Image courtesy Bradley Photographers - Neville Sellwood - Grafton Cup, 1960.
Champion jockey Neville Sellwood made one of his rare country excursions to win the 1960 Grafton Cup on Castle Burn for Sydney trainer Morrie Anderson.
Bradley Photographers snapped this one of “Nifty” Nev weighing in, clearly delighted to have won the feature event at the famous July carnival.
Sellwood had plenty to smile about at that stage of his career. He’d won two Melbourne Cups (Delta 1951 and Toparoa 1955) and had been associated with iconic horses Todman and Tulloch.
He rode Todman in all of the champion’s twelve starts for ten wins, including the inaugural Golden Slipper. He won twelve races on Tulloch, including the 1957 Caulfield Cup in Australian record time.
At the time this photo was taken he had his sixth Sydney jockeys title all wrapped up.
Two years later, Queensland born Sellwood made his mark on the world stage by riding the 1962 English Derby winner. He was lucky to miss a seven horse fall in the middle stages, before going on to win on Larkspur - the first of six Derby winners for Vincent O’Brien.
Just five months later the great jockey lost his life in a fall at Maison Laffitte in France. It was established that he suffered internal injuries when his mount slipped in soft going and actually landed on top of the jockey.
Many experienced racing men of Sellwood’s era rated him the equal of George Moore.