monday to Friday for more stories and photos from Victoria’s past.