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Gawler marks century since obscure Zed Cup

TODAY’S Gawler meeting celebrates an obscure – until now – cup race that was contested 100 years ago, and never again.

The Zed Cup was run at Gawler on Saturday, August 7, 1920 – and four of today’s seven races are named to recognise some of the major players in the century-old oddity.

The cup’s history was only uncovered after Gawler and Barossa Jockey Club CEO Shane Collins stumbled upon the trophy in a room at the club and decided to investigate further.

Remarkably, Shane also found the race book from that meeting, while vintage newspaper clippings from the Gawler Bunyip helped fill in the blanks.

“There was a gentleman named Vincent A. Zed who owned a horse called Early Morn, which won the 1920 Gawler Cup,” Shane explained.

“Early Morn is also in the Zed Cup, number 14, and I reckon it’s somehow come about that he put on the Zed Cup later in the year and named it after his ownership of the Gawler Cup winner.”

Shane also researched how the trophy managed to find its way back to the club and says “you could write a book on how that happened”.

That book’s blurb might outline that the cup arrived back in SA via a deceased estate in Queensland and the owner of the 1920 Zed Cup winner, Kongorong.

“It’s certainly been an interesting project, delving into it and understanding a little more history around it,” Shane said.

To commemorate the Zed Cup’s centenary, a replica cup has been struck and will be presented to the winning connections of race 6, the 2020 Zed Cup-100 Years On over 2121m, to be run at 3.40pm local time.

“We’ve also had a replica race book of the same size made up for every table here today – that’s the little pocket-sized race book they used to do back then,” Shane said.

“And the official race book for our race day is designed around the original design back in 1920. It looks fantastic.”

Today’s races acknowledging the 1920 Zed Cup:

Race 1: Kongorong-Zed Cup Winner

Race 2: Mr Vincent A Zed Plate

Race 3: Jockey J.H. (Jack) Keily Plate

Race 6: 2020 Zed Cup-100 Years On

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