Farewell Beautiful Lady
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By Scott McLean
In the annals of Australasian horse racing, few thoroughbreds have generated as much adulation and affection as Makybe Diva, the only horse to ever win the Melbourne Cup three times.
We lost “The Diva”, as she was nicknamed by her adoring fans, on Saturday; struck down by a colic attack in her paddock. She was 26.
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For a horse that achieved such fame in this part of the world, it’s somewhat ironic her story started on the other side of the globe and before she was even born. South Australian tuna fisherman Tony Šantić purchased her mother Tugela while she was in foal in Britain, and the mare was born in March 1999. After failing to meet her reserve at the Newmarket sales, the youngster, now named Makybe Diva by Šantić taking the first letters of the names of five of his employees – Margaret, Kylie, Belinda, Diane, and Vanessa – and her mother were shipped to Australia.
She was lightly raced as a youngster; in part because since she was foaled in the northern hemisphere in Australia she would be matched up against horses six months older from the preceding southern spring. But under the training of David Hall she flourished as a four-year old winning six races in succession, the last of which was the Queen Elizabeth Stakes which carried with it entry into the following year’s Melbourne Cup.
The next piece of the puzzle came the following season in 2003. Having had a variety of jockeys, at the Caulfield Cup she was saddled for the first time by Glen Boss. She ran fourth that day, but the partnership was set. The next race was the Melbourne Cup, and despite it being her first run at the two-mile distance she was sent out as $8 second-favourite. Picking his way through, Boss had Makybe Diva clear passing the famous Flemington clock tower and she would win by a length from She’s Archie. She would round off her season by winning the Sydney Cup, becoming the first mare to do that double.
The final change to the mix of horse, jockey, and trainer came ahead of the 2004 campaign as Hall left for the bright lights and huge stakes of Hong Kong, and Šantić sent the horse to Lee Freedman’s stables. Despite this, the goal and preparation remained unchanged and in her final run ahead of the Cup she ran second to Elvestroem in the Caulfield. Two weeks later she turned the tables on her rival, beating him and the rest in a lashing rainstorm at Flemington. In doing so, she became the first mare to win the Cup twice.
The 2005 campaign started with the same three races as the prior seasons for two wins and a second. But rather than run the Caulfield again, the connections opted instead for the Cox Plate, Australia’s richest weight-for-age race. She won that, and the attention turned to a history-making third tilt at the Melbourne Cup.
Sent out that Tuesday afternoon as the topweight carrying 58kg and overwhelming favourite, she delivered. Boss had her well-positioned during the race and when it opened in front of them in the home straight they struck. Commentator Greg Miles noticed (he’d largely missed her rails run the year before) and his iconic next words “Here’s Makybe Diva. A nation roars for a hero” still brings chills two decades on. Striding clear again by the clock tower she still had over a length in hand at the post from the fast finishing On A Jeune as Miles called “a champion becomes a legend.”
Racing Immortality had been achieved.
Šantić immediately announced the mare’s retirement. Freedman proclaimed “Go find the smallest child on this course, and there will be the only example of a person who will live long enough to see that again.”
Makybe Diva then moved into the second part of her career as a broodmare. Her foals, sired by fellow big race winners like Galileo, Fusaichi Pegasus, Encosta De Lago, and her former rival Lohnro attracted big money as yearlings. While success for her immediate progeny proved fleeting, her grandfoals have been regular race winners.
It’s no surprise that she was inducted into the Australian Racing Hall of Fame, and two life-size statues of her exist. One is on the Lawn at Flemington, the other in Šantić’s home town of Port Lincoln.
She may have now gone. But her fame and accomplishments will live on.