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Snow Lupton's back!!!


Thomass

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This should be good...Sunday theatre 8 July 8.30

The Kiwi story and his best mate...

They've spent a whole heap of public money on this production...so let's hope it converts a few...or gets them interested again

 

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Is it a repeat

Sunday Theatre drama currently being filmed about 1983 Melbourne Cup winner

SHAUN BAMBER

Last updated 10:01, February 23 2017

 

Filming on the set of Kiwi, a new Sunday Theatre drama about the New Zealand racehorse who won the 1983 Melbourne Cup.

A Kiwi movie called Kiwi about a horse named Kiwi - go figure - is currently being filmed in and around Auckland.

The Sunday Theatre drama, to be screened on TVNZ 1, will tell the story of thoroughbred New Zealand racehorse Kiwi, who won the 1983 Melbourne Cup in a dramatic come-from-behind run which saw him move from second-last to first within the race's final 500 metres.

Kiwi was originally bought for $1000 by Ann Lupton, wife of Waverley sheep farmer the late Snow Lupton, who trained the Cup-winning horse - and at one stage used him to round up sheep.

"It's just a very delightful story of humble beginnings," says the film's executive producer Charlotte Purdy.

Kiwi received $3,068,975 in funding from NZ On Air last July, the second biggest allocation yet granted to a Sunday Theatre drama, behind Jean Batten biopic Jean, which received $3,256,000 in 2015.

Purdy says the extra money granted to the production was all down to the horses.

"Kiwi is all about horses, and horses are very expensive to work with," she says. "We've actually got three of them, because they've all got to do different things.

"Every time one of the horses is on set they've got a number of handlers, etc, so that definitely adds to it. And also recreating racetracks, all of that stuff as well."

The production recently took to Facebook in a search for jockey extras to star in the film, asking for "smaller built" people who might have "hidden acting skills" to apply.

Kiwi is being produced for Rogue Productions by Carmen J Leonard and is directed by Thomas Robins.

 - Stuff

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Flashback: Kiwi flies to legendary Melbourne Cup win in 1983

 

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Kiwi and New Zealand jockey Jim Cassidy about to win the 1983 Melbourne Cup.
Melbourne Age

Kiwi and New Zealand jockey Jim Cassidy about to win the 1983 Melbourne Cup.

 

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Chestnut gelding Kiwi's remarkable dash to victory in the 123rd Melbourne Cup in 1983 remains one of the greatest triumphs of the time-honoured race that stops the Australasian racing world for five minutes on the first Tuesday each November.

At the 2200m mark and with just 1000m to go on the Flemington track, Kiwi and New Zealand jockey Jim Cassidy began a breath-taking burst to go from the back of the field, taking an outside line and flying past 22 rivals to win by just over a length.

Anne Lupton gives Kiwi a friendly pat as he comes back to scale with Jim Cassidy after winning the 1983 Melbourne Cup.
Melbourne Age

Anne Lupton gives Kiwi a friendly pat as he comes back to scale with Jim Cassidy after winning the 1983 Melbourne Cup.

 

Against the odds, 10-to-one actually, they had claimed the coveted Melbourne Cup, the southern hemisphere's most prestigious horse race.

So quick was Kiwi's run down the home straight that race commentators only picked up on him towards the finish line, with the call "and here comes Kiwi out of the blue!".

 

Anne Lupton holds the Melbourne Cup aloft as husband Snow shows off the winning trainer's replica.
Simon Studios

Anne Lupton holds the Melbourne Cup aloft as husband Snow shows off the winning trainer's replica.

 

Who would have thought?  

Handed a microphone afterwards, co-owner and trainer Ewen "Snow" Lupton even admitted: "I didn't have a penny on him. I never bet much, but I had bet nothing on him."

The 63-year-old said it was "the greatest thrill of our lives".  Kiwi's amazing achievement remains a source of great New Zealand pride.

New Zealand jockey Jim Cassidy brings Kiwi home after winning the 1983 Melbourne Cup.
Melbourne Age

New Zealand jockey Jim Cassidy brings Kiwi home after winning the 1983 Melbourne Cup.

 

Snow's wife Anne Lupton had bought the Dargaville-bred horse as a yearling for $1000. She named him Kiwi, unaware of how iconic that would become. Initially, Kiwi was used to help round up sheep on their farm in Waverley, South Taranaki, just north-west of Whanganui.

Snow identified that the young horse showed promise as a distance runner, and so began the training. Kiwi continued to round up sheep as part of his conditioning routine.

Several years later and with sights set on a big race, the Luptons entered him in the Wellington Cup at Trentham Racecourse in January 1983. In that, Kiwi also settled at the rear of the field, waiting until the home straight to make his move, flying to take the win. it was a sign of things to come.

A framed photo of Kiwi winning the Melbourne Cup in 1983.
Dargaville and Districts News

A framed photo of Kiwi winning the Melbourne Cup in 1983.

 

Kiwi's form was confirmed further when later in the year he claimed the 2100m Egmont Cup at Hawera.

But it had been the win over the Wellington Cup's 3200m distance, the same as the Melbourne Cup, which had the Luptons thinking even bigger. And, as it turned out, it was to become history in the making, including Kiwi becoming the first and only horse to win a Wellington Cup, or Auckland Cup, and the Melbourne Cup in the same year.

To add to the remarkable feat, Kiwi went straight into the Melbourne Cup race without even having laid eyes on an Australian race track, let alone racing on one  –  unheard of in the industry and even considered by some as sacrilegious to such an event.

While his Cup rivals had been doing various training runs, combined with trials wearing blinkers and shadow rolls, Kiwi had been relaxing in a paddock on Mornington Peninsula, about 90 minutes south of Melbourne, mixing with cattle and sheep in the fields around him  –  just like home. Pre-race training involved his usual light workout over pasture and a few rounds of the track at the farm.

According to the record books, Kiwi was doing it all wrong. No horse had ever won the Melbourne Cup without a lead-up race somewhere in Australia. But he did.

Back in Waverley, out of the small town's 1000 population, about 200 people had gathered at the Waverley Hotel and another 200 at the nearby  Clarendon Hotel to watch live television coverage of the Cup. Festivities erupted.

That television coverage is still among the most replayed as Melbourne Cup fever builds during the lead-up to the annual event.

Kiwi ws controversially scratched from the 1984 Cup, with claims of bad sportsmanship. A year later he returned, finishing fifth. He ran again in 1986 but pulled up lame close to the finish line. A month later he represented New Zealand in the Japan Cup, running a creditable fifth.

During his racing career, Kiwi notched up 13 career wins, earning over NZ$500,000  –  buoyed by the $310,000 Melbourne Cup win.

After his run in Japan, Kiwi was retired to the Lupton family farm. He died in 1995 and is buried on the farm, with a headstone stating simply: "Kiwi, 1983 Melbourne Cup". A commemorative plaque is also displayed at the Waverley Racecourse.

Snow Lupton  died in December 2004, aged 84, and Anne in 2008, aged 75.

 - Stuff

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Nice touch at the end when the real Snow and his wife...and Kiwi, re-surfaced in an old video...

I don't know how some people needed every bit of the story to be totally authentic word for word though...

.let's face it...Cassidy probably wasn't bedding all those hot blondes in the back of the Caravan...and Handbreak Harry probably didn't move the shag Caravan to the middle of a field..

...or did he?

..but it's called poetic license...and some fillims need it...or it'd be deadly boring

Like the laconic Snow who was salt of the earth...but not earthy

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For all those who thought J Cassidy's part in this...where he was bedding women left right and centre...even the women's jockey changing Caravan 

...and the hill hairy ass middle of the school paddock Caravan pozzie...where he blamed Handbrake Harry for an overnight transition...

...was a load of old poetic license, well bad news... Dezzy says Cassidy had the Producers ear...

...and of course he wants to be known as the Racing lothario who had the kahunas to bed every blond groupy hanging around...

...did it happen or did Cassidy play the Producer for a fool

Cmon you old...now cougars...was it true??

Was Cassidy as lippy and cocky as the fillim portrayed?

 

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