NEVER BEEN MUCH OF an each-way or exotics bloke. When I bet, I prefer to put it all on the nose. Backing just a single horse for the win leaves me hating just one horse and jockey each time I lose.
Like most of us I bet once a year and with the Melbourne Cup` coming up, it was that time and I wanted to watch it somewhere suitable. Deloraine south of Launceston seemed a fair bet. Malua who won the big one in 1884 was bred there; there’s a statue to him in town and Piping Lane who took it out in 1972 was owned by a local publican.
So, I sort the logistics of getting Super Ten to Tassie and get digging on Malua’s story. He was bred in 1879 and was bought as a yearling by Thomas Reibey, the grandson of Mary Reibey whose dial is on 20 buck notes. Ten years after Thomas became the Archdeadon of Launceston, he was charged by a close friend with groping and sexually assaulting that friend’s wife.
Reibey charged his mate with libel. And lost. The Hobart Mercury exquisitely labelled and he resigned from the Church two years later. He took up farming and horse racing.
