Rising Fast was widely regarded as the best NZ bred horse to race in Australia since Phar Lap

Rising Fast was a revered champion New Zealand bred Thoroughbred racehorse who is the only equine athlete to complete the Spring Grand Slam - winning the Melbourne Cup, Caulfield Cup, and Cox Plate in 1954. He also won the 1955 Caulfield Cup and came second in the 1955 Melbourne Cup. Rising Fast was bred by brothers Frank and Bruce Robertson at their Platform Lodge farm at Greytown in the Wairarapa. He was a bay or brown gelding by Alonzo (GB) and from the mare Faster, (by Mr. Standfast). Alonzo was a poorly performed racehorse having only won one race on the flat and one over the hurdles in England. Faster was unplaced at her only two starts, but produced seven winners from ten foals.

Rising Fast was purchased at the 1950 New Zealand National Sales for 325 guineas by first time racehorse owner, Leicester R. Spring of Whakatane. He was a chartered accountant, before founding the Whakatane Beacon newspaper in 1939. Leicester was a multi-talented sportsman especially excelling on the cricket field. Trained by both Ivan Tucker at Takanini and Fred Hoysted, Rising Fast's blue, gold and black colours soon became familiar on New Zealand race tracks. Once he left for Australia at the peak of the Rock 'n' Roll era, the gelding did not return home. He was a seasoned five-year-old when he made the sea voyage to Melbourne in 1954 for the spring carnival. He was already well known in racing circles when he arrived, but his accomplishment of winning the Spring Grand Slam put him on front pages of newspapers throughout Australia, New Zealand and internationally.

Known as ‘Joe’, he prefered the company of chickens, ducks geese and cats to humans and horses. When he returned home from a trip to Sydney and was found ‘shaking and shivering in his box’, Hoysted put him in the chook yard, ‘and that’s when he came good’. ‘He was a horse who liked his own freedom. You couldn’t lock him up in a box’, Hoysted recalled. Rising Fast was once found wandering in Cheltenham Cemetery with a pony, having escaped from his stable. Rising Fast was frequently compared to Phar Lap, not just because of their origins on the ‘other side of the ditch’, but because of their prodigious talents and race records.

Nowadays, the Melbourne Cup is internationally known and Rising Fast was aiming for his sixth successive win. Race-goers still remember that the nine stone five pounds (59.5 kg) Rising Fast carried to win the cup in 1954, has only been exceeded by Rain Lover who carried nine stone seven pound (60.5 kg) in 1969. Nor has the race been won since by any top weighted horse, wearing number one saddle cloth win, until Makybe Diva did so in 2005. Rising Fast finished the 1954 season with wins which included the Turnbull Stakes, Caulfield Stakes, Caulfield Cup, Cox Plate, Melbourne Cup, Mackinnon Stakes and VRC C.B.Fisher Plate during a great spring campaign.

Rising Fast was ridden in the 1954 events by Melbourne jockey Bill Williamson but when he was seriously injured prior to the Caulfield Cup, he was replaced by Arthur Ward. Melbourne jockey Jack Purtell took over for his next races including the Melbourne Cup, but when getting Bill Williamson back on the following year, 1955, he again won the Caulfield Cup, for the second time. He was handicapped with the formidable top weight of ten stone (63kg) in the 1955 Melbourne Cup. It was a very wet and heavy track, then a holdup at the barrier caused a delay of some five minutes. Billy Williamson decided to remain in the saddle, together with the lead weights making a very heavy burden for the horse. Rising Fast began well, but in the last 200 metres he was jostled offstride by Toporoa ridden by Neville Sellwood and came a close second. The crowd expected Williamson to protest, but owner Leicester Spring philosophically declared it was a racing incident and the protest was not lodged. However, Neville Sellwood, the rider of Toporoa, was subsequently suspended for two months for interfering with the run of Rising Fast. Some claim Rising Fast was ‘robbed of his bid for immortality.'

Two woman tried to pluck hairs from Rising Fast's tail when the Melbourne and Caulfield Cup victor arrived home from Australia. Hundreds gathered at the Auckland wharf to cheer the champion as he was lowered from the steamship Monawai and showered with confetti among jubilant celebrations. Leicester brought a sheep and cattle farm at Te Awamutu, built a new house in Whakatane and invested further funds to expand the Whakatane Beacon, all by way of his wonder horses exploits on the track.

Had Rising Fast won the famous 2 mile event, his record would have been two Caulfield Cups, a Cox Plate and two Melbourne Cups, and those wins would have been in successive years. Rising Fast concluded his career winning the Blarney Stakes, C.F. Orr Stakes and Memsie stakes in 1956. When Rising Fast retired, the Moonee Valley Racing Club held a special farewell for the champion, who strode up the straight with a garland of flowers around his neck, while the band played "The Maori Farewell." Rising Fast was a true champion, in that he won at different distances on both turning tracks and long straights like Flemington. Rock hard or heavy surfaces made little difference, in the champion’s 24 victories, 16 seconds and two thirds from 68 starts – handling everything that his opponents - and the handicapper - could throw at him. He also had 68 starts, considerably more than some other acknowledged greats. In the realms of New Zealand racing, Rising Fast is on of the greatest of all time and one of the best New Zealand bred horses to ever race in Australia.

Rising Fast’s passing came when he was 29 years old, in the paddock of his home near Te Awamutu in New Zealand. His later years had been spent giving rides to children, and collecting the mail from the front gate.

RACE RECORD - 68: 24-16-2

EARNINGS - £66,765 -  $133,530

Caulfield Stakes (1954)

Caulfield Cup (1954, 1955)

W. S. Cox Plate (1954)

Melbourne Cup (1954)

C.B.Fisher Plate (1954, 1955)

John F Feehan Handicap (1954)

LKS Mackinnon Stakes (1954, 1955)

Turnbull Stakes (1954)

VRC Queen Elizabeth Stakes (1954, 1955)

Herbert Power Handicap (1955)

Blamey Stakes (1956)

C F Orr Stakes (1956)

Memsie Stakes (1956)

New Zealand Racing Hall of Fame

Australian Racing Hall of Fame (2002)