On This Day: Phar Lap’s unforgettable Cup victory

He arrived at Flemington under police escort and barely made the weighing-out deadline. Then Phar Lap gave Australians a Melbourne Cup victory they would remember for generations.

On November 4, 1930, Australia’s favourite chestnut had plenty to contend with before the Melbourne Cup even began.

Phar Lap arrived late at the racecourse, was hurried to the blacksmith for his racing shoes and made weighing out just in time. Earlier hail and rain had left the track wet.

With Jim Pike aboard, he settled into fourth place. About 400 metres from home, Pike let him go, and Phar Lap surged to the front to claim the Cup. Ninety-six years later, that victory remains central to his legend.

The New Zealand-bred champion also won on all four days of that year’s Flemington carnival. Yet this would be his only Melbourne Cup victory.

For Australians facing the Depression, his success offered something to cheer about. Newsreel cameras near the winning post preserved the occasion, allowing later generations to watch the horse their parents and grandparents had spoken about with such affection.

The Beatles get cheeky with the royals

On November 4, 1963, the Beatles performed at London’s Royal Variety Performance before the Queen Mother and Princess Margaret. Introducing Twist and Shout, John Lennon asked those in the cheaper seats to clap, then added: “And the rest of you, if you’d just rattle your jewellery.” British television viewers saw the recording on November 10, six days after the performance.

The first step towards treasure

On November 4, 1922, Howard Carter’s excavation team uncovered the first step leading to Tutankhamun’s tomb in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings. It was the beginning of an extraordinary discovery, rather than the moment the treasures were revealed. Carter first peered into the antechamber on November 26; the burial chamber was opened the following February. The excavation would become one of archaeology’s most celebrated stories.

Born on this day

Loretta Swit, beloved as Margaret “Hot Lips” Houlihan in M*A*S*H, would have turned 89. She died in 2025.

Ralph Macchio turns 65, remembered for The Karate Kid and Cobra Kai. Matthew McConaughey, whose films include Dallas Buyers Club, turns 57.

Do you remember?

Did your parents tell you stories about Phar Lap?