He ran like an awkward freak but was still considered "The best from the West"

Dubbed "The Western Wonder" Eurythmic became the greatest stakes-winner of all time in Australia following wins in the Perth Cup (1919), WA Derby (1919), the Caulfield Cup (1920) and the Sydney Cup (1921). In 1920 he finished a close 4th in the Melbourne Cup under a 10lb penalty for winning the Caulfield Cup. Eurythmic took his name from a Greek word meaning "harmonious rhythm," but his galloping action was anything but harmonious - his off foreleg moved in a swinging action, endangering both himself and other horses running within in close vicinity.

Eurythmic was by the British stallion, Eudorus, who was imported to Australia sometime before 1914, and out of the mare, Bob Cherry. His sire Eudorus descended from Hampton (1872) and St. Simon (1881); his dam from the AUS sire and great galloper, Wallace (1892), a son of the mighty Carbine (1885). Bred by Noel Thompson at the Yarraman Stud in New South Wales, Eurythmic won the Karrakatta Plate over five furlongs as two-year-old and concluded his first season of racing by winning the WATC Sires Produce Stakes by a comfortable 3½ lengths. Eurythmic won 7 of 8 starts at three and finished his three-year-old season as the undisputed champion of Western Australia. Then under a new trainer, Jack Holt, he scorched the turf as a four-year-old.

In October he won the Caulfield Stakes, the Caulfield Cup (defeating a huge field) and the Melbourne Stakes, his 11th consecutive victory. The following week Eurythmic suffered his only defeat as a four-year-old when he ran fourth to Poitrel in the 1920 Melbourne Cup. The best of judges pointed out that Eurythmic has been tremendously lucky; that he never met anything which can be called great, with the exception of Poitrel, who undoubtedly was a very excellent stayer indeed. At a mile, and perhaps at a mile and a half, Eurythmic was superior to game little Poitrel, but we only once saw them meet over a distance of ground, and that was in the Melbourne Cup. Here, giving ten pounds, Poitrel won cleverly, with Eurythmic a solid fourth.

But there is just a lingering feeling in the mind that Eurythmic had not yet quite come to his own on that fine spring day when the Cup was decided, and his subsequent form showed very distinct improvements. The colt then won his next eight races: the CB Fisher Plate (defeating Poitrel), the Essendon Stakes, the VRC Governor’s Plate and the King’s Plate, as well as the AJC Autumn Stakes, the Sydney Cup carrying 134 lbs (60kg) and the Cumberland Stakes. He finished the season with a near immaculate record of 12 wins from 13 starts. Racing until the age of six, Eurythmic ended his career with a record of 47 starts, with 31 wins and the extraordinary earnings of £36,891 - at a time when a nice, tidy house in Australia typically cost about £200. When Eurythmic retired, he was regarded as the greatest Australian stakes winner of all time, having surpassed Carbine in stakes victories. He had truly earned his title as "The best from the West".

Eurythmic was inducted into the Australian Racing Hall of Fame in 2005. Eurythmic's preserved skeleton is located in the Sporting Life section of the Reflections Gallery of the West Australian Museum, in Boola Bardip.


RACE RECORD - 47:31-6-4
STAKE MONEY - £36,891

Karrakatta Plate (1918)
Sires' Produce Stakes (WA) (1919)
WATC Derby (1919)
Perth Cup (d.h.) (1919)
CB Cox Stakes (1920)
Caulfield Cup (1920)
Melbourne Stakes (1920 & 1921)
Memsie Stakes (1920, 1921, 1922)
Caulfield Stakes (1920, 1921, 1922)
C.B.Fisher Plate (1920)
Sydney Cup (1921)
AJC Autumn Stakes (1921)
Herbert Power Stakes (1921)
AJC Cumberland Stakes (1921)
Futurity Stakes (1922)
St George Stakes (1922)