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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 was formerly graded as a Group One (G1) event but as from 2022 is a Group 2.

It was first contested in 1874.

History

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, recognised Auckland Cup contest.

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

In 1898 W H Bartlett filmed Uhlan winning the Auckland Cup at Ellerslie Racecourse for the entrepreneur Alfred Henry Whitehouse. This was the first time a horse-race had been filmed in New Zealand.

Scheduling

The race was run on Boxing Day from in its inception until 1958 and from then until 2006 it was on New Year's Day.

Since 2006, the race has been contested on the second Saturday of Auckland Cup Week at the beginning of March on the same race day as the New Zealand Stakes and the Sistema Stakes (Ellerslie Sires Produce Stakes). The 2021 Barfoot & Thompson Auckland Cup was run on Saturday 13 March at approximately 5.30pm. It is typically the second-to-last race run on the final day of Auckland Cup Week.

For many years the Auckland Cup was the richest horse race in New Zealand. However, it has been surpassed in recent years by the New Zealand Derby and Karaka Million two year old and three year old races.

Notable winners

The Auckland Cup has been won by such notable horses as:

Beau Vite (1940) who won the 1940 and 1941 Cox Plate.
Beaumaris (1950).
Castletown (1992) who also won the Wellington Cup three times.
Cuddle (1935 and 1936) who also won the Doncaster Handicap and All Aged Stakes.
Il Tempo (1969 and 1970) who also won the Wellington Cup in world record time of 3:16.2 for the two miles.
Jezabeel (1998) who also won the 1998 Melbourne Cup.
Kindergarten (1942) who was one of five inaugural inductees into the New Zealand Racing Hall of Fame.
Nelson (1885–87), an Australian champion who greeted the judge at the head of the field three times.

Auckland Cup and Avondale Cup double

In recent years the following Auckland Cup winners have also won the Avondale Cup:

Glory Days: 2019
El Soldado: 2016 Auckland Cup and 2017 Avondale Cup
Who Shot Thebarman: 2014
Sangster: 2013
Spin Around: 2009 Auckland Cup and 2007 Avondale and Counties Cups

Race results since 1958

Previous winners

The following are earlier winners of the Auckland Cup.

References

Sporting Records of New Zealand. Todd, Sydney. (1976) Auckland, New Zealand: Moa Publications. ISBN 0-908570-00-7
The Great Decade of New Zealand racing 1970-1980. Glengarry, Jack. William Collins Publishers Ltd, Wellington, New Zealand.