It's Ipswich Cup week and Bianca won the Ipswich Cup in 2008 and my besotted bride just had to have a rare bet at the good odds on offer - as we have a granddaughter named Bianca. Unfortunately young Bianca couldn't attend the race meeting to see her namesake race, as sadly it's an "over 18 event".

It's always interesting to go back in time and see what some of the notable highlights were from a bygone era. Today I look at what some of the interesting events from 1978 and 1979 were:

Aritzo, the sire of Melbourne Cup winner Arwon was bought “for an undisclosed five figure” by Brisbane businessman Darby Godwin.

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Stallion Red Rumour died at stud in Victoria. His best progeny were 1974 Perth Cup winner Allegation, 1973 SAJC Oaks winner Ready Or Not and 1972 Sandown Guineas winner Carnation For Me.

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The year Red Rumour died in Victoria, in America the 1977 Triple Crown winner Seattle Slew was retired after winning 14 of 17 starts. His defeat of 1978 Triple Crown winner Affirmed was noted as one of his career highlights.

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Do jockeys need two of their own legs to ride in races? The answer was “No” as in late 1978 a 21-year-old jockey named Dick Chapman rode a winner at Kempsey after five years earlier having a leg amputated just below the knee following it being crushed by a car bumper bar when he fell from his motor bike as he swerved to dodge a dog on the road.

Chapman was an apprentice jockey at the time of the accident and Central and Lower Coast stewards watched him ride trackwork for six months before he was re-licensed as a fully fledged jockey. Chapman only took two rides following his five years off before he rode his first winner.

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The 1978 Inglis Summer Yearling Sale previews featured Lots entered by Pokey Hill Stud. Interestingly one Lot was out of a mare called Cherry Ripe. I often ponder how the names Pokey Hill Stud and the Sydney suburb of Rooty Hill ever got named that in the first place.

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At a Warwick Farm meeting in November of 1979, two track records got broken. A horse called Bench Mark broke the 1000-metre track record recording 57.80 seconds, whilst the speedy Salaam broke the 1200-metre record when recording 1.9.40. Interestingly both horses had raced in the bush at their previous start. Bench Mark had won his previous start at Wyong, whilst Salaam had run second at Muswellbrook at his previous start.

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So Called and a 19YO kid named Brent Thomson ran fifth to Arwon in the 1978 Melbourne Cup as the 9/2 favourite. Colin Hayes trained So Called, but didn’t start him in the Melbourne Cup as he had the 2/1 favourite Dulcify which Colin Hayes thought was unbeatable. Unfortunately Dulcify broke down on the home turn and was euthanized in the 1979 Melbourne Cup, with Brent Thomsen in the saddle as Hyperno and Harry White beat Salamander (Roy Higgins) and Red Nose (Midge Didham).

So Called’s best effort was winning the 1978 Cox Plate defeating Family of Man and Karaman. In later life So Called stood at stud at Laidley, west of Brisbane, for a $1,000 service fee. His best stakeswinner was So Brikay (1984 Group 3 Tasmanian Derby), but he also threw four Listed winners – Bells Are Calling, My Day, Psendonym Miss and Sir Exocet.

So Called’s Cox Plate win gave Brent Thomson the amazing statistic of having three rides in the Cox Plate for three winners – to that point. So Called was retired from active stud duties after the 2001 season at the ripe old age of 27 and at the end was only serving three or four mares a year. The highest number of mares he ever served was 44 in the 1984/1985 breeding season. So Called was so named as he was by Great Northern Derby (New Zealand) winner Sobig, out of a Better Boy mare named Calling.

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A Queensland filly named Scomeld, bought by Brisbane businessman John Needham for $40,000 as a tried 2YO - trained by Roy Dawson and ridden by Mick Dittman, won the 1978 Wakeful Stakes in Melbourne beating Kapalaran en route to the VRC Oaks the same year, where she then defeated Safe Harbour and Kapalaran. The VRC Oaks was worth $75,000 in total prizemoney when Scomeld won the race. Last year the total prizemoney was $1 million. Scomeld was by Smokey Eyes son Scotian from the Lysander 11 mare Supreme Meld and she was bred by Lyndhurst Stud at Warwick. She died in 1999 aged 23. Her only stakes winning progeny was Scollata who won the Group 3 Sweet Embrace Stakes in 1988.

In 1978 the VRC Derby was won by Dulcify (7/1) defeating Karaman (13/8 favourite) and Turf Ruler (33/1) and the race was worth $100,000. Last year’s VRC Derby was worth $1.5 million.

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The Gai Waterhouse trained Bianca won the 2008 Ipswich Cup. Thirty years earlier - way back in 1978 - there was another talented female racing by the name of Bianca. She retired in 1978 after winning six races in her career including the 1976 Tiny Tots Stakes at Rosehill and the Reisling Slipper Trial Stakes at the same track. In the Reisling, Bianca defeated Rainbeam who as a 2YO won both the Widden Stakes and the Silver Slipper. In later life, Rainbeam was to become the dam of top class sire Centaine.

The 1978 foaled Bianca was dogged by bad luck at stud where she missed getting in foal six times and slipped her foal five times, meaning she only had five named foals in more than 15 years at stud. She produced nothing of note from her days as a broodmare.

Upon her retirement, the 2008 Ipswich Cup winner Bianca, who had incidentally won both the Wyong Gold Cup and the Newcastle Cup in the same year, visited stallion Redoute’s Choice for her first covering, with the result being an as yet still unnamed filly foal born on 26/10/10. She has since had a colt, born 19/11/11 to American born stallion Medaglia D'Oro. Bianca was very interestingly bred, as she was by the Japanese born sire Painted Black from the American born broodmare Blanche Amelia.

Today on www.brisbaneracing.com.au there is the first of two huge montages of photos from Stradbroke day, on www.sydneyracing.com.au David Clarkson reports in from a rain soaked England, whilst on www.melbourneracing.com.au Matt Nicholls suggests once hallowed Flemington is fast becoming a "goat track".