Racing: Melbourne Cup meets historic alter ego

SLICE OF HISTORY: Ann Bary with a photo of horse Sasanof and the three-handled, three-legged 1916 Melbourne Cup. PHOTO/FILE

The Emirates Melbourne Cup will be united with the 1916 three-handled, three-legged species in Hastings today to commemorate 100 years of history.

The reunion will take place at Sasanof Lodge, a homestead named in honour of a Hawke's Bay-owned and trained winning horse that year.

The late Wilfred Gatonby Stead, of Christchurch, owned Sasanof, the 3-year-old brown gelding who became only the second Kiwi horse to win the Melbourne Cup before 1916.

Stead is the grandfather of Ann Bary, the mother of Hastings trainer John Bary.

Great grandmother Ann, 76, of Hastings, will meet her cousin, Marianne MacSmith, of Sydney, on October 22 for a memorable time leading up to the $7 million race.

Jockey F Foley rode the M Hobbs-trained Sasanof to victory by more than two lengths, missing the race record by half a second with a time of 3min 27.75sec.

MacSmith is the daughter of Bob Stead whose father was Wilfred Stead.

For the record, the 1916 race was delayed to the following Saturday (only postponed for the second time in its history) because of a downpour.

On race day, according to www.races.co.au website, Stead sold a third of the horse to his bosom pal, ES Luttrell, so he could share the winning experience but reportedly offered to buy back the gelding if he didn't win. The prize that day was 9205 and Sasanof's odds of crossing the line first were 12:1.

Ann Bary handed down the cup to son John after her brother, John Stead, died of polio in 1952.

John, 45, is hoping to travel to Melbourne with wife Laura to take part in the celebrations leading up to the race.

This year's cup tour will snake through 34 towns and cities across Australia and New Zealand, providing communities with the opportunity to experience the $185,000 18-carat gold trophy firsthand, before it returns to Flemington on Tuesday, November 1, for the "race that stops a nation".

The cup was displayed in Auckland on Monday and Palmerston North on Thursday.

People are encouraged to upload photos with the cup during the tour to Instagram, using the hashtags

#PeoplesCup and #EmiratesMelbourneCup, for the chance to win a trip for two to Flemington for the race.