Subjects for a television series involving Melbourne Cup winner The Grafter and his co-star Robert Standish Sievier, who made Errol Flynn look like a choirboy, arose seeking a rose in the French tradition.
The story came from a large stable now used as a tasting room at De Beaurepaire Wines at Rylstone in NSW, which also has the best yum cha joint west of Haymarket.
Winner: The Grafter scored in the 1898 Melbourne Cup at Flemington before moving to England.Credit:Fairfax Archives.
Hansom cabs, huge plunges, royalty and even Nellie Melba figure in the storyline but The Grafter made the pace.
The Grafter was a huge animal renowned for being ugly unless you backed him, particularly in the 1898 Melbourne Cup when Australia bred for stamina not speed.
Sievier, though, was a cad but among his attributes he was a horseman, a saddle edge on Flynn whose memoirs were titled My Wicked, Wicked Ways.
Flynn rode in The Charge Of The Light Brigade, a black and white film epic, but on a rocking horse.
“In like Flynn” became a much used phrase but Sievier had an eye for beauty, an ear for music and a lust for backing a winner. Thus he latched onto The Grafter.
The grapes are good at Rylstone and the ground also had the right nutrition for thoroughbreds because it gave The Grafter a great foundation for a remarkable and durable career.
The Grafter was beaten in the 1897 Melbourne Cup but had done enough to warrant 9.2 stone (58kg) as a five-year-old gelding which didn’t stop him from winning. In the same week he scored in a Flying Stakes a sprint and the CB Fisher Plate over a mile and a half.
Obviously regarded as too good for the Colonies, The Grafter was sold for 2000 guineas, a big price at the time, to race in England where he won the City and Suburban Handicap landing a “colossal betting plunge” launched by Sievier, one of the most remarkable characters of the Australian and English turf.
Sievier, foaled in a London hansom cab, came to light in Australia as a gambler of substance and was the first to use a clerk and bagman bookmaking in Adelaide. He returned to England by boat in 1886 on which he was involved in a seaboard romance with “Mrs. Armstrong” who was travelling with her husband and son.
Sievier was taken by her rendition of Tosti’s Goodbye. She later became Dame Nellie Melba.
Back home he launched a form guide or scandal sheet, won and lost fortunes, was a leading racehorse trainer and involved in the mishaps. Card players who upset him fell off balconies.
Sieiver played just as hard with females but was accepted in London society to the degree of getting an invite to a Queen Victoria soiree.
Alas, when she heard of his nefarious deeds he was expunged from having ever been on the guest list.
But The Grafter continued to pay his way in England where he was prepared by JE Brewer, who had been an amateur rider and trainer in Australia. Apart from the City And Suburban the gelding also scored in the Prince Edward Handicap at Manchester where Sievier was reported to have won another £20,000 on him taking the net result from The Grafter to £50,000.
Brewer lost touch with The Grafter when he was sold but on a return visit to Australia divulged he spotted him pulling a hansom cab in Earl’s Court. Out of sentiment he attempted to buy the old gelding but the offer was declined.
“He’s the best cart horse I’ve had for 30 years,’’ he was told.
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