[1] In a well-accepted story, Nimblefoot's owner, Walter Craig, dreamt four months before the race that his horse won the Cup but noted the jockey wore a black armband.
[4] Samuel Griffiths, handicapper and turf historian, later scotched the story as a fabrication by the bookmaker Joseph Bragge "Leviathan" Slack, who paid out £500 each to Thomas Bailey (Craig's son-in-law)[5] and John Day for the bet they placed with him, and concocted the story for the extra publicity.
As a child, he had been a leading figure in the sport of pedestrianism and travelled to England to compete against leading pedestrian athletes of the day[2] before returning to Australia and becoming a speed walking performer in the theatre, although it was said that his backers did not receive the profits they expected from supporting him.
[7][8] After a dispute resulting from Day's abscondment from the trainer William Lang soon after the 1870 Melbourne Cup, Day was required to return to his apprenticeship[9] and continued to ride horses[10] until at least 1877 when he suffered a bad fall in a ride in Yarrawonga.
[3] Later in 1870 the solicitor Horatio Huntly Hoskins purchased Nimblefoot and Glencoe from Bailey, retaining William Lang as his trainer.