Il Tempo

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Il Tempo is a thoroughbred racehorse, by Time and Again out of Timing. He is probably New Zealand's greatest ever stayer, having won the Auckland Cup an unprecedented two times, and also the Wellington Cup. The Wellington Cup was over 2 miles and he won it in a World Record time of 3.16.2, which still stands as an imperial World Record today. To put this into perspective, the record holder of the two-mile Melbourne Cup is Rain Lover, with a time of 3.19.1, set in 1968. The Melbourne Cup distance was changed to 3200 meters (about 20 metres shorter) in 1972, and the record is held by Kingston Rule at 3.16.3. The equivalent metric time for Il Tempo's run would be about 1.2 secs quicker than for two miles, or 3.15.00. In April 2006 the Japanese champion Deep Impact won the 3200m Tenno Sho (Spring) in 3.13.4, smashing the world record for that distance. Il Tempo was top-weight and pre-post favorite for the 1970 Melbourne Cup, but did not race, as he broke down during training.

[edit] Big Wins

Il Tempo also won a Chalmers Handicap over two (2) miles. He was several times placed over the two mile distance as well.

Il Tempo was trained by a Mr Bruce Prescott, who was a butcher by trade. Normally he was ridden by N (Noel) D Riordan. He had a fantastic fresh up record.

Il Tempo also won a weight for age over one and a half miles. Normally a poweful finishing back runner, in a very small field he eventually took up the running and then was passed by the whole field and then came again to mow them down.

Actually, in his preparation for the Melbourne Cup he broke down after running a 1 min. 39.0 sec. mile in a training gallop. He never raced again.

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