On the eve of Melbourne Cup day 2001, Archer’s exploits are once again in the headlines.

And if Archer was running in tomorrow’s Melbourne Cup he would possibly be the odds-on favourite and punters would be foolish not to place their money on this champion stallion.

In 1861, Archer was the Melbourne Cup’s inaugural winner and rates as one of the best horses to be produced in the Shoalhaven.

When it came to Cup day, Archer was always primed to win and ended up with two victories in the great race.

His first win in the Melbourne Cup was in 1861, exactly 140 years ago, and he followed it up with another success the following year.

For a stayer, Archer had a great deal of sprinting power and he virtually blew the other horses off the track.

His first Cup win was by six lengths and his next was eight lengths.

It was sheer size that gave Archer an edge over his rivals and he stood at 16.3 hands tall.

Mr Paterson decided some of the information about Archer was not factual and not enough had been written about his Terara-based trainer Etienne De Mestre.

“Etienne De Mestre was the Bart Cummings or Tommy Smith of his day and people do not realise the size of the stable he was running,” Mr Paterson said.

Though early on in the mammoth researching task, Mr Paterson has been able gain an insight into the trainer’s character and that of his famous horse

“Archer was the people’s favourite of his day and was nationally known and after he won his second cup in 1862 was rated the best horse in Australia,” Mr Paterson said.

“De Mestre was a gentleman of the track and everyone liked him. There does not appear to be one nasty word said about him.”

It was in the 1970s when Mr Paterson first started to research De Mestre and Archer, but his initial notes were put away in a draw for 20 years and he has only just re-commenced the project.

He expects the research will take at least another two years to complete.

Whilst it’s difficult to compare eras, Mr Paterson believes Archer and De Mestre would have been a winning team race today.

“Given the tracks they were racing on, compared with the modern ones, Archer’s times would have been competitive,” Mr Paterson.

In total, Archer only had 17 starts and won 12 races, was placed third on three occasions and was unplaced twice.

While Archer is De Mestre best known horse, he did in fact three other Cup winners.

In 1867 he won with Tim Whiffer, Chester in 1877 and Calamia in 1878.