Ballarat publican Walter Craig bought Nimblefoot from Melbourne bookmaker Joe Thompson.
Craig told friends about this and was sure that Nimblefoot would win, but he would not live to see the 12/1 shot's tense battle with Lapdog.
The story of his dream first appeared three months later, in the Bendigo Independent and was recounted in The Age newspaper the day before the Cup.
[2] In the story Craig saw a horse, whose jockey was wearing his colours and a black armband, win the Cup.
Samuel Griffiths, handicapper and turf historian, scotched the story as having been fabricated by the bookmaker Joseph Bragge "Leviathan" Slack.