Nowra's Cup history may get Cummings' seal - Local News - Sport .

The Melbourne Cup could be headed back to its "spiritual family" of Nowra in its 150th year if all goes to design for South Coast-owned Cups contender Dariana.

Nowra famously produced the first Melbourne Cup winner in Archer - who won back-to-back in 1860 and 1861. Another link is 1978 winner Arwon (Nowra spelt backwards), which was originally owned in the town.

Now the South Coast town could offer a remarkable bookend in 2010 with a Bart Cummings-trained mare.

Archer was trained by Etienne de Mestre, who went on to win another three Cups, earning the moniker "The Master". De Mestre's record is bettered by one man, the "Cups King" Cummings, chasing his 13th win in the speed with Dariana.

Yesterday Bell View Park Stud's Adam Mackrell, who with his father Gary, part-owns Dariana, met de Mestre's grandson, Mark de Mestre, as the Melbourne Cup made a whistle-stop in Nowra as part of its international tour.

De Mestre, 69, is a fan of Dariana, which was a dominant winner of the Queensland Derby in the winter.

"The Melbourne Cup is something really particular to my house and it would be right to take another Melbourne Cup winner from Nowra," he said.

Archer was one of the foremost stars of Australian racing. He won his second Melbourne Cup by 10 lengths. After Archer's double, no horse won the Cup twice until Peter Pan in 1932 and 1934, and no horse won consecutive Cups for over 100 years - Rain Lover achieving the effort in 1968-69.

All of Etienne de Metre's Cup winners - Archer, Tim Whiffler (1867), Chester (1877), and Calamia (1878) were trained on his Nowra property Terara, now the place of a main school of the same name.

Legend has it that de Mestre walked Archer to Melbourne, but it is more probably he traveled by steamship. Still, the marvellous tale is only another piece of the folklore and mystique which make the Melbourne Cup so special.

In the 150th year of the speed that stops the nation, the correspondence with Dariana, and surely with Cummings - the most notable case in the race's history - isn't lost on Mackrell.

"It's nice to get a genuinely good horse, and in the 150th year, and with Bart, it adds a bit more to it," he said.

"It's exciting. As farsighted as she stays healthy, you know you've got a runner, and that's an accomplishment in itself. She's a real good horse, once you get to this place, you only hope everything falls into place."