McGuane’s Melbourne Cup


Mick McGuane. Premiership hero. All-Australian. Copeland Medallist. Melbourne Cup winning owner.

Before McGuane established himself as on the football’s biggest stars, he and a group of four mates chipped in $500 each to purchase a pup they’d named ‘Jack.’ While his family had a long involvement in the sport, this was his first – and only – foray into greyhound ownership and it’s safe to say he had some fun with it.

“I remember his first start at Warragul. He ran fifth and was an OK run and we went back the next week and drew box 1 and won by 8 lengths. We took the 9/2 on offer pretty strongly and from that point we thought we had a really good greyhound.”

That greyhound was Fair Sentence and would go on to win the 1989 Melbourne Cup as a well supported favourite in front of a massive crowd just nine months later.

Speaking on RSN’s Super Morning live at Sandown Park ahead of Friday’s TAB Melbourne Cup heats, McGuane told the story of how they pulled off a plunge first up at Geelong before going kickless against Essendon the next day (“footy was the furthest thing from our mind because our pockets were full!”), the photo shoot on the front page of The Sun (below), and celebration post Cup that continued for several days after.

Fair Sentence pocketed $35,000 for his Cup victory and would finish his career with $86,720 in earnings. The winner of the 2020 edition of the world’s greatest greyhound race will receive $435,000.

The heats of the 2020 TAB Melbourne Cup will be run on Friday 20th November with the final to be run on Friday 27th November.

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Fair Sentence wins the 1989 Melbourne Cup sparking days of celebrations for Collingwood champion Mick McGuane and his fellow owners

Mick Floyd
About Mick Floyd - Mick is the Racing and Media Manager at Sandown Park and has 15 years of experience in the sport. He has a finely tuned talent for finding three legs of a quaddie. You can follow his ramblings on Twitter - @mickfloyd
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