Bio & Information
Rain Lover (Aust 1964-1989) Bio
Rain Lover was a champion Australian Thoroughbred racehorse best remembered for his back-to-back wins in the 1968 and 1969 VRC Melbourne Cup Rain Lover was sired by the good racehorse Latin Lover (GB) (a son of the unbeaten Ribot) his dam Rain Spot was by Valognes (GB) He was owned and bred by Clifford A. Reid who won the 1945 Melbourne Cup with Rainbird Trainer Mick L. Robins a former coal miner from Broken Hill New South Wales had obtained his trainer’s licence just three months before he took over Rain Lover’s conditioning In his first Melbourne Cup triumph under jockey Jim Johnson Rain Lover won by a record eight-length margin and in a record time of 3:19.1 Controversy surrounded his second win as the hot favourite and heavily backed Big Philou trained by Bart Cummings was the victim of a doping scandal and was withdrawn from the race 39 minutes before the start Burdened with 9 st 7 lbs Rain Lover still went on to win the race in game fashion by a neck from Alsop and created history as the first back-to-back winner since Archer in 1861 and 1862 Amongst his other major wins were the SAJC Adelaide Cup VATC St George Stakes (twice) and the AJC Chipping Norton Stakes Retired to stud in 1970 Rain Lover enjoyed moderate success as a sire before his death in 1989 One of his best winners being Princess Veronica (VATC Easter Cup)
Westminster Fine China Australia (Australia 1954-1998)
Stanley Rogers ran a wholesale cutlery, glassware and crockery business in Queen Street Melbourne On 6 October 1950 a new business Stanley Rogers and Son Ltd was registered to take over the previous business and was listed with a capital of 100,000 pounds
Westminster Fine China Australia story started in Melbourne at 7 Arnold Street Cheltenham in 1954 Stanley Rogers and Son Ltd then moved to 228 Bay Road Sandringham in 1977 into a 60,000 square foot (about 5,500 square metres) building that housed the factory, warehouse, office and showroom They initially used imported blanks from Japan which were made to their specifications and which were then decorated locally They produced a standard range of shapes for souvenir ware later expanding into a wide range of tea sets, dinnerware and many other styles of china ware In the early days, skilled staff were brought into Australia from both the United Kingdom and Italy and the focus was on the souvenir and giftware trade In the late 1960s they introduced to the Australian market a range of medium weight porcelain hotel ware under the Fineceram brand and later registering another brand Duraceram in 1984 By this time Westminster was part of a wider organization called Badgin Nominees Pty Ltd The 1980s also saw the production of a large number of limited edition plates for other companies for example Australia International Historical Foundation Westminster had an in-house art department that put together the designs and used computer generated designs in the later stages of the companies life These were placed onto the pieces by ceramic transfer printing and fired to seal them onto the items in large capacity electric kilns In the late 1980s and early 1990s there are blanks made in both Japan and Taiwan and marked with the last of the Westminster markings In the late 1980s they regularly produced items for other suppliers and by the mid-1990s most of the companies work was for the hospitality industry There was also a large part of the business making corporate coffee mugs and there was a smaller continuation of giftware featuring Aboriginal designs and Australian flora and fauna Some of these are for C R Hose and Isaacson Catering & Hospitality Supplies – Badgin Nominees including the Westminster brand was sold to Oneida Ltd New York USA in June 1998 by Stanley’s son William
