After the brutality of the Great War, a young horse emerged with a very warlike name that lured race fans back to the track

In November 1919, shortly after the conclusion of World War I and the easing of the Spanish influenza pandemic, an impressive crowd of 110,000 individuals gathered at Flemington Racecourse for the annual Melbourne Cup event. Night Watch had won the 1918 Cup, the last of five Cups run during WWI, in which 60,000 Australian men had been killed. This significant event after the war bought the nation to a standstill, capturing the attention and interest of the entire country. Among the starters, at odds of 10/1 was the attractive Artilleryman; something of a contradiction in terms for a race dubbed, "The Peace Cup". He was owned by Sam Hordern, of the famous Sydney retailing family, and his old friend Alex Murphy. Artilleryman was ridden that day by Bobby Lewis. It was the third Cup win for the jockey. In winning the 1919 Melbourne Cup, Artilleryman set a new race record time of 3:24.5 seconds. This was also the first year that the current three-handled 'Loving Cup' trophy was presented to the winning owners, along with the £2972 winners purse.

Artilleryman's sire was the 1910 Melbourne Cup winner, Comedy King, the first British bred horse to win the race. His dam was Cross Battery (NZ) out of the sire Stepniak. A first-class three-year-old in the Dominion, Cross Battery had won the Great Easter Handicap among other races. The colt was foaled in 1916 and held in Melbourne where he was purchased by his Sydney owners. Artilleryman, being bred for stamina and endurance, encountered challenges during his inaugural season. He participated in nine high-calibre races, securing a solitary victory in the esteemed Mona Nursery held at the Caulfield Spring Meeting. It was just as well that Hordern didn’t bring Artilleryman across for the autumn meeting at Randwick. The racing events scheduled in Victoria and New South Wales during the latter part of the summer and into the autumn of 1919 were severely impacted by the deadly global influenza pandemic that was sweeping the world. The clubs were just beginning to recover from the challenges of wartime when new health restrictions abruptly halted all operations. For a time, jockeys were required to wear masks while riding trackwork. The quarantine restrictions imposed on the NSW border by the Holman Government meant that the best two-year-olds on each side of the Murray River didn’t meet that autumn.

After a couple of quiet appearances in unsuitable sprint handicaps early in the new season, the colt announced his arrival on the scene with a narrow victory over a good field of older horses in the Memsie Stakes at Caulfield, securing a nice rails run in the straight. He went on to contest the 1919 AJC Derby, arguably one of the greatest races of that era. After the influenza traumas of the autumn, by the spring, racing in Australia was experiencing a tremendous post-war bonanza with bumper crowds and extensive wagering. 65,000 people turned out at Randwick to witness the racing that day. Two horses fought it out with a tight battle to the line, Artilleryman and Richmond Main, resulting in a dead heat being declared. It was the most dramatic of Derby finishes, a relentless display of class and courage by both horses.

Nobody present seemed to dispute the fairness of the judge’s decision, and it was announced that the stakes would be divided. As it was, Artilleryman drew first blood when the pair clashed again at their next start on Guineas Day at Caulfield. Artilleryman won the classic in a race record from Royal Comedy, with Richmond Main seemingly disadvantaged by his first experience on a left-handed course. The occasion was rather remarkable for jockey George Harrison, who not only won the Guineas but collected the Debutant Stakes, Caulfield Stakes and Toorak Handicap as well, which was viewed as quite an achievement for the era.

The sixty-two-year-old trainer of Artilleryman, Phil Heywood, had enjoyed a successful and colourful career on the Turf. Phil had been a capable rider over hurdles in his youth and had taken part in the first Grand National Hurdle's held at Flemington in 1881. Heywood fell in love with Artilleryman the first time he saw him, but it was the colt’s first serious gallop that really bowled him over. Artilleryman was sent to the post an odds-on favourite for the Victorian classic with as much as 5/1 available about Richmond Main, who went on to beat the colt by half a length. Harrison, who was probably feeling some soreness from an earlier fall, was sharply criticised for his ride and promptly lost the mount to Bob Lewis, who rode Artilleryman throughout the balance of his short career. Lewis’ first booking for the colt came the following Tuesday in the Melbourne Cup, in which he was sent to the post at 10/1, with three older horses preferred in the market. The manner in which he contemptuously strode away from a quality field to win by an official six, but more like ten lengths and slice one-and-a-quarter seconds from the race record was a wonder to behold.  Richmond Main emphasised the class of that season’s three-year-olds by holding on to second placing. Artilleryman went on and won the CB Fisher Plate easily on the last day of the spring meeting decisively beating Cetigne.

Artilleryman unexpectedly encountered a setback during his autumn campaign. Even before the horse had resumed at Caulfield to win the St George Stakes, there were disquieting rumours that all was not well.  Slight swelling of his hock had troubled the horse, and Heywood called on veterinarians from the Melbourne University Veterinary School for an examination.  They agreed that the swelling was only a symptom of what was happening internally with the lymphatic gland, but the position of the swelling made an operation impossible.  Artilleryman seemed to pull up well enough and moved freely without favouring his affected leg after his comeback race, so Heywood pushed on with the autumn campaign. At his next start in the V.R.C. St Leger, he won practically pulling up after leading over the final nine furlongs.  Both the King’s Plate and the Governor’s Plate at weight-for-age fell to him at Flemington, and they then moved on to Sydney. When he was untroubled to beat his likely rival in the A.J.C. St. Leger, Millieme, in the Rawson Stakes, it seemed the only doubt about the red riband was the size of the winning margin against his rivals.

When the horse proceeded to fail to run a place in both the Sydney Cup and the All-Aged Stakes later the same week, it was clear that something was seriously amiss. On January 29 1921, while spelling at Bacchus Marsh, the horse succumbed to internal haemorrhaging, triggered when a tumour growth in the pelvis extended rapidly and ruptured a blood vessel.  By a curious coincidence, his one-time part-owner Alex Murphy also died within twenty-four hours of his former champion. Artilleryman had distinguished himself as a true staying giant within his short life and will always be remembered as a young superstar of Australian racing that emerged just after the end of the Great War.

Record - 26: 11-4-3

Memsie Stakes (1919)
AJC Derby (1919)
Caulfield Guineas (1919)
Melbourne Cup (1919)
C.B. Fisher Plate (1919)
St George Stakes (1920)
VRC St Leger (1920)
Rawson Stakes (1920)