Auckland Cup

The Auckland Cup is an annual race held by the Auckland Racing Club (ARC). It is an Open Handicap for thoroughbred racehorses competed on the flat turf over 3200 metres (two miles) at Ellerslie Racecourse in Auckland, New Zealand. The race is graded as a Group One (G1) and was first contested in 1874.^[1]

For years, the Auckland Cup was the richest horse race in New Zealand. It recalled such names as Beau Vite, Howe, Kindergarten, Beaumaris, Yeman, and Froth, and a consistent runner of the 1880s, Australian champion Nelson, who greeted the judge at the head of the field three times in four years.^[2]

The Auckland Cup is currently run for a purse of NZ$500,000. Since 2006, the race is contested on the second Saturday of Auckland Cup Week at the beginning of March. It was run on Boxing Day from its inception until 1958 and then on New Year’s Day from 1958 to 2006.

The first meeting of the [Auckland Racing] Club was in May 1874. One of the events, run over a distance of  1 ¹⁄₂ miles, was named the Auckland Cup. This race was won by Mr. J Watt’s three-year-old Batter. At the Summer Meeting of 1874 the Auckland Cup was run on Boxing Day over a distance of two miles and in subsequent published records of the club this race is shown as being the first official, recognized Auckland Cup contest.^[3]

This race was won by Templeton who must have been an impressive horse as to inspire Thomas Bracken (composer of 'God Defend New Zealand')^[4] to write a requiem of sorts to his fading prowess called Old Templeton. The day was reviewed positively in the December 28 issue of the New Zealand Herald,^[5] and was found to be absent of ‘sheanannaking’ and ‘hanky-panky’ and that everything was ‘above-board’ and ‘up hill and down straight’.^[6]

Winners since 1997

Previous winners

References

See also

• Auckland Cup Week