The Thoroughbred Magazine - Autumn 2008

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THE M AGA ZI NE F OR V I C T O R I A N OWNER S & BREE DER S

V O L .1 N O. 2 AU T U M N 2 0 0 8 $ 6 .9 5

I N C .GS T

MICHAEL KENT Science lurks behind the dark glasses

EXPERTS TELL How to pick a yearling

BRUCE CLARK Clark of the course

KAVANAGH don’t call him lucky

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V O L .1 N O . 2 A U T U M N 2 0 0 8

thethoroughbred.com.au

6 STEPHEN ALLANSON

32 THE HORSE BAZAAR

Foreword from Stephen Allanson, chief executive officer, Racing Victoria.

The ancient art of horse trading continues next month at the Inglis Melbourne Premier Yearling Sale.

8 RACING AROUND A SMALLER WORLD An editorial by Danny Power.

10 TAKEN BY THE PUNT An essay about the changing face of the art of punting by Ray Huxley.

14 OUR PASSION FOR RACING Four successful people with a love of racing.

20 BLESSED BE MARK Trainer Mark Kavanagh has made a huge impact in Melbourne. Stephen Moran finds out what makes him tick.

36 HOW TO PICK A YEARLING Three expert buyers discuss their preferences when it comes to picking the next champions.

42 SCIENCE LURKS BEHIND THE DARK GLASSES Michael Kent is a trainer whose ideas are left of field.

50 AN ENDURING PARTNERSHIP The lasting friendship of Jim Moloney and Pat Hyland.

56 OLD SCHOOL WITH A GENTLE TOUCH Little has changed in the life of one of Victoria’s bestknown horsemen.

60 CLARK OF THE COURSE Bruce Clark has become the face of racing in Victoria.

PUBLISHED BY: Geoff Slattery Publishing MANAGING EDITOR: Geoff Slattery PUBLICATIONS MANAGER: Alison Hurbert-Burns, alisonh@geoffslattery.com.au

70 THE MAKING OF A RACEHORSE

PRODUCTION EDITOR: Howard Kotton

Part two of an ongoing series follows the life of a promising Victorian-bred colt.

DESIGNER: Joanne Mouradian

74 SACRED KINGDOM; A SUCCESS STORY The Victorian breeders of Hong Kong star Sacred Kingdom enjoy the ride of their life.

79 A RACE BORN FROM A VISION The foresight of one man is behind the history of the Cadbury Guineas.

82 DUFFY; THE TASK AHEAD Danny Power talks to the new chairman of Racing Victoria, Michael Duffy.

CONTRIBUTING EDITOR: Danny Power ART DIRECTOR: Andrew Hutchison PHOTO EDITORS: Tom Kearney, Serena Galante, Akane Utsunomiya PRODUCTION: Troy Davis PUBLICATIONS COORDINATOR: Penny McVey BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT (RACING): Tanya Fullarton, Tanyaf@geoffslattery.com.au ADVERTISING SALES: Nicole Costello, nicolec@geoffslattery.com.au CONTRIBUTORS: Bruno Cannatelli, Ben Collins, Stephen Howell, Ray Huxley, Martin King, Alan McLean, Stephen Moran, Peter Ryan, Matthew Stewart.

PHOTOGRAPHY: GSP Images Ph: (03) 9627 2600, Visit gspimages.com.au SUBSCRIPTION ENQUIRIES: subscriptions@geoffslattery.com.au All correspondence to the editor, The Thoroughbred. AFL House, 140 Harbour Esplanade, Docklands, Vic 3008, ph (03) 9627 2600 Contributions welcome, visit thethoroughbred.com.au

The Thoroughbred is published quarterly.

Next edition, Winter 2008 Geoff Slattery Publishing thanks Racing Victoria Limited for its support of The Thoroughbred.

THE WRITERS Danny Power is the editor of Racing In Australia and a senior staff writer for Geoff Slattery Publishing.

Ray Huxley is a former racing editor of The Herald and a highly regarded racing and betting analyst.

24 A MORNING COVERING HORSES An act of a stallion covering a mare underpins the racing industry. We follow the process.

Stephen Moran is the editor of Best Bets, host of the Racing Central program on radio Sport 927 and co-host on TVN. Matthew Stewart is a senior racing writer with the Herald Sun and host on radio Sport 927.

Stephen Howell is a senior sports writer with The Age who covered the 2007 Hong Kong International races at Sha Tin. Ben Collins is a senior staff writer for Geoff Slattery Publishing, and the author of numerous books, including The Champions and the Jason McCartney story, After Bali.

Peter Ryan is a senior staff writer for Geoff Slattery Publishing with a keen interest in racing.

Alan McLean is a freelance writer and enjoys his racing as a part-owner.

ON THE COVER: Mark Kavanagh, with Maldivian, at his Flemington stables by Lachlan Cunningham for GSP Images

4 THE THOROUGHBRED

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To arrange to receive a copy of the Prospectus and application form please contact: Bryan Martin Racing Club Phone: 03 9894 8084 Email: info@bryanmartinracingclub.com.au Website: www.bryanmartinracingclub.com.au Important note: You should consider the Prospectus in deciding whether or not to acquire shares in Bryan Martin Racing Syndicate No.1 Ltd. The issuer of the shares is Bryan Martin Racing Syndicate No.1 Ltd. The Prospectus for the Bryan Martin Racing Syndicate No.1 Ltd. will be available when the shares are offered.

Images Credit: Moonee Valley Racing Club, Gary Wild

WELCOME

Investing in the future

W

ith the Melbourne Festival of Racing now in full swing and Super Saturday at Flemington looming, that means it is also time to divert our attention to the upcoming yearling sales, with the Inglis Melbourne Premier Sale the first sale in Australia in 2008.

With the Equine Influenza outbreak in the eastern states forcing a change to the national yearling sale program, Victoria has a unique opportunity to showcase high-quality yearlings offered by the state’s leading farms.

If the recent New Zealand sale is any indication, we could be set to see records tumble at Oaklands Junction in the first week of March.

The investment in the Victorian breeding industry, particularly in the past five years, has been simply sensational.

Recent figures released by the Australian Stud Book showed that no less than five of the top six stallion coverings resulted from those residing in Victoria.

While the climate for the 2007 breeding season was somewhat different to the norm, it is testament to the fact that those who are investing in Victoria will be duly rewarded.

Eliza Park was just one of the top Victorian farms to increase the number of mares served this year significantly.

Their gun stallion, Bel Esprit, set an Australasian record for mares served in

a season, 265 in total. He was joined by Elvstroem (222), Dash For Cash (221), Gonski (205) and God’s Own (204). It was also the first time more than one Victorian stallion has topped the 200 mark in the same season.

Let’s hope we can see owners finding good value for their money and vendors being appropriately rewarded for their investments in the Victorian thoroughbred industry at the upcoming sales.

Good luck to all.

STEPHEN ALLANSON CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER RACING VICTORIA LIMITED

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THE M AGA ZI NE F OR V I C T O R I A N OWNER S & BREE DER S

V O L .1 N O. 2 AU T U M N 2 0 0 8 $ 6 .9 5

I N C .GS T

MICHAEL KENT Science lurks behind the dark glasses

EXPERTS TELL How to pick a yearling

BRUCE CLARK Clark of the course

KAVANAGH don’t call him lucky Cover_Autumn08NEW.indd 1

8/2/08 4:25:14 PM

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6 THE THOROUGHBRED

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EDITORIAL

Racing around a smaller world The world continues to become a smaller place for the thoroughbred racing industry, writes DANNY POWER.

W

hen groundbreaking Irish trainer Dermot Weld stunned the racing world in 1990 by winning the Group 1 Belmont Stakes (2400m), the final leg of the famed US Triple Crown, with the littleknown Go And Go, one local racing scribe wrote: “Racing won’t be the same.”

Weld, dubbed the ‘Irish Wizard’ by the Yanks, prophetically told the New York Times: “The world is not as big as people think it is.”

Three years later, shocked Australians lamented that “racing won’t be the same” when Weld’s Vintage Crop changed the face of the Group 1 Melbourne Cup (3200m) at Flemington. Weld quoted Banjo Patterson as he celebrated

becoming the first international trainer to win Australia’s most famous race.

And one was there, a stripling on a small and weedy beast He was something like a racehorse undersized With a touch of Timor pony – three parts thoroughbred at least And such as are by mountain horsemen prized.

A few months short of 10 years after Vintage Crop won the Cup, Newcastle trainer Paul Perry made England’s toffs tip their top hats when the powerhouse Australian sprinter Choisir won the big sprint double at Royal Ascot – the Group 2 King’s Stand Stakes (1000m) and the Group 1 Golden Jubilee Stakes (1200m). Racing certainly won’t be the same.

‘ Smith moved

quicker than an ‘Emu’ chasing a discarded winning ticket .

ROYAL ASCOT BOUND: Apache Cat (Glen Boss), winning at Caulfield, is likely to be the next Australian horse to race overseas.

8 THE THOROUGHBRED

’

It’s a changing world. The white boards of Australia’s leading trainers reflect their knowledge of the important racing programs of the world, from the desert sands of Dubai to the steamy heat of Sha Tin. Nad Al Sheba – Sheema Classic … The ’Bool – Wangoom.

Tony Vasil followed Perry with the exceptional Elvstroem to win the 2004 Group 1 Dubai Duty Free (1700m) at Nad Al Sheba on Dubai World Cup night. In 2006, a rejuvenated Takeover Target, trained by former Queanbeyan taxi driver Joe Janiak, repeated Choisir’s success when he won the Group 2 King’s Stand Stakes at Royal Ascot and the Group 1 Sprinters’ Stakes (1200m) in Japan. Lee Freedman made the King’s Stand “Australia’s race” when the brilliant Miss Andretti won the 1000m dash in 2007.

Treated in less dramatic terms but probably more remarkable has been the ageless Karasi’s three consecutive wins (2005-06-07) in the world’s richest jumping race, the Nakayama Grand Jump (4250m) in Japan.

Trainer Eric Musgrove is lauded in Japan, but at home, he graciously accepts the odd pat on the back. The 13-year-old Karasi does not have the charisma of Choisir and Miss Andretti, but each year his life is programmed not towards the Grand Annual at Warrnambool, but a remarkable testing steeplechase in another hemisphere. He’s just back tuning up for number four.

International racing scouts now share first-class flights with specialist spotters from the likes of the US National Basketball Association and England’s

Premier Soccer League, all in search of talent.

No sooner had the baldyfaced Apache Cat crossed the line in the Group 1 Lightning Stakes (1000m) – the first leg of the Global Sprint Challenge – at Flemington on February 2, than Royal Ascot’s Nick Smith was in the ear of trainer Greg Eurell with an invitation to the famous carnival in June. Smith moved quicker than an ‘emu’ chasing a discarded winning ticket. “We would love to have him. He’s a seriously good horse,” said Smith, as much part of the story as the trainer and the horse.

Eurell and Apache Cat’s connections have pencilled in a trip to England, but the big chestnut will need to continue to perform. England’s gain will be Sydney’s loss, as races such as the Group 1 Ryder Stakes (1500m), at Rosehill, and the Group 1 All Aged Stakes (1600m), at Randwick – weight-for-age races perfect for Apache Cat – will have to be bypassed to travel and prepare for the Royal Ascot sprint.

Travelling overseas with horses is not foreign for Eurell. Although in an earlier life he was a plumber by trade, he is as skilled in the saddle as he is with a wrench.

Eurell represented Australia in the equestrian show jumping at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics (he finished 29th of 51) after spending the previous years campaigning his horses in the major show jumping events in Europe.

For Greg Eurell, life has taken its twists – from taps to top hats and tails – but thanks to the pioneering of an Irishman from The Curragh and a paleface gelding, his racing life just won’t be the same.

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ESSAY

Taken by the RAY HUXLEY inherited his long-standing devotion to the punt from

his mother. As a kid growing up in Braybrook he even dabbled briefly as a SP bookie. He has seen many changes in the never-ending search to find a winner but there has been one constant – how you fare at the races can determine the quality of fare you enjoy at the end of the day.

BAGMEN ON BOXES: In laneways and on rooftops, illegal SP bookies found a place to ply their trade.

10 T H E T H O R O U G H B R E D

PHOTOS BY LACHLAN CUNNINGHAM (GSP IMAGES)

PHOTO COURTESY OF STATE LIBRARY OF VICTORIA

S

omebody asked me the other day how the punt has changed from when I was a lad.

Changed? Sure, there are more ways to punt than ever before, but the punt is the punt and no amount of fiddling is going to change the fact that we punt to win and in that regard nothing has changed since I was a lad, although I must say the shilling eachway seems a long time ago. Yes, it was a long time ago and like so many things that happened in days (years) gone by it seemed more fun; if anything a bit more serious than it seems to be now.

I say more serious as I recall my earliest experiences of the punt – in a laneway in Brunswick, not far from the Grand Hotel and the Brunswick Football Club headquarters. The men who gathered in the laneway on Saturdays were men who had been through the mean times. They might have been punting with one, two, five or even 10 shillings but it was a serious game. Most of the time it meant the difference for the family meal that night – bread and dripping, or hallelujah, the

One minute you can ‘ be a racetrack emu trying to scrounge a dollar for a packet of fags and six hours later you’re eating lobster and drinking Krug champagne.

’

T H E T H O R O U G H B R E D 11

ESSAY

five-star gourmet meal of the times: fish and chips!

Women were not allowed, which is where I came in. Mother was a devoted punter who would sit by the wireless every Saturday, glued wouldn’t be an understatement, and I would be her runner. I was still in short pants and at first the SP bookie, a dapper little man named Mick, wasn’t too keen on me queuing up to put Mum’s two bob on something that George Moore was riding in Sydney but business was business and I was told that providing I didn’t hang around and make a nuisance of myself it would be OK. Of course, this led to my punting graduation and when you consider that mother is still playing in blackjack championships at 85, I guess it’s realistic to look back and reach the conclusion that there wasn’t much chance of me growing up to be a wowser.

Occasionally the “coppers” would stage or attempt a raid. Strangers were not welcome. One day a young man came wondering into the lane and asked an open question: “Can I get a bet on here?” with a 10-bob note in his hand.

It was a question that received the same reception that police got when

PHOTOS BY LACHLAN CUNNINGHAM (GSP IMAGES)

PUBTAB: Ray Huxley enjoys a beer and a bet at his local watering hole.

12 T H E T H O R O U G H B R E D

NEW AGE: The modern punter has the aid of the latest technology at the races.

‘ I borrowed heavily against my ‘pocket money’, and sold my vast collection of marbles and polished shoes outside the old Braybrook Bluestone Hotel to make the settling.

’

they asked a bunch of wharfies if anybody had seen the victim at their feet get shot.

After about eight minutes of sustained silence my uncle Rupert had had enough. He desperately wanted to back some “good thing” in the next in Melbourne and there were few precious minutes left.

The radio was playing and 3UZ had already crossed to Bert Bryant.

“Listen mate, piss off!”

With a dozen or so other angry looking men staring, the stranger took the hint – we’ll call it a hint anyway – and left presumably never to be seen again.

Not quite! About 15 minutes later the same quiet stranger came over the fence like an Olympic pole vaulter followed by his squad of gaming officers right where the bagman and penciller were operating. Everybody was lined up against the wall. Except me. I just kept walking as though I was heading for an ice cream. Half an hour later when I returned everything was back to normal.

I found this quite strange. Even my uncle was reluctant to talk about it. I later gathered that Mick the bookie would have needed to have won plenty that day to have broken square but that was considered just one of the hazards of the game – a lucrative game if you had a good clientele.

It must have been lucrative. We moved a lot when I was young and I gather that the first thing a good neighbour did in those days was provide an introduction to the local SP bookie. In Braybrook I even scored my first bike because the SP was about a mile from where we lived and the risk of me not getting on in time was considered too great.

Having noted that the local SP bookies were always well-heeled I decided to try the caper myself at school. Fellow students would have threepence or sixpence on a horse over the weekend and I was just thinking how nice it all was when all of a sudden, crash!

I was gutted, stripped like a gar when Australia’s Sailor’s Guide won the 1958 Washington DC

International. He actually ran second, beaten three-and-a-half lengths by a horse named Tudor Era (funny how you never forget punting disasters), but got the race on protest after his jockey claimed two sets of interference during the race.

The nation rejoiced!

I went into panic mode. I recall receiving the news on the wireless as I was preparing to go to school.

My stomach turned (he was 8-1) and I felt as though a vet had just called for a screen to be placed around me. I borrowed heavily against my “pocket money”, and sold my vast collection of marbles and polished shoes outside the old Braybrook Bluestone Hotel to make the settling. It was a quick but not painless end to my days as a SP bookie.

Sailor’s Guide was a little black horse from Bendigo trained by George Daniel. He wasn’t really little, measuring over 16 hands, but he gave that impression when he galloped as he had a low head carriage. He had always been a favourite with punters because although “small” he would have led the Charge into the “Valley Of Death”.

He was conceived in England and foaled at Segenhoe Stud in Scone, New South Wales. He was a terrific racehorse, winning the Victoria Derby, VRC St Leger, Sydney Cup and numerous WFA races in Melbourne, Sydney and Queensland. In the US, he won five races and was placed in four of his 12 starts. Yes, I know I’m wandering but although far from the best horse I’ve seen, Sailor’s Guide remains imprinted in my brain and no prizes for guessing why.

After that brief stint I was most definitely a punter again. And it wasn’t long before the TAB was introduced into Victoria making the punt so much easier. You had to put your bet on an hour before the race and at first you couldn’t collect until the next day. The TABs weren’t even allowed to broadcast the races.

Seems archaic now, but I’ll never forget the joy of opening my first

phone account. Could it get any better than this?

We all know the answer to that. As I sit here typing I am also switching to the TAB website, checking odds, comparing them with the on-course odds available on interstate bookmaker websites and placing bets or laying them on Betfair. It’s a Saturday after all, not that that really matters anymore.

If you were able to travel back in time imagine explaining or trying to explain these changes to a bunch of desperadoes queuing up to get their hand-written tickets from the local agent when the TAB started in the early 1960s. It’s not even worth thinking about trying to explain these changes to the brooding men in hats who lined the fences in that Brunswick lane. Take the kid away ... he’s nuts!

The technology has changed but the punt is still about backing winners, just the same as it was when the prices were displayed on the laneway wall (two rings for both Melbourne and Sydney). The internet never stops amazing me but I had to shake my head two years ago when I was having lunch at a chalet alongside the Great Wall of China.

Although I was travelling through China, I was still working, doing form and price assessments and I was keen to back a horse at Geelong. And so I walked out on to the wall and made the call on my mobile phone. If it hadn’t been so cold I would have listened to the race but I went back to the lunch.

How unreal is this? I’m making a bet from the Great Wall of China on a race at Geelong. Am I going to wake up soon?

I looked out at the remarkable, unforgiving countryside and apart from thinking, “How the hell did they build this thing?”, I felt like calling out: “Hey Genghis, what about this!”

I can’t even remember if the horse won but it remains the most unusual bet I’ve made.

One of the most accurate racing maxims I’ve heard is “the punt giveth and the punt taketh away”.

THE LAY: The introduction of Betfair has changed the face of wagering, by allowing punters to “play bookmaker” and lay horses to win.

THE BIG MACHINE: Australia’s largest totalisator betting agency is Tabcorp, which has embraced the internet with a racing and sports betting website.

BET NOW: Punters have a myriad betting options available with the advent of the internet and corporate bookmakers.

‘

As I sit here typing I am also switching to the TAB website, checking odds, comparing them with the on-course odds available on interstate bookmaker websites and placing bets or laying them on Betfair.

’

Coined by Sydney journalist Max Presnell, it really sums up the punt.

The Sailor’s Guide episode remains among my most memorable “taketh away” days, even though the amount of money by today’s standards was small. But the punt can also “giveth”.

The most memorable of these days was Doncaster Handicap day at Randwick in 1988 and it was a demonstration of how the punt can change like Melbourne’s weather. I was Chief Racing Writer of the Melbourne Herald at the time and the day before the big race the Sebel Townhouse in Sydney held its annual Doncaster calcutta, a huge affair which raised considerable funds for the Wayside Chapel.

Keith Hillier was Chief Racing Writer for the Melbourne Sun News-Pictorial and he was keen to buy Lygon Arms in the calcutta.

He didn’t have enough cash, so he asked Perth journalist John McGrath and myself to join him in the purchase and we agreed to take a quarter share each, even though neither of us was all that keen.

It was getting towards the end of the carnival and we had been in Sydney for several weeks and lack of cash was becoming a problem. I was standing in the betting ring when Keith came up and asked if I had a cigarette. I didn’t and so we pooled our money and came up 30 cents short of what a packet cost. “Nice pair of brokes,” noted Keith.

Then I glanced down and noticed a dollar note sticking out from under a punter’s heel. I pointed it out to Keith and we waited for the man to move on so we could swoop, alas it was stuck to his heel. Finally when he stopped walking I got up close, placed my toe on the note and grabbed it as soon as he walked off.

We had our cigarettes.

I’m watching the Doncaster when suddenly I notice this dark horse flashing down the outside rail in pouring rain and it is carrying Tommy Smith’s blue and green stripes. Could it be? Yes! Lygon Arms wins and suddenly my $100 punt on the calcutta is a bonanza.

We returned to the hotel where Keith collected a large five-figure amount. He quickly divided the spoils. We dined well and partied long into the night. Soon after a plaque was placed on the wall of the Sebel bar celebrating a record “take” for the night. Our names featured prominently.

Ah the punt! One minute you can be a racetrack emu trying to scrounge a dollar for a packet of fags and six hours later you’re eating lobster and drinking Krug champagne. Don’t laugh but it was just like the days when mother, after a winning day on the punt, would delve into her winnings and dispatch me on a mission of a different kind.

“Go buy some fish and chips.”

T H E T H O R O U G H B R E D 13

‘ People say you’re lucky

but one of the things Colin Hayes always said to me was never own a racehorse with an unlucky person.

’

THE JOY OF WINNING: John Tickell has savoured each Group 1 victory with big celebrations.

FOR THE LOVE OF HORSES

A

Passion Racing for

There is one certainty in racing: racehorse owners will develop a passion for racing.

It’s the joy, the tears, the fun, the lifetime friendships and the eternal hope the comes with owning a racehorse that kindles a fire within. Four diverse individuals – all optimistic by nature – share their stories. BY PETER RYAN.

DR JOHN TICKELL

PHOTO BY LACHLAN CUNNINGHAM (GSP IMAGES)

Doctor, Author, Television Personality Best Horses Owned: Doriemus, Send Me An Angel, Dignity Dancer, Danelagh, Dizelle Dr John Tickell was a GP in his thirties when a long-term patient of his died of cancer. With his family unable to pay his medical bills with cash, the deceased estate left Tickell a broodmare in foal at Whittlesea’s Mornmoot Stud. Tickell, who had played two seasons for Hawthorn, knew nothing about racing but was happy to accept the payment. Then the foal died.

The stud owner offered, for a $1500 fee, to put the mare to the stallion Century.

Tickell was confused: “I said ‘In humans you pay the woman.’ He said ‘No, in horses you pay the man’, so I went with it.”

The result was Maiden Century (Br m, 1978, Century – Gipsy Bride by Good Brandy). She won 12 races from

47 starts between 1982-84. Tickell – now a motivational speaker, best-selling author, golf course investor and television personality – was hooked. His wife, Sue, enjoyed it too. Tickell laughs at the memory of his wife telling a non-plussed Flemington committeeman that having a winner at headquarters was like having 10 orgasms. “His false teeth fell out,” said Tickell, recalling the changed look on the man’s face.

Spotting an opportunity Colin Hayes, Maiden Century’s trainer at the end of the horse’s career, suggested Tickell syndicate horses with him. Tickell’s first batch of horses included dual Group 1 winner Send Me An Angel (B m 1983, Gielgud – Barbie Lightfoot by Will Hays). Send Me An Angel won the 1986 WATC West Australian Oaks (2400m) and the 1987 SAJC Australasian Oaks (2000m). He then passed on the syndicating of the horses to good friend Terry Henderson and became involved in Dance The Day Away (Br h 1989, Seattle

Dancer – Daffodil Day by Welsh Pageant).

That horse won the 1992 WATC Australian Derby (Group 1) at Ascot.

Tickell was entrenched in racing, then he hit the jackpot with his 69th horse. “Terry bought a horse in New Zealand called Doriemus (Ch g 1990, Norman Pentaquad – Golden Woods by Zamazaan) and Terry syndicated him. Half went to Terry’s Melbourne mates and half to Keith Biggs and his friends in Perth.”

In 1995, Doriemus became the ninth horse to win the Caulfield-Melbourne Cup double in the same year. He won three Group 1 races and ran second in five, including the famous 1997 Melbourne Cup when Doriemus’ fast finish just failed to put him in front of Might And Power at the winning post. “To win the Cup is something you just never expect is going to happen. I would have to say it is the best day of my life and if my wife Sue is there I say it is defi nitely the equal best day,” Tickell said.

T H E T H O R O U G H B R E D 15

Tickell met Biggs in the mounting yard after Doriemus won the Caulfield Cup. Biggs was brash and did not make a good first impression on Tickell’s wife. By the end of the night Sue had decided he was the nicest “rogue” she had ever met. “You develop a bond between owners even if you’ve never met them before and that leads to great friendships,” said Tickell.

Biggs and Tickell still chat regularly. Each Group 1 win they share (Tickell has been part of 10) is celebrated hard. The laughs are as hearty now as they were back then. It’s clear the times the syndicate has shared are great memories for Tickell. He wonders aloud whether he has given Henderson and Biggs the credit they deserve for making his time in racing so enjoyable.

Tickell owned a share in Danelagh (B m 1995, Danehill – Palatious by Semipalantinsk), who won a Blue Diamond Stakes and threw Dizelle. By champion stallion Zabeel, Dizelle won the 2005 AJC Australian Oaks (Group 1) in sensational style, coming from last to win after being poleaxed in

running. “Just watching (trainer) John Hawkes’ face was unbelievable.

He’d given up.” Tickell had claimed four per cent of the filly after a lot of bartering with Biggs in a bar one night. Tickell had an interest in Dignity Dancer (B g 1995, Zabeel – Love That Style by Haulpak) too, winner of the 1998 AJC Spring Champion Stakes (2000m, Group 1), and 1999 VRC Cadbury Australian Guineas (1600m, Group 1) before becoming ill and going off the boil.

“People say you’re lucky but one of the things Colin Hayes always said to me was never own a racehorse with an unlucky person.

He said some people are lucky in racing and some people aren’t.”

Tickell has not just been lucky.

He’s bright, super personable with a turn of phrase you can’t help sharing with friends later. And he works hard, moving quicker between gigs than half the horses he has owned have jumped out of the barriers.

But you can bet he would not hesitate occasionally to thank the idea of his former patient to make up his debt in a most unusual way.

THE BIG CHEER: Dennis Cometti loves nothing more than barracking for one of his horses.

PHOTO BY LACHLAN CUNNINGHAM (GSP IMAGES)

FOR THE LOVE OF HORSES

LUCK’S A FORTUNE: Dr John Tickell’s love of racing started with the payment of a debt – a horse.

DENNIS COMETTI Sports Commentator Best Horses Owned: Noble Giant, My Ozone Friendly, El Nino, New Kid In Town, Desert Light, Cefalu

T

he dulcet tones of sports commentator Dennis Cometti change when he is at the races watching a horse he owns. “I can start to sound like a big idiot at the home turn, and then find a million reasons why they didn’t win,” he said.

Cometti’s interest in racing arose once his football career with West Perth finished, the gammy knees finally catching up with him in the early ’70s. “If you’re looking for a buzz on a Saturday morning you turn to racing.” He watched the

16 T H E T H O R O U G H B R E D

industry from afar, an outlet from a burgeoning broadcast career and a significant involvement in football (Cometti coached West Perth from 1982-84). When famous football coach Ray Jordon introduced him to horse syndicator Terry Henderson one thing led to another and, suddenly, Cometti was a part-owner.

Cometti watched his first horse, Noble Giant (B g 1988, Noble Bijou – I’m Nippy by Swinging Junior), win at Yarra Glen at his first start from the confines of Burswood Casino, sharing the joy with his brother-in-law who also had an interest in the horse. Noble Giant carried similar colours to another horse. As he finished over the top of them, Cometti heard his brotherin-law cursing. “I remember

thinking, ‘this bloke is bloody hard to please’. Turns out he was watching the wrong horse. For a moment I thought I was. There was confusion. It was the racing equivalent of a run out.”

If Cometti were a jockey he would squeeze through the tightest of splits. When commentating he says just the right thing to turn an opening into a winning move. When it comes to talking about himself, he’s quick, selfdeprecating and humorous.

Mention the horses he has part-owned, though, and he is affectionate and knowledgeable.

After Noble Giant came My Ozone Friendly (B m 1990, Sky Chase – Sizzles by Vice Regal), a four-start maiden acquired from New Zealand (she had raced as Ozone Friendly in NZ) who won her first start in Australia over 1200m at Caulfield and then promptly broke down at her next and final start. Noble Giant had broken down just weeks before.

The misfortune that followed both horses meant that when Cometti was offered an involvement in a third horse, he was in no mood for the purchase. “It turned out the horse was Doriemus and we knocked it back,” Cometti said.

In racing, timing is everything.

Despite Doriemus becoming a champion, Cometti’s passion for racing remained. There was Desert Light (Ch g 1994, Volksraad – Light’n’Easy by Imperial Guard), who finished second to Antiquity in the 1997 VRC Carbine Club Stakes after Shane Dye took him to the lead. He nearly hung on, beaten by a whisker. The least successful horse was Braggart (B g 1992 Tristrams Heritage – Prussian

‘ I can start to sound

like a big idiot at the home turn, and then find a million reasons why they didn’t win.

’

Whist by Ace Of Aces) but his disposition was so good he won Cometti’s affection. “I haven’t met them all, but I’ve met Braggart and he became a bit of a personal favourite.” Braggart raced 15 times for one win – at Echuca, at his third start.

Cometti was offered the son of My Ozone Friendly. His name was El Nino (B g 1998, by Jeune). He turned out to be an iron horse – competing in more than 60 races, winning nine (eight in the city and the rich Hasna Stakes sprint (Listed) at Mornington in 2004).

He was placed in 15 others. “He was a lot of fun, terrific to have,” said Cometti.

Now he has an interest in two horses, New Kid In Town (Gr g 2001, Faltaat – Yuleda,

by One Pound Sterling), who just missed a run in last year’s Melbourne Cup, and Cefalu (B g 2001 by Dushyantor – Cristal by Semenenko), who ran second in the 2007 Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Flemington. Cefalu is being set for the Adelaide Cup this campaign with a view to running in the Melbourne Cup in the spring.

Star footballers Chris Judd and Matthew Pavlich are also involved in both horses. “I was canvassing blokes who I thought had too much money. I thought I should help them out and get a horse and they fell for it,” said Cometti.

“Before Chris left Perth we’d have some meetings where people would think we were planning and plotting the weekend’s football, but it was far more serious than that.”

He’s not kidding. Racing allows Cometti to experience the joy of cheering without reservation again.

“What I find is since I’ve become a football commentator I’ve lost the ability to be an involved spectator.

I can’t go to the footy and barrack for someone yet that is part of my upbringing. As a kid you’re a mad footy supporter and then you’re neutered – like El Nino (a gelding).

You get to the situation where you do want to be able to be able to barrack for something so owning a horse is a terrific fill-in,” he said.

HISTORY: Newspaperman Peter Blunden was born into a family with a love of racing.

PETER BLUNDEN Managing Director – Herald and Weekly Times Best Horses Owned: Le Bucheron, Mont Allez, Gradabra, Lorne Dancer

I

t’s the sort of racing story that brings a smile to everyone’s faces except the poor bugger telling it.

And that’s even when the punch line is arriving quicker than Kiwi’s finishing burst in the 1983 Melbourne Cup. Managing Director Peter Blunden owned a horse called Gradabra (Br g 1998 Honor Grades – Black Magic by Kapstaad), who still races under new ownership. It raced 58 times with Blunden as a part-owner. Blunden backed him religiously in 57 of his 58 starts and watched it win five times during that period. However on a January day in 2005, Gradabra jumped from the barriers in race one at Kilmore for the first time not carrying the weight of Blunden’s hard-earned.

“It was my fault completely. I got caught up in some things. I remember the time. It was in the first race and time just got away from me and I forgot. Anyway, it’s unforgivable, unforgivable,” he said.

You can hear the pain in his voice.

It’s no wonder. Gradabra saluted and paid $21 the win. To make matters worse, he was called Peter Blunder in jest by a rival paper, which delighted in retelling his tale of woe to the world.

The Sydney-raised Blunden is no stranger to racing’s hardluck stories. He has been around the game for long enough to hear plenty. Even in the world of journalism, racing yarns and the characters that use the racetrack as their habitat stand out. Blunden first started attending the races in the mid-’60s as a six-year-old.

By the time he was 13 he was at the track every Saturday with his maternal grandfather, Duncan Frater, a railway man from country New South Wales. Duncan’s nephew, Arch, was a prominent racehorse trainer in Newcastle. He trained Mr. Bluebeard (Gr g 1973 Arrivederci – Sweet Story by Pipe Of Peace), who won the Listed 1979 N.E. Manion Cup (2400m) at Rosehill. On his father’s side were relatives who owned horses trained by Jack Denham in the ’50s and ’60s. Blunden feels fortunate to have been born into a family with a passion for racing. “If it is

T H E T H O R O U G H B R E D 17

FOR THE LOVE OF HORSES

in the blood it stays there. I think that people who are blessed with that are really privileged because it’s such a wonderful sport that has so many dimensions,” he said.

“You meet some fantastic people in this industry, people who become lifelong friends.”

Blunden is entitled to call his interest a lifelong passion. He attended the 1980 English Derby at Epsom Downs and was at the opening of Hong Kong’s Sha Tin racecourse in 1978. He’s seen racing in the US and Japan. These broad experiences have confirmed one thing to him: “The more I’ve seen racing, the more I’ve been convinced we have the best racing in the world in Australia. Nothing beats the spring carnival in Melbourne,” he said.

It’s clear, though, from our conversation that Blunden is as happy when he’s among horses, at a betting ring, observing the weary gait of an old strapper. “It’s the people you see and the whole fun of it. The colour of a day at the races just can’t be beaten,” Blunden said.

“I just enjoy the thoroughbred full stop really.”

His favourite horse was Kingston Town. A painting of the champion black gelding who won 30 from 41 starts hangs in a room at his home. As does a racebook from the day in Brisbane Blunden saw the Goondiwindi Grey, Gunsynd (Gr h 1967, Sunset Hue – Woodie Wonder

by Newtown Wonder), win one of his early races. “We’re privileged to have seen a lot of great horses in this country,” he said.

He has part-owned about 10 horses. His best was Le Bucheron (Ch g 1999 by Woodman – Lamora

by Marscay). Le Bucheron won on Blue Diamond Stakes day at Caulfield and ran several close seconds at Flemington but a big win eluded him. He is also involved in Lorne Dancer (B g 2004, Danehill Dancer – Fabled by Seattle Dancer) trained by Gai Waterhouse that finished a close second to Etoile Fille at Randwick (Kensington) at his only start in June 2007. “We’re hopeful for him,” Blunden said.

18 T H E T H O R O U G H B R E D

FIXED ON HORSES: TV star Livinia Nixon gets her adrenalin fix following her horse, the grey stayer Desert Master (pictured, below).

LIVINIA NIXON Channel 9 News Weather Presenter, Temptation Best Horse Owned: Desert Master

T

he warm personality of Livinia Nixon hits the phone like you would want a horse to be hitting the line at the end of a two-mile race.

“I’m always happy to talk about the Master,” said Nixon. ‘The Master’ is quality stayer Desert Master (Gr g, 2001, Desert King – Pinquelle

by Toy Pindarri), a horse trained

by Brian Jenkins at Riverend Park, Bangholme, that Nixon part-owns.

“He’s just a very sweet, gentle horse which probably aren’t the attributes you want in a thoroughbred racehorse,” Nixon said with a laugh.

“But I just think he’s so beautiful.

I’m very proud of the way he has been running and he’s performed very well.”

Nixon became involved when Desert Master’s owner Bruce Cook – a long-time friend of her father, Kevin – offered her a five per cent share in the horse that was already a Melbourne Cup candidate.

“Opportunities like that don’t come up very often,” she said.

Unfortunately for Nixon, Desert Master’s tilt at this year’s Cup ended

on Derby Day when a third placing in the SAAB Quality (2500m) was not enough for the horse to gain entry into the big race. A win would have given the grey gelding a spot in the field automatically. On the day, Nixon was disappointed but philosophical. “We went into a room where they replay the race over and over again and after about the ninth time I went, ‘I can’t watch it anymore’. It was rubbing salt into the wounds,” Nixon said.

It had ended a month that included Desert Master’s third placing in the Geelong Cup – a day memorable for Nixon as she tried to catch the race on television while

preparing for work inside Channel Nine. “Everyone was saying: ‘Why are you watching the races?’ I was like ‘don’t talk. This is my horse’,” she said with a laugh. “By the time the race was actually run there was a group of about 10 people all standing around cheering for it. It was obviously a stressful time of the day in the newsroom so at the end of it we were saying ‘get back to work, don’t let anyone see us watching horse races’.”

Desert Master might be Nixon’s first racehorse, but she was reared around horses. Her late grandfather, James, used horses to muster cattle at his property in Swan Hill. “They didn’t like being ridden,” said Nixon. Once Nixon prayed as she sat on top of a horse she had lost control of. It belted through the paddocks but Nixon held on until it stopped.

Now she gets her adrenalin fix following Desert Master. “It’s the trepidation, the excitement, it’s the unknown, it’s the possibilities,” said Nixon. “When you have a good quality horse who is being primed for a race like the Melbourne Cup and you think you are in with a chance, it’s just so exciting.”

Desert Master has won six races from 26 starts and his story still has several chapters left. All indications are that the lightly raced Desert Master will return in quality winter staying races before having another tilt at the Melbourne Cup. He finished fifth in the 2007 Queen Elizabeth Stakes (2500m) and the 2006 Brisbane Cup (3200m).

His Brisbane Cup appearance followed a first-past-the-post performance in the Listed Andrew Ramsden Stakes (3200m) that he lost on protest to Derringer.

In a relatively short time, Nixon has learned plenty. Her respect for the horse and those involved in the industry palpable. “The amount of energy, passion and money people put into it is staggering,” she said.

Nixon says her involvement in the sport will continue even after Desert Master’s last race is run: “Absolutely, I have had a taste of it and enjoyed it.”

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AMAZING RIDE

blessed be

Mark

(but don’t call him lucky) He’s come a long way from his days as a struggling jumps jockey in South Australia but Mark Kavanagh has taken his recent accomplishments in his stride. Beneath the omnipresent smile and self-deprecating humour lies a thoughtful trainer grateful for his success in Melbourne.

Kavanagh is strongly committed to the effectiveness of his methods but remains a man with his feet on the ground as he enjoys his amazing ride.

WORDS STEPHEN MORAN PHOTOGRAPHS LACHLAN CUNNINGHAM

Y

ou might contend that a SA Derby win in 2004 and a Blue Diamond win the next year hinted at something brewing with then Adelaide-based trainer Mark Kavanagh. But few would have forecast the storm that was coming.

It’s a fair bet his profile among PubTAB punters would have been somewhere between: “who’s this Kavanagh character?” to, maybe, “isn’t he the bloke that used to ride over the jumps in South Australia?”

And little changed to alter public perception in the 2005/2006 season following Undoubtedly’s (B c 2002, Redoute’s Choice – Kiss A Halo, by Don’t Say Halo) Blue Diamond win. Kavanagh trained the winners of four black-type races but none at the highest level.

So what’s happened since? He’s suddenly the new man on the block. Six Group 1 wins, another 10 Stakes races and the best part of $3 million in prizemoney has come his way in the past season and a half. He has three of the best horses in the country – Maldivian (B g 2002,

THE THOROUGHBRED 21

AMAZING RIDE

Zabeel – Shynzi, by Danzig), Divine Madonna (Br f 2002, Hurricane Sky – My Madonna, by Prego) and Devil Moon (B m 2003, King Cugat – Classy Babe, by Masterclass). He’s tackled just eight Group 1 races this season and won four of them.

So, as Brad Hogg might put it, is he a ‘lucky bastard’ or is it down to good management? “I’ve been blessed,” Kavanagh concedes, “no doubt about it. Three or four good horses at the one time … it’s remarkable. And, who knows, I may not get another one again.”

Blessed he may be but plain lucky is something altogether different. Plenty of trainers have been lucky with one good horse but surely not with three or more. Plenty have messed it up when a good one has come along.

Kavanagh has produced five individual Group 1 winners in only four years and four of those he plucked from the relative obscurity (and the smaller budgets) of the Adelaide yearling sales.

Kavanagh says, if there are keys to his success, then they are patience, gut feeling and the ability to recognise a good horse when you see one.

“You have to be able to pick a good horse early and that’s instinctive. I’m not sure it’s something you are necessarily born with, it might be locked away and eventually you fi nd the combination after messing around for a while. The good ones are easier to identify after you’ve found your first,” he said.

The trainer offers considered and thoughtful responses throughout this interview and often stresses how grateful he is for the success he has had recently. He doesn’t claim to know all the answers when it comes to training racehorses but he has strong views about what he sees as the best method.

“It’s art, not science,” he said. “I see too many horses worked too hard. That only makes them dour, slow and useless. If they can’t blow a candle out, which you hear so often, it means they’re too dour. I just want them fit, happy and sound.”

22 THE THOROUGHBRED

But if it’s art, how do you measure it, I asked the man who did indeed ride over the jumps.

And can you have them fit enough to win but yet gradually increase the fitness levels towards the target race as Kavanagh insisted he did with Maldivian last spring?

“Yes, you can with the right horse. Definitely with a big, gross horse like Maldivian. Not so if they’re fine and naturally carry little condition. You trust your eye and have faith in those around you. Have faith in your track rider and take note of any little difference he might report as he has the first feel of the horse in the morning; have faith in the person who fills the feed bin or who cleans up the box,” he said.

“Bart (Cummings) has been doing it forever, having them ready on the day. With a good horse, you have to be singleminded about your target and reach for the stars. You might only get to the moon but you have to aim high.”

Can’t help but think there’s a touch of Cummings and, maybe even George Hanlon, in Kavanagh.

There’s obviously at least three Melbourne Cups (Hanlon’s tally) to come before such a comparison can be genuinely made but Kavanagh has displayed some of that instinctive flair we associate with the great trainers. And, while always obliging with the media, he can produce a Cummings-like

quip or answer a question with a question – a la Hanlon.

Ironically, Kavanagh used to hang around Cummings’ stables as a kid and Hanlon did likewise with Cummings’ father. “Same eyebrows, that’d be about as far as any comparison goes with Bart,” said Kavanagh, who worked casually for the 11-time Cup-winning trainer as a teenager and his mum cooked for the Cummings’ staff.

As for the fundamental of feeding the racehorse, Kavanagh said nothing much has changed since he was “in short pants” and watching C ummings. “I feed pretty much the same feed as Bart was mixing in the ’60s. Some of it might be pre-mixed now and perhaps the preparation has changed but it’s still basically the same ingredients,” he said.

Interestingly, Kavanagh says he never looks at anybody else’s horses or takes much notice of their methods. “I’m sorry but I wouldn’t recognise Miss Finland if she walked by. I’m a dumb ex-jumps jockey, it’s enough for me to keep a handle on my own,” he said.

He often shares his early Flemington mornings with colleagues including Danny O’Brien and Mat Ellerton but insists they never talk horses. “We get on well but the conversation is about anything but horses and, I have to say, it’s amazing how little jealousy there is among the trainers at Flemington,” he said. O’Brien and Kavanagh began a friendship

YOU’RE MY MATE: Mark Kavanagh enjoys a moment at his Flemington stables with star galloper Maldivian.

FACE OFF: The two faces of Mark Kavanagh, as he discusses tactics at Flemington (below left) and shares a joke at trackwork (right)..

wasn’t going to sook after the Caulfield Cup. ‘ IYes, it was very disappointing but we’d had so much good fortune along the way.’

when O’Brien stabled horses with Kavanagh in Adelaide in 2000.

O’Brien was quick to sympathise with his colleague after last year’s extraordinary Caulfield Cup which O’Brien won (with Master O’Reilly) after Maldivian was scratched when injured in the barriers.

It was that incident which showed that Kavanagh could accept adversity with the same good grace he had shown in victory. “I wasn’t going to sook after the Caulfield Cup. Yes, it was very disappointing but we’d had so much good fortune along the way and, in this game, you have to learn to take the good with the bad,” he said.

Kavanagh’s laudable reaction was consistent with the relaxed persona we’ve seen since his move to Melbourne early in 2007, but, he admits, it hasn’t

always been so. “I can tell you I wasn’t too relaxed about anything before we won the Blue Diamond (Undoubtedly) and then the Emirates (Divine Madonna). I had a pretty large bet on myself and it’s paying off now but there was a bit of stress along the way,” he said in reference to a $1 million-plus investment in his Adelaide stables; $700,000 speculative yearling purchases and his later move to Melbourne (all largely funded through borrowings).

“Things have become comfortable now and we’re thankful for that,” he said, adding that his wife, Isobel, had been “incredibly supportive”.

“To win a couple of major races was a huge relief financially. It was like we were walking through the desert and waiting for the first sign of water. We were striving

to get to a destination and we’re getting there now.

“I enjoyed my riding career but I didn’t reach any great heights as a jockey. Now, well I’m just so grateful. I can tell you it’s damn exciting to be training good horses here in Melbourne. I can’t imagine there’d have been any better place to be than right here in Melbourne last spring. Melbourne’s still new to me and it’s the first place I’ve lived where I haven’t spent my time gazing out the window …” he said.

Clearly he’s not taking this amazing ride for granted. His first Group 1 winner – that Derby winner – was perhaps appropriately named in Hard To Get (B g 2000, Geiger Counter – Rarely Caught, by Danzatore).

“Patience and gut feeling,” he

reiterated when I asked again about his success with his three fl ag-bearers, none of whom was taxed early. “They had physical and behavioural attributes which said they wouldn’t cope if pushed too hard too early,” he said.

Has the somewhat meteoric success spoiled him? “No, I’m still happy to work with the slow ones, they just make you appreciate the good ones even more,” he said.

And what of the immediate future? Is there still scope for improvement with the stable stars?

“Realistically, perhaps not with Divine Madonna. She’s a five-yearold mare who’s won four Group 1 races so we can’t ask or expect any further improvement with her.

But I would certainly hope so with the other two,” he said referring to Maldivian and Devil Moon.

THE THOROUGHBRED 23

â&#x20AC;&#x2DC; Bel Esprit enters. The bay horse has real presence.

A physically powerful horse in his day, the experts in the barn say he has the build of a classic sprinter â&#x20AC;&#x2122;

HORSEMAN: Stallion master Darren Mackereth is a constant companion to Bel Esprit throughout the breeding season at Eliza Park Stud.

THE BREEDING BARN

A morning covering horses The act of a stallion covering a mare underpins the racing industry. Even with the effect of equine influenza 15,500 new foals are expected from Australia’s 2007 breeding season. Conception must happen naturally, but it is too big a business to leave to chance. Old-fashioned horsemanship and advanced science is behind the conception.

Hope, faith and a little guesswork sits behind the economy it creates.

The moment stallion meets mare, however, remains a vigorous, primal act: a reminder that the magic of the thoroughbred industry is not confined to the track.

WORDS PETER RYAN PHOTOGRAPHS SEAN GARNSWORTHY

I

t is just before 11am on December 19, sunset in the breeding season. At the well-worn gates of Eliza Park – Victoria’s leading stud farm near Kerrie, 40 minutes north-west of Melbourne – it is quiet. A sign on the outside lists the quality of horseflesh in the undulating hectares around: Bel Esprit, Black Hawk, God’s Own, Clangalang, Danbird, Delago Brom, Desert Sun, Mujahid and Written Tycoon. Magnus will be added to the list in 2008.

In 15 minutes, the 2002 Blue Diamond Stakes winner Bel Esprit (B h 1999, by Royal Academy – Bespoken by Vain) will make the short walk from the stallion stables to the breeding barn to mate with a seven-year-old mare, Tenets, a lightly raced chestnut

by Canny Lad from Miss Believe (by Kaoru Star). Her blood is dominated by Star Kingdom (4x3).

The breeding barn is a square shed set to the right of the long, tree-lined driveway that leads to the office. Shane McGrath, the Irish-born general manager who arrived in Australia for six months 10 years ago, accompanies us there. When we enter the wide-open doors, the mare is waiting with two handlers in the middle of a fenced section about the size of a large two-up ring. Dengari Lodge’s Garry Isaac, on the lookout for a quality mare, purchased her in 2007 for $35,000. He saw some

THE THOROUGHBRED 25

THE BREEDING BARN

photos, received a vet’s report to ensure the seven-year-old was sound from a breeding perspective and made the decision to buy. “I just liked her,” he said. This is her second visit to Bel Esprit and she has two unnamed colts by Over (B h 1996, Dr. Grace – Tromper by Lunchtime). The first of those Over colts was sold as a weanling at the Victorian June weanling sale to the bid of Commercial Bloodstock for $4000 in 2006. It was later resold as a yearling in 2007 at the Perth Magic Millions sale for $14,000 (bid of Phil Burton). The second colt, a chestnut, was reared in Western Australia and is an unnamed yearling.

Today Tenets’ chestnut coat is sunburned more than shining and six flies have found a resting place on her back. She is sturdy rather than striking, but appears comfortable and strong. Her tail is bandaged to keep it tight and taut for convenience and hygiene reasons. She has been cleaned up behind. Any caslicks – stitches inserted after giving birth to foals – have been removed. She is wearing padded boots on the feet of her hind legs, standard protection to eliminate any damage that might come from a swift kick to the stallion’s important bits.

The days of quantity before quality are long gone. Science has taken over and a stallion is expected to serve a “primed” mare only once in the spring. While Star Kingdom, in the 1960s, covered 75 mares in more than 200 matings during a season, the leading sires of today will serve 160 mares on 200 covers – and more than likely travel to the northern hemisphere a few months later to repeat the transaction.

It’s why a vet has inspected Tenets earlier to ensure she is ovulating. Covering can be dangerous and the parties involved are valuable. It takes place at the time when the likelihood of a positive outcome is at its highest. That’s now, today.

The breeding barn’s walls are corrugated iron with black padding rising to a height of about three

26 THE THOROUGHBRED

me euisl uisl ip ip eros eros ‘ EEm

n isl d uipit a ccer nisl duipit att a accer ssi.i. S um q uatum Sum quatum q uam inis inis dolesto dolesto quam e ugait a um eugait aum iilit, lit, vver er ssi.i. S um Sum q uatum quam quam inis inis quatum d olesto dolesto

’

IN CONTROL: Handler Chris Edmondson keeps Tenets under control with the use of a twitch as the stallion approaches.

metres in case the horses hit the walls as they move while mating.

Two entrances you could drive a car through take up two sides of the barn and the floor is covered with black gravel. It’s sparse. Apart from the standard stench a horse provides, the room is relatively clear of smell. A big fan is built into another wall, for use in extreme heat, and the lights are on as light rain falling outside darkens the space. Lights are essential: mating takes place when the mare is right and the stallion ready.

‘ The days of

quantity before quality are long gone. Science has taken over

’

Bel Esprit often covers mares in the evening or at 2am when the specks of light from the breeding barn and the stallion shed make for a glow you can see for kilometres. Locked away in the foal pen in front of the mare is her recently born foal, a colt by Bel Esprit born from her 2006 spring mating. Foals are the mare’s security blanket. His presence is a calming influence to Tenets and an indicator to spectators that the mare has been here, done this before. It might, in this instance, explain her calm demeanour.

It can get cold out here, but that is not the reason the mare’s handlers are wearing protective suits. Urine and horse dung and sweat are likely to fill the air inside the breeding shed.

Relaxed directions fly quietly, when needed, between handlers.

McGrath explains the process and underlines the stud farm’s approach: “Every covering is so important,” he says as his genial manner suddenly gets down to business. We are still adjusting to the ambience when a stallion enters the barn from a side door.

It’s not Bel Esprit. It’s the teasing horse. His stable name is Habib.

He’s impressive enough for a standardbred horse, but he is merely here to tease, to ensure the mare is ready. It’s a thankless task, one ripe for immature gags, but his role is important. He strides directly past the mare’s behind and walks towards her side, a whinny filling the room. His penis, as long as a dog walker’s flick stick, swings beneath him.

He lifts his front legs over the mare’s side and she backs into him. The handlers, who keep a tight hold on both horses, know the mare is ready. Habib is dragged down with a subtle flick from Darren Mackereth, Eliza Park’s stallion manager and Bel Esprit’s handler. Knowing his work is done, Habib is led out of the barn, silently, without complaint and back to his stable.

The mood is relaxed. The mare is led back into the crush – a stall that opens to the covering area.

She is placid. There is no sense of concern as her tail is lifted and the bandage is reapplied to ensure that when Bel Esprit arrives the horse is clean and ready.

The mare has two handlers.

Chris Edmondson is a strong, baby-faced lad from Yorkshire,

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THE MOMENT: Stallion Bel Esprit mounts the mare Tenets under the guidance of Eliza Park’s expert team of handlers.

‘ Bel Esprit bites

down on the mare’s mane. It’s a firm but not vicious grip

’

28 THE THOROUGHBRED

England. He is polite but all business. His colleague, Anton Presnell, is unshaven, a cheeky, relaxed grin springing out from under the cap that sits under his helmet. On a busy day 20 covers happen. The conversation between them is quick, their understanding of what has to be done obvious: “The tail or the front?” offers Presnell.

Edmondson chooses the front. He holds a twitch in his hand. The twitch is a piece of wood with the dimensions of a baseball bat with a loop on the end. He attaches it to Tenets’ nose to ensure she remains calm when the stallion enters the ring. There is no suggestion she won’t. As she is led back to the middle of the barn and Presnell locks the door behind him, Tenets remains unflustered. If she were a dinner guest, you would describe her as good company rather than overbearing. When they reach the middle, Tenets stands in the centre like a statue.

The handlers wear helmets.

Safety is paramount now in the racing business, and the wearing of helmets by handlers has become a standard rule at Eliza Park.

Mackereth has to double back as he goes to collect Bel Esprit because he has forgotten his helmet. “Ready boys?” he asks as he retrieves his helmet before heading to the stallion shed.

It’s a 30-metre walk from the stallion shed to the breeding barn. Since August 26, the prized stallion Bel Esprit has made the walk more than 200 times. It’s a job worth getting out of his stall for: each service is worth $20,000.

At the beginning of September it’s quick money, a whinnying, excited Bel Esprit can hardly wait to get over to the action, the former sprinter meeting the waiting mare at pace. By now, it’s more routine, but care still needs to be taken. He has had his usual 6am feed and, if time allows, a run in the paddock. McGrath

says the secret to a successful breeding program is to keep the horse content. “The mental side is so important. It’s about continuity and keeping them happy,” he says.

Mackereth is assigned Bel Esprit – a familiar presence keeps the stallion relaxed.

Bel Esprit enters. The bay horse has real presence. A physically powerful horse in his day, the experts in the barn say he has the build of a classic sprinter: massive hindquarters, muscles nearly bursting through the front shoulders, a short back that appears long underneath. He also has a masculine head with great width between the eyes – a stallion’s head is the way it’s described in younger horses, still to make the grade. He has a good nostril and jaw. The big jowl will get thicker as he gets older. “All power and muscle,” says McGrath.

“His fertility is so strong.”

Bel Esprit approaches Tenets quietly and sniffs her behind.

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THE BREEDING BARN

Mackereth has the stallion under a tight hold. Edmondson stands in front of the mare, hands tight on the twitch, while Presnell is on the far side, ready to lift the mare’s tail when the action begins. Bel Esprit is sniffing, licking under the front of her leg. In a flash there is action as the stallion squeals and kicks with his front leg towards the mare.

All the handlers move decisively, like referees in a boxing ring, using strength and judgment to be in the position they need to be, as quickly as possible. Again Bel Esprit goes quiet. Tenets drops the lip, her teeth chattering. Her face is like a ventriloquist’s puppet, bottom lip moving up and down. McGrath says it is a sign she is relaxed and enjoying it.

Bel Esprit keeps licking. About three minutes have elapsed since he arrived. There is no banter between the handlers. The stallion whinnys and arches his neck to its full extent. The veins in his neck are not visible but his muscle tone

is. Bel Esprit shudders. Mackereth scratches his belly. After watching the stallion go through this process 200 times Mackereth knows how to get him moving. His touch is subtle, the only movement among the handlers. The three men stand still but their eyes dance, alive to the prospect of movement. Bel Esprit decides it is time and rips out a deep roar so loud and inspiring it creates a breeze within the barn. As a watcher you move, instinctively assuming a defensive pose like a cricketer fielding in close when bat hits ball. And that reaction comes with a fence separating you from the horses.

Bel Esprit launches his front legs forward in a violent jerk that jolts the handlers. They strain as they position him. Edmondson pulls on the twitch leaning forward with his weight towards the back of the mare helping Tenets to stand still.

Mackereth helps to position the penis, while Presnell lifts Tenets’ tail and supports the stallion. Bel

Bel Esprit’s Pedigree

Esprit bites down on the mare’s mane. It’s a firm but not vicious grip, as much to placate the mare to his dominance as to brace himself into position to ensure he does not slide off. (All stallions are different. Some are quite vicious towards the mare and need to be muzzled). Bel Esprit weighs 630 kilograms and more than 16 hands in height. He towers above the mare and the men below. One man standing on another’s shoulders would just about be at the same height as the stallion’s head. Bel Esprit fills the space, his muscles straining as he twists his neck down and thrusts forward, energy coming from the hind legs, his hooves arched from the ground as he enters the mare. In an instant it is over and Bel Esprit collapses his weight on the mare’s back, resting his head for a second before dropping his front legs to the ground. A quick wash of his penis with warm water ensures no gunk remains. Bel Esprit is led away.

NORTHERN DANCER 1961 NIJINSKY 1967 FLAMING PAGE 1959

ROYAL ACADEMY 1987 CRIMSON SAINT 1969

CRIMSON SATAN 1959 BOLERO ROSE 1958

BEL ESPRIT 1999 WILKES 1952 VAIN 1966 ELATED 1957 BESPOKEN 1990 VIN D’AMOUR 1981

ADIOS 1970 GLITEREN 1969

Tenets’ Pedigree

BISCAY 1965 BLETCHINGLY 1970 COOGEE 1959

CANNY LAD 1987 JESMOND LASS 1975

LUNCHTIME 1970 BEAUTIFUL DREAMER 1967

TENETS 2000 STAR KINGDOM 1946 KAORU STAR 1965 KAORU 1955 MISS BELIEVE1981 MISS BELIEF 1972

BLESS ME 1966 FLEUR

30 THE THOROUGHBRED

Ten minutes later he is in his stall, sawdust on the feet and eating his feed – a mix of lucerne, chaff, oats and a balance of vitamins and nutrients – with gusto. His job is done. A six-month break in the paddock looms as the breeding season nears completion.

Tenets is checked within 36 hours to see if the follicle ovulated. A pregnancy scan, completed on January 2, is positive. A second scan will occur on January 16. Isaac is hopeful and positive: “Bel Esprit has been throwing strongly built, compact progeny. He’s a sprinting type and that is what the buyers look at.

He’s just a nice horse.”

When the deed is done, the only sounds heard around the stud are the hypnotic rhythm of hooves on gravel and a light breeze sweeping up and down the shallow valleys around. The intensity of the breeding act – one that contains the explosive uncertainty that makes great sport exhilarating – has passed. It has been like this for centuries now since three stallions – the Darley Arabian, the Godolphin Barb and the Byerley Turk – were brought to Great Britain from the Middle East in the early 1700s to start the line. From the beginning it has been a search to improve the breed – matching stallions to mares for speed, to stay, to be a good juvenile or a late maturer, or to be a great jumper. Some will rise to extraordinary heights, others will remain unknown except as the butt of jokes from philosophical owners, a breed in itself, based on hope, a breed that lives with the knowledge that trying and dreaming has its reward. Recently in Australia it has been an industry experiencing extraordinary growth as many are taken by what they see on the track and want to be involved from the very start. It’s not an easy business: Bel Esprit and Tenets have just thrown another dice.

Many, even those with without a direct interest, are watching how the dice turns.

Did You Know?

The southern hemisphere breeding season begins on September 1. No mare can be served before this date. A mare’s gestation period is 11 months, five days. Foals can be born before the horse’s ‘birthday’ on August 1, as long as the mating takes place the previous spring on, or following, September 1.

Mares not carrying a foal are often stabled under lights to simulate the onset of spring. This may happen as early as July to bring the mare into a “spring” breeding cycle so she is ready for mating at the start of the breeding season.

THE MATING GAME THE STALLION Bel Esprit was placed 13 times in 19 starts earning $2,073,600. He became a sprinting star winning two Group 1 races, the 2002 Blue Diamond Stakes (1200m) and the 2003 Doomben 10,000 (1350m).

Bel Esprit also finished fifth in the 2002 Golden Slipper Stakes.

He was Victoria’s first season sire by winners and is currently Victoria’s second leading sire. Bel Esprit stood at a fee of $16,500 in his first two seasons. His first crop of yearlings sold in 2006 (52) at an average of $55,557. Last year his yearlings (55 sold) averaged $53,049. His biggest sale result to date is a filly by Bel Esprit out of Song of the Sun, which sold for $240,000 to the bid of Woodlands Stud at the William Inglis Easter Yearling Sale.

Bel Esprit’s stake winners include Bel Mer (AUS) 2004 (from Drop Anchor, by At Talaq) who won the Listed 2007 MRC Quezette Stakes; Belcentra (AUS) 2004 (from Centra Rainbeam, by Centaine) who won the Listed 2007 VRC Lexus Stakes; and Gabbidon (AUS) 2004 (from Eliza Park, by Scenic) who won the Group 3 2007 MRC Thousand Guineas Prelude and Group 3 SAJC The Jansz. He stands at Eliza Park Stud, Kerrie.

THE MARE Trained by John Hawkes, Tenets was bred at Woodlands Stud. She was unplaced in two starts in Queensland before being retired and mated to the Woodlands stud-owned stallion, Over (B c 1996, Dr. Grace – Trumper, by Lunchtime).

This pairing produced a brown colt that was sold as a weanling at the Victorian June Weanling Sale to the bid of Commercial bloodstock for $4000 before being resold on the bid of Phil Burton for $14,000 as a yearling at the 2007 Perth Magic Millions sale. To date, this colt is an unnamed two-year-old.

Tenets had another colt in 2006 by Over that is being reared in Western Australia.

In 2007, she produced a third colt, this time to Bel Esprit. Sold for $34,000 at the 2006 Easter Broodmare sale to the bid of Erinvale Farm, on behalf of a West Australian client, she was resold, in foal to Bel Esprit, to her current owner Garry Isaac of Dengari Lodge for $35,000.

After foaling, a mare is usually ready for mating again in 15-20 days. This may be delayed if the mare has complications while foaling, or the mare is showing signs of infection.

A mare’s ovulation cycle, with the help of synthetic hormones, can be regulated by the stud.

After mating, mares are scanned at between 12-14 days, 30 days and at 42 days to confi rm a positive pregnancy. The service fee for the covering stallion is due to be paid on the completion of a 42-day pregnancy test. There is always a risk that a mare may absorb the embryo between mating and the 42-day test.

The mare’s registration papers book is used to check and record the brand of the mare being serviced to ensure accuracy in parentage.

The Australian Stud Book has a record of all stallions’ blood types and foals are tested after birth to ensure their blood type indicates they are by the correct stallion.

Some studs offer a live foal guarantee, and a free return to the stallion if the mare loses her foal during pregnancy, or the foal dies (usually within a 24-hour period). In some cases, a free return is not offered, and the mare owner has the option of insuring for a live foal. The rate of this insurance is usually around 15 per cent of the value of the stallion’s fee.

There are 883 stallions in Australia* There were 26,875 mares covered in 2006* There were 59 shuttle stallions in 2006* In 2006 18,200 foals were born in Australia. The Australian Stud Book has predicted that the foal numbers may decline to 15,500 in 2007 due to Equine Influenza. * Source: Thoroughbred Breeders Australia Website (http://www.tbaus.com)

THE THOROUGHBRED 31

the horse

BAZAAR

It hasn’t always been the case but these days the sale of Australia’s most prized young horseflesh takes place in air-conditioned comfort in a parade ring conducted on a raised modern synthetic floor. While there have been changes in the serious business of horse trading, the basics have remained the same.

So it will be at the William Inglis & Son sale at Oaklands Junction next month. By DANNY POWER.

A PIECE OF HISTORY: Master horseman Chris Ford parades a yearling at the old Wright Stephenson & Co saleyards at Flemington.

32 THE THOROUGHBRED

MELBOURNE SALE

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE FORD FAMILY

I

have vivid memories of the wonderful old stables of the leading livestock auction house Wright Stephenson & Co, perfectly positioned across the road from the start of the Newmarket Handicap at Flemington. A place in which a young boy could suck in the smells of 100 years of history, and touch grooves gnawed on stable doors by restless yearlings, some champions, others as slow as cart horses.

The maze of stable blocks and barns had ceilings so high that the upper reaches housed a eco-system of birds and bugs – a time long before we knew anything about eco-systems. Shards of sunlight burst through cracks in the weatherboards as particles of dust danced in the beams.

Magnificent double wooden doors obliterated the hum of a modern, petrol-driven society. This was a place for horses and men. All men, in those days.

The backless benched seats that circled the sale ring stretched upwards into the bleachers, creating an amphitheatre. All eyes were on a circular, sawdust-covered centre stage.

Nervous yearlings, who waited their turn in a long, cramped race, jumped at the loud thump of the auctioneer’s gavel. “Lot 54 is a brown colt by Better Boy, bring him in Chris.”

Chris Ford was the man in charge of the gate, the ringmaster, and a horseman extraordinaire. A quick flick of his whip, a slap with his hands, and the wide-eyed colt or filly would bound into the spotlight, legs splayed, sawdust flying. For a lover of horses, and of thoroughbred racing in all its glory, there was no better place to be.

It was a place where a youngster, catalogue in hand, could sit among the famous trainers and millionaire owners of the time – such as the flashy Felipe Ysmael and his entourage or a youthful Lloyd Williams doing his best with the rest.

Just the same as them. Taking notes as yearling after yearling passed by. “At two thousand, at two thousand, one

more sir?” Watching and learning, and feeling the rush of excitement as the bid spotter looked in your direction, as nearby a Bart, T.J. or Angus nodded and winked in thousands. YEEESSS. “At two thousand two hundred.”

Auctioning prized bloodstock is as old as humanity, only the scenes have changed. The methods have remained the same for centuries.

Australia’s first auction house was at the Horse Bazaar – an exotic MiddleEastern name that reflects the ancient art of trading – in Sydney. William Inglis ran the Bazaar in Pitt Street, in the centre of Sydney’s CBD, from 1837 when the workhorses and the saddle steeds of the gentry of the time were traded and coveted by their owners.

William Inglis & Son moved to its current position at Newmarket, near Randwick racecourse, in 1906 when the company concentrated on the sale of highly valued bloodstock.

William Inglis & Son made the move south to Melbourne in 1994, when they took over the 40 hectares that houses Australia’s most modern bloodstock auction facility at Oaklands Junction, not far from Melbourne airport. The complex, modelled on the famed Keeneland sales facility in Kentucky, was funded by the sale of the historic stables at Flemington. Wright Stephenson ceased operation in 1981 and sold out to Dalgety Bloodstock, which engineered the development and move to Oaklands Junction.

Dalgety dropped out of the bloodstock business when they sold to William Inglis & Son.

T

he new air-conditioned auditorium with comfortable seating replaced the wooden benches, and a compact parade ring, a replica of the auction ring at Keeneland, was raised on a modern synthetic floor.

The Flemington barns were bulldozed and replaced by a community of townhouses. If only the kids playing in the lanes and gardens knew what history lay in the rich soil beneath them.

It has taken a while, but the Oaklands Junction complex, while lacking the history of the Flemington stables, has developed a character of its own. It remains spacious and modern, the trees have reached a height where they give protection from a constant prevailing wind, and the grounds are paved and the lawns are carefully maintained.

On sale day, on Sunday, March 2, at Oaklands Junction, the place will look a lot like a farmers’ market. The vendors will surround the complex with marquees to entertain and cajole those who have bought their yearlings, and those they hope will throw up their hands. Some serious trading will take place.

Head honcho for William Inglis’ Melbourne operation is Peter Heagney, a relation of Grahame Heagney, the trainer of the great Tobin Bronze.

Heagney is a supreme auctioneer, generally regarded as the best in Australia. His wit is matched by his accuracy and his dulcet tones. Vendors and bidders feel comfortable when Heagney swings the gavel.

The 2008 Inglis Melbourne Premier Yearling Sale is Heagney’s baby. Twelve months of preparation goes into the sale, but this year it is different. For the first time, due to the Equine Influenza outbreak north of the Murray River, the Melbourne sale will be the first of Australia’s major sales. The first grab at the yearling dollar is usually reserved for the Gold Coast Magic Millions, which this year has been delayed – from early January until Easter in March.

The Melbourne sale has been improving in the past five years. The increased quality of the yearlings has reflected a growth in the Victorian breeding industry – money has been poured into stud development and commercial stallions such as Reset (B c 2000, Zabeel – Assertive Lass, by Zeditave) at Darley and God’s Own (B c 2002, Redoute’s Choice – Angel In Disguise, by Sky Chase) at Eliza Park, a greater effort from William Inglis to

THE THOROUGHBRED 33

MELBOURNE SALE

build the Melbourne sale, and a commercial realisation by several of the big NSW studs that dumping well-bred but inferior individuals into the Melbourne market does not work.

Heagney believes this year’s catalogue is the best yet presented in Melbourne by his company. He said the quality of the individuals matched the depth of pedigrees on offer. “We have been stricter with our selection criteria in recent years, and that is reflected in the average, but this year with an extra 120 horses on offer, the sale is not diluted, as we have been able to sustain the quality,” he said.

The fact that Weekend Hussler (B c 2004, Hussonet – Weekend Beauty, by Helissio) was sold through the Arrowfield Stud draft in 2006 for $80,000 is an example of this shift in policy.

“It’s a fine line we (William Inglis & Son) walk with presenting a catalogue that reads well on paper; a catalogue that creates interest

and hype, as well as present the best available yearlings on type,” Heagney said.

He said there was nothing worse for a sale than to begin with a negative edge because prospective buyers were not inspired by the pedigrees when they received their catalogues in the mail.

The concerted effort by Victorian studs to get into the marketplace and buy commercial stallions augurs well for the future of the industry and the Melbourne sale. These stallions, including Elvstroem (B c 2000, Danehill – Circles Of Gold, by Marscay – Blue Gum Farm), God’s Own and Bel Esprit (B c 1999, Royal Academy – Bespoken, by Vain – Eliza Park Stud), and Niello (Br c 2000, Octagonal – Shadea, by Straight Strike – Chatswood Stud), can be expected to remain in Victoria.

Recently our better stallions have been moved across the border into the Hunter Valley as soon as they have become successful.

Heagney said it was a shame Victoria has lost several headline stallions in the past few years.

“Horses like Encosta De Lago, Flying Spur, General Nediym and Danzero all started their stud careers in Victoria. Victoria would be in excellent shape if all those stallions were still here,” he said.

The brilliant Elvstroem can be expected to dominate this sale with his first crop yearlings. Elvstroem, who stands at Blue Gum Farm, Euroa, at a fee of $38,500, has 50 yearlings of offer – the highest representation by any stallion.

Heagney has seen several of Elvstroem’s offspring during his farm inspections and he is genuinely enthusiastic about how the young stallion will be received.

He said most of the youngsters carried the stamp of their sire – athletic, leggy youngsters with good heads.

Some of the highlight lots by Elvstroem include lot 571 (from Traffic Watch, by Salieri), a half-

SINCE 1858

OUT MARCH I N B OO KSTO R E S EV E RY W H E R E gspbooks .com .au

sister to multiple Group 1 winner Lashed; lot 65, a colt, the first foal of Group 3 winner Overclock (Xaar – Watch, by Marauding); lot 151, a colt, from the fast mare Ruby Slipper (Rubiton – Liberty Slipper, by Loosen Up); and lot 551, a chestnut colt from top producing mare Jovan (Nassipour – Teton Moss, by Twig Moss), the dam of stakes winners Northeast Sheila, Dashing Granada and Kablammo.

The boom stallion of this season is Exceed And Excel (B h 2000, Danehill – Patrona,

by Lomond), the Darley-based speedster who so far has sired the exciting stakes winners Exceedingly Good (ex Common Smytzer, by Snippets) and Sugar Babe (ex On Type, by Zeditave).

Exceed And Excel, who stands at Darley (NSW) for a fee of $55,000, has a healthy representation of 20 yearlings in the Melbourne sale, including a colt, lot 29, from Miss Prospect (by Rory’s Jester), the dam of evergreen multiple stakes winner

Consular; lot 332, a colt from the Group 2-winning mare Arletty (by Centaine); and lot 598, a bay colt from the young Mr. Prospector mare Luanda.

Another first-season sire of great interest will be the Group 1 Cadbury Guineas winner Al Maher (B c 2001, Danehill – Show Dancing, by Don’t Say Halo), a three-quarter brother to champion sire Redoute’s Choice. Al Maher has 26 yearlings in the Melbourne sale.

Kempinsky (B c 2000, Danehill – Tristalove, by Sir Tristram), who beat Elvstroem in the Group 2 AAMI Vase (2040m) at Moonee Valley but broke down when he finished second to that horse in the Group 1 Victoria Derby (2500m) at Flemington, has a draft of 15 youngsters including a halfbrother, lot 228, to the brilliant Lago Delight (ex Sweet Delight, by Rancho Ruler).

Other first-season sires represented in the sale include Lonhro’s multiple Group 1-winning

NEW AGE: The William Inglis complex at Oaklands Junction is spacious and modern.

brother Niello, Charge Forward (B c 2001, Red Ransom – Sydney’s Dream, by Bletchingly), Delzao (B c 2000, Encosta De Lago – Amanusa, by Alzao), Denon (B c 1998, Pleasant Colony – Aviance,

by Northfields), Fastnet Rock (B c 2001, Danehill – Piccadilly Circus,

by Royal Academy), and Shamardal (B c 2002, Giant’s Causeway – Helsinki, by Machiavellian).

Australia’s leading sires of the past two seasons, the Arrowfield-

based Redoute’s Choice (B c 1996, Danehill – Shantha’s Choice, by Canny Lad) and Flying Spur (B c 1992, Danehill – Rolls, by Mr. Prospector), are well represented, as, too, are Testa Rossa (B c 1996, Perugino – Bo Dapper, by Sir Dapper) and Dash For Cash (Gr c 1998, Secret Savings – Gulistan,

by Rubiton).

On a sad note, the Melbourne sale also will feature nine yearlings from the last crop of 28 foals

by the wonderful racehorse and highly successful Victorian-based sire Rubiton (Br c 1983, Century – Ruby, by Seventh Hussar), who died in November 2005 at Blue Gum Farm.

Rubiton’s death spelled the end of an era of dominance for the line founded by Victoria’s champion stallion of the 1960s, Better Boy (B c 1953, by My Babu – Better So, by Mieuxce). Better Boy was a handsome stallion who made his name through the deeds of such wonderful racehorses as Craftsman, Pterylaw, Tolerance, Better Draw, Cap d’Antibes and Century – horses that usher back memories of the echoing thump of the auctioneer’s gavel in the musty yearling sale barns a stone’s throw from the top of the Flemington straight.

2008 Inglis Melbourne Premier Yearling Sale; Oaklands Junction.

March 2, 3 and 4 (select session 1) and March 6 (session 2). Yearlings can be inspected at the complex from Thursday, February 28.

PRESENTS A QUALITY DRAFT OF YEARLINGS FOR

MELBOURNE PREMIER SALE 2008 SESSION 1 SUNDAY MARCH 2ND

Lot 247

Ch C

Encosta de Lago x Titanic Rose

Lot 6

Br C

Testa Rossa x Make My Dane

Lot 273

BC

Danzero x View

Lot 40

Ch C

Flying Spur x Nadia

Lot 296

BC

Catbird x You Know When

Lot 42

B/Br C

Al Maher x News Academy

Lot 337

BC

Tiger Hill (Ire) x Autumn Night

Lot 95

BF

Al Maher x Possessed

Lot 365

BC

Elvstroem x Bratenahl

Lot 113

Ch C

Dubleo (USA) x Quiz About

Lot 375

Ch C

Encosta de Lago x Cantinela

Lot 127

Ch C

Choisir x Red Spice

Lot 156

BC

General Nediym x Sapphire Flash

Lot 167

BC

Al Maher x Separate Deal

Lot 173

Ch C

Exceed And Excel x Shalt No

MONDAY MARCH 3RD

TUESDAY MARCH 4TH Lot 415

BC

Al Maher x Crystal Draw

Lot 458

BC

Testa Rossa x El Amonte

Lot 460

Br/Blk C More Than Ready (USA) x Eliza Dane

Lot 510

BF

Pins x Graceful Shadow

Lot 205

BF

Exceed And Excel x Sophistocat

Lot 558

B/Br F

Iglesia x Keshiki

Lot 218

Ch C

Exceed And Excel x Summereto (USA)

Lot 567

BC

Danzero x Ladidi

Contact Damian Gleeson Phone. 03 5795 3145 Fax. 03 5795 2145 Mobile. 0427 960 502 RMB 3130 Euroa, Victoria 3666

STARTING OUT

yearling

How to pick a

Finding a successful formula when it comes to securing a top yearling remains an eternal battle. The yearling sale is thoroughbred racing’s draft camp. Where trainers do battle – on all financial levels – for the best young talent to bolster their stables. DANNY POWER speaks to three Victorian experts to find out what they look for when they go to a sale.

A

few years ago, at the William Inglis Easter Yearling Sale, Lee Freedman was leaning on a railing, under the shade of the famous Moreton Bay fig tree, watching an impressive chestnut colt parading before making its entry into the sale ring.

Freedman pointed out to a client in tow that the yearling before him was the horse the client should buy. The client, who had money to burn, studied the strapping colt striding athletically around the parade ring before offering Freedman his opinion. “I don’t like chestnuts,” he said.

Freedman, not one to mince words, and tired from days of yearling inspection and long, entertaining nights, retaliated abruptly. “Listen, if you want to spend $200,000 and worry about colour, then spend it on a new Ferrari – you can choose whatever colour you like – but don’t come here and worry about colour,” he said.

The client was startled by Freedman’s firm comment, but stood steadfast in his desire not to own a chestnut. “I’ve had no luck with chestnuts,” he said. The fact that Phar Lap, Secretariat, Ajax, Peter Pan, Vain, Wenona Girl, Let’s Elope and more recently the Freedman-trained Super Impose were chestnuts was lost in his stubbornness, so Freedman moved on. A bay, brown or grey could be found easily.

36 THE THOROUGHBRED

M

uch has changed on the yearling sale scene in the past 30 years. Once there was little pre-sale inspection of the yearlings. Horses were bought on pedigree, while conformation and type played second string.

In those days, finding the sales topper was as simple as a flick through the pages of the catalogue.

The change came about in the early 1990s, when conformation became the criteria. In the US, it is claimed that Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lucas changed the face of yearling sales when he started buying off looks and not the page. Lucas bought the best-conformed, most athletic horses irrespective of pedigree and price.

When Lucas began dominating the major black type races in North America, his fellow trainers and buying agents took notice. The pendulum had swung. Pedigree became an addendum to buying type and the sales pitch changed.

Yearlings needed to be prepared and paraded to enhance their physique and athleticism. For a time, the most athletic, smooth, long walkers were easy to pick, as they did it naturally. Now, with the aid of extra staff and walking machines, it is almost impossible to find a yearling who can’t “walk”.

In those early days of conformation buying, there was a chance of finding a cheap yearling from a small draft in a back barn, with a pedigree as thin as toast but with the conformation of an equine Anthony Koutoufides. Not now, as agents and pre-sale spotters comb the sales grounds like sniffer dogs. The so-called bargains have become hot property, the talk of the grounds. The bargains are left to Boxing Day at Myer.

The William Inglis Melbourne Premier Yearling Sale, at Oaklands Junction, is held between March 2-6. The Thoroughbred talks to three of the important yearling buyers on their philosophies, likes and dislikes when it comes to selecting the next champion.

A high-profile trainer with the budget to shop at the top end of the sale; a bloodstock agent buying for others; and a trainer who gambles at the sales with his own cash.

An attractive head with a wide nostril, bright eye and alert outlook

Strong neck set correctly on the shoulder

Powerful shoulders, sloping at a 45 degree angle

Deep, rounded girth allowing plenty of heart and lung room

Muscular rear end.

Good length of hip, correct tail set

Strong, short back

Powerful forearms leading from a thick muscular chest Strong, thick gaskins Clean, ďŹ&#x201A;at knees set squarely in line with the shoulder, forearm and fetlocks, and squarely in line with the front leg

Clean hocks, set squarely in line with the rear end

Short, strong cannon bones. Firm, clean tendons

Firm pasterns, not too long, set at 45 degree angle

Rounded fetlocks, not puffy or enlarged. Sesamoid bones not to be prominent

The perfect specimen

STARTING OUT

Lee Freedman

KEEN EYE: Hall of Fame trainer Lee Freedman will forgive faults if the yearling is an eye-catching athlete.

Hall of Fame Trainer

38 THE THOROUGHBRED

PHOTO BY MARTIN KING SPORTSPIX

F

reedman has been buying at yearling sales since the mid-1980s. As a young aspiring trainer, the sales were the market garden to his fledgling grocery store – the place where he tested his skill and knowledge of conformation and pedigree.

For a time an inspection of Freedman’s stables each year would show most of his horses were a distinct type, square pegs in square holes. Freedman had a liking for black pointed bays, neat, athletic, medium-sized horses – peas in a pod.

“I have modified that over the years. You realise more and more how many good horses look different from that. If that was the criteria, then every attractive horse would be a great racehorse and we’d all being bidding on them, paying ridiculous money,” he said.

Freedman does not favour any colour. He has won five Melbourne Cups with horses of four different shades of coat.

Tawrrific (1989) was a bay; Subzero (1992) a grey; Doriemus (1995) a chestnut; and Makybe Diva (2004, 2005) a rich brown.

Yearlings bought by Freedman and his brothers, Anthony, Michael and Richard, include Super Impose (cost $40,000), Danzero ($60,000), Naturalism ($35,000), Alinghi ($80,000), Mummify ($65,000) and Subzero ($100,000).

Danzero (B c 1991, Danehill – Confidentially, by Kaoru Star) was bought from the first crop of Danehill. Freedman paid $60,000 for the dark bay colt with a big, dopey head at the 1993 “Sale of The Sanctuary” on the Gold Coast.

Freedman liked him for various reasons, but one was the fact his father, Tony, trained the granddam Idesa (by Idomeneo) and bred Danzero’s mother that encouraged him to buy the colt. “It’s a help to be around a while to build a portfolio of horses you have seen or been associated with. It’s an

we are looking for athletic horses, especially fillies – our record stands up there as we have bought a lot of Stakes-class fillies – and buying within a strict budget, whereas for up-market filly buyers like Keith Biggs, we are adding in a sexier pedigree.”

Freedman says pedigree remains important, and he studies the nicks and trends that are working, but not always successfully. He remembers a disastrous foray into New Zealand in the late 1990s when he did a study of the best horses by Zabeel and came up with the theory that the female line needed to have the influence of the sires Round Table and My Babu (Might And Power and Bezeal Bay had the nick).

Armed with all the right horses marked in the Karaka catalogue, Freedman bought up all the Zabeels with the “right” mix.

None of the purchases resulted in a good winner.

Likes

important component in looking at yearlings,” Freedman said.

Alinghi was another example of stored information. Freedman trained her dam Oceanfast, a luckless racehorse that he held in high regard. It was natural for him to buy her first foal by Encosta De Lago (whom he also trained) for $80,000.

It was a yearling sale that changed Freedman’s life.

In 1986, at the Trentham Sales in Wellington, New Zealand, Freedman bought Super Impose (Ch c 1984, Imposing – Pheroz Fantasy, by Taipan) for $40,000.

The leggy youngster had his faults, but Freedman liked his athleticism.

Tawrrific (B c 1984, Tawfiq – Joyarty, by Noble Bijou) came out of the same sale, bought by clients.

Three years later in 1989, Freedman trained Tawrrific and Super Impose to quinella the Group 1 Melbourne Cup (3200m).

Philosophy “I look for an athlete, price aside, but what that is can be different to different people. If I like the horse, I am willing to forgive the faults.

Those faults only help me determine the price. Super Impose was a prime example. He was athletic, a great walker, but he had bad legs.

(Super Impose broke down before he raced, but won the Group 1 Cox Plate (2040m) as an eight-year-old).

“To be perfectly honest, despite what all the so-called industry experts tell you, there is a lot of luck involved. Some people are just kidding themselves it is all their expertise and they can go to the sales and get it right every time.

That said, there are more bad judges than good judges, but good judges have their bad days as well.

“My philosophy also is determined by whom I am buying for. Buying for Slades (leading syndicators Slades Bloodstock)

“I want the horse to catch my eye.

That first impression is important.

“I like an intelligent, attractive head, particularly with fillies. A lot of good horses have been bought off good heads, whereas they didn’t have the best legs in the world. But there always are exceptions to the rule. Danzero didn’t have a good head as a yearling, although he grew into himself to become a powerful striking horse. But his mother was

by Kaoru Star and that stallion threw a Roman nose into his stock.”

Dislikes “I am willing to forgive most faults, but a horse who has a combination of faults – ‘back in the knee’ but also offset or upright – needs to be a very appealing animal before I buy it.

“I put the pen straight through small, dumpy horses and also horses with bad temperaments.

There are some breeds that have ordinary temperaments, so you know what to expect.”

Advice “Do a lot of praying!”

Damon Gabbedy

Philosophy

Bloodstock Agent (Belmont Bloodstock)

“Sometimes as an agent, buying for clients, I tend to be super critical of horses. It’s different with trainers who are buying for themselves to train. I have listened a lot to Lee Freedman when looking at yearlings to be more forgiving of faults. You only have to watch the winners walk in on Derby Day to see all the faults. Horses like Northerly and Might And Power.

“I like to get a first impression as soon as the horse walks out. If it is an eye-catching, athletic horse and I like it, then I am happy not to worry too much about faults.”

Gabbedy said it was important to know the history of the pedigree. There are yearlings you can virtually describe without seeing them.

“Take Freedman’s recent winner Viennese (B f 2005, Redoute’s

D

Likes “Personally, I love a horse with a strong rear end – the push-off power – and a horse that really uses that rear end in the walk.

I call it swinging the hips like Marilyn Monroe – it’s referred to as the walk of a hooker.

“A yearling must have a good temperament.

“I don’t look at yearlings at the farms as much as I used to. There is no substitute for seeing them at the sales complex. Yearlings THE AGENT: Belmont Bloodstock’s Damon Gabbedy buys yearlings for some of Australia’s leading breeders.

can improve, or go backwards, in that short time. At the sales, it is important that they are handling the pressure. Some vendors excuse horses when they don’t perform in viewing them (‘he’s tired’) but I still want to see horses showing that ability to handle it. It is the temperament and toughness you are after in a racehorse.”

Dislikes “Personally, the main fault I steer clear of is a yearling that is ‘back in the knee’ (if you run a straight line from the side through the shoulder and the forearm, that line should run through the centre of the knee and the fetlock joint. ‘Back in the knee’ is when the centre of the knee is behind that imaginary line. It can result in knee chips and long, slopey awkward pasterns). “‘Back in the knee’ was once a big no-no, then along came Danehill and all that changed. Danehill himself was back in the knee and he threw the fault into many of his offspring, but they had the ability and strength of bone to overcome it.

“I also don’t like a horse that is really upright in front, like they are standing in high heels (the perfect angle of the pastern should be 45 per cent). This fault sometimes can correct itself in time, especially if the horse has the correct shoulder angulation (it is generally accepted that the angle of the shoulder and the pastern will always be the same).

“Also I don’t like a high head carriage, but, of course, there are horses who go against the rules.

Northerly always carried his head high.”

Advice

PHOTO BY MARTIN KING SPORTSPIX

amon Gabbedy developed his love of racing from his father, John, a Perth-based wool buyer. “Every spare dollar Dad earned went into racing horses,” Gabbedy said. A highlight for the Gabbedys occurred in 1992 when their top-class sprinter Storaia finished second to stablemate Schillaci in the Group 1 Newmarket Handicap (1200m) at Flemington.

“Mum always said that if I put the same time into my school work that I did into my racing study, I would have been a genius,” Gabbedy said.

His first job was with Goodwood Bloodstock, learning the finer points of thoroughbred conformation from John Chalmers and Simon Vivian.

Gabbedy is now based in Melbourne, where he is the principal of Belmont Bloodstock.

As a bloodstock agent, Gabbedy has a different approach to the sales from that taken by the trainers. He needs to establish his clientele and understand their wishes. Gabbedy buys for several breeders, so his expertise has been refined towards that end of the market.

However, he can claim to have signed the sales ticket for one of the most influential colts sold in Australia, the imposing Encosta De Lago (B c 1990, Fairy King – Shoal Creek, by Star Way), bought by Gabbedy for his long-time client Joe Throsby at the 1990 Sydney Easter Yearling Sales for $140,000.

“Joe owned part of Encosta De Lago’s dam (Shoal Creek) and sold her in foal to Fairy King for $40,000.

He thought so much of the yearling from the result of that mating, he paid $140,000 for him,” he said.

Gabbedy’s other important purchases include Mick Price’s top-class filly Bel Mer, Lee Freedman’s wonderful grey Zagaletta, the 2005 Group 1 Victoria Derby winner Benicio, Honor Lap, who won the 2002 Group 2 WA Oaks-Group 1 WA Derby double, and the 2004 Group 2 WA Oaks winner Fatal Attraction.

Choice – Snippets’ Lass, by Snippets) who sold for $1.4 million.

She is a small filly and if you didn’t know that her brother Snitzel (Group 1 Oakleigh Plate winner and now Arrowfield-based sire) also was small and compact, then you wouldn’t be paying that sort of money for her.”

Gabbedy said it was difficult to sustain your “eye” for a yearling at the end of a long, tough day at the sales. He recommended revisiting those yearlings.

“I use a colour-coded system.

The fi rst look is in blue, then black and so on. Sometimes you get a different picture of a horse at the second look, especially when you are fresher,” he said.

THE THOROUGHBRED 39

STARTING OUT

Robbie Griffiths SPECULATE: Trainer Robbie Griffi ths “gambles” on buying yearlings with his own money.

Former Jockey, Trainer

40 THE THOROUGHBRED

PHOTO BY LACHLAN CUNNINGHAM (GSP IMAGES)

T

rainer Robbie Griffiths, a former jockey, comes from a racing family. His father, John, is a trainer, while his brother, Rodney, was one of Melbourne’s top riders in the 1990s until weight forced him out of the saddle.

Griffiths, who retired from riding in 1990, is like most of the “secondtier” trainers in Australia. If he waited for orders from prospective owners to buy yearlings, his stables would be empty.

For Griffiths and his ilk, the yearling sales are a gamble. A time when bank managers are on speed dial, and the accounts department from the sales companies have more conversations with him than he does with his wife.

Griffiths buys “on spec”. In other words he puts his own down on the table. Borrowed money that he plans to repay when the horses are syndicated to clients. It’s a worrying time. Griffiths switches from horse trainer to used car salesman.

For that reason, Griffiths needs to be frugal and diligent at the sales.

He scours for good buying, and he buys horses that suit the Melbourne market. VOBIS qualification is a pre-requisite. He buys on type – the best quality individual he can lay his hands on within his budget.

An example of his process is the Tobougg–Alzarino (by Wallenda) filly from the 2007 Melbourne Autumn Sale. The filly was by a sire few people knew anything about out of a four-time provincial winning mare Alzarino. The filly was late in the sale; the auditorium was almost empty, except for those patient buyers who were lurking to snaffle this extremely athletic filly. For Griffiths, she was the star of the sale. In his words: “She was a great type, a well-grown and proportioned filly with a strong shoulder, flat knees, an intelligent head, a great length of rein and strong hindquarters.”

The filly sold for a hefty $72,500.

“I thought I had found one that nobody else had spotted, but I

was wrong. I nearly pulled out at $50,000, but I decided I wanted her and kept bidding.”

(A year earlier, Alzarino’s Jeune King Prawn colt brought only $15,000 at Sydney’s Classic Sale).

Griffiths’ eye was spot on.

Named Tzarina, the Tobougg filly brilliantly won her debut at Bendigo (1000m) on November 14, and then charged home for a luckless second to Marveen in the Listed Merson Cooper Stakes (1200m) at Sandown on November 24.

Griffiths started his buying career with a bang. The first two yearlings he bought at Melbourne in 2002 were outstanding preChristmas juveniles – Ra Sun (Ch c 2000, General Nediym – Red Sundae, by Sovereign Red) cost $135,000, and Arena Star (Br f 2000, Spartacus – Centrullah, by Century) bought for only $40,000.

Philosophy “I look for an athlete first. While I am on selling, the difference between me and most others is that

there is a strong possibility I am selling to myself. In other words, if I can’t sell the yearling, then I own it. I can’t sell an idea, but I can sell a product, which is why I buy first and sell later.

“I don’t have orders. If I miscue it affects my future. I buy 10 to 12 yearlings a year. I try to buy a variety of pedigrees, but with a preference to successful sires. Most successful sires have about eight per cent Stakes winners, which numerically adds up to about 20 a year.

“I try to buy the best-looking yearling out of a proven mare with athleticism, and there is a higher than normal chance I will land in that 20.

“I am forgiving of faults. Faults pull them up in the ring, but not on a racetrack.”

“I like horses light on their feet, and they must walk well, with an overstep. The horse needs to have a big barrel. I don’t care if the horse is only 15 hands tall, as long there is plenty of room for a big heart and lungs. I remember my time as a jockey that all the good horses I rode were like Harley Davidsons, you could hardly get your legs around them. Small horses like Mahogany and Brawny Spirit had that big barrel.”

Likes

Advice

“I like an intelligent head, wellbalanced body, athleticism, good walker and good genetics, and there is a fair chance you will come up trumps.

“Revisit the horses you like, sometimes four or five times. Put a value on the horse but don’t be caught rigidly to that price, allow for extra if you really like the horse.”

Dislikes “I don’t like big yearlings because I find that big yearlings have a habit of keeping on growing and get too big. Also I won’t buy a narrow horse that lacks heart room. “My biggest dislike is a heavy walker, like a plodder. Generally they are heavy plodders at the gallop.”

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SC

THE ART OF TRAINING

ENCE

lurks behind the dark glasses Michael Kent’s training techniques are considered “out there” and have raised eyebrows in certain circles. Kent has employed the services of an exercise physiologist, Professor Allan Davie, who has convinced the Cranbourne trainer to use treadmills as a valuable tool to test a horse’s fitness and lactic acid levels.

These left-field methods are starting to win several high-profile admirers in the training ranks. WORDS MATTHEW STEWART PHOTOGRAPHS LACHLAN CUNNINGHAM

M

AKYBE Diva had been retired a month when Lee Freedman saddled her up one last time, for two final extraordinary gallops.

Electrodes were fitted to the triple Melbourne Cup winner. Microchips were aligned with satellites. Men in white coats with thick glasses were on standby, monitoring screens and print-outs, as the great mare built up speed.

She galloped once at Freedman’s beachside stables, rested seven minutes, and then galloped again.

Freedman couldn’t resist attempting to unravel the mystery of the mare’s greatness, even if others reckoned there was none. She was simply a freak.

Her blood lactate levels, the key indicators of efficiency and stamina, were recorded, her heart rate monitored. This was no deranged scientific study.

Three days before Makybe Diva (B m 1999, Desert King – Tugela, by Riverman) won her famous third Cup (3200m at Flemington), her stablemate Benicio

(B h 2002, More Than Ready – Mannington, by Danehill) won the Group 1 Victoria Derby (2500m).

Benicio was bred to sprint but couldn’t.

Down the road at Cranbourne, Michael Kent, who had just returned from a decade as a trainer in South-East Asia, was dabbling in some left-field horse science.

Kent had an exercise physiologist in tow named Professor Allan Davie, lecturer at Queensland’s Southern Cross University. Earlier in the spring, Freedman “borrowed” Davie to test Benicio’s lactate recovery. The results suggested Benicio would stay, even if his bloodlines insisted he wouldn’t. Freedman quickly changed course with the colt bought to win the Golden Slipper – he was a son of US sprint sire More Than Ready (Br h 1997, Southern Halo – Woodman’s Girl) from a brilliant sprinting mare who was a daughter of Freedman’s first Golden Slipper winner Bint Marscay (Ch m 1990, Marscay – Eau D’Etoile) – for the Derby, which he duly won easily.

THE THOROUGHBRED 43

THE ART OF TRAINING

BLOOD: Michael Kent extracts blood from Romantic Dane to test the gelding’s lactic acid levels after a work-out on the treadmill.

Although Freedman remains sceptical yet curious about some of Kent’s theories and has bought two treadmills that allow a horse to gallop at race speed in the confines of a shed – a key lactic test tool – he is not quite as sold on horse science as the Cranbourne trainer. Makybe Diva’s tests were inconclusive, although Davie said the fact she had lost considerable fitness when tested clouded the results.

Freedman used the treadmills for fitness work, but does not religiously apply the lactic acid tests to his big team.

‘ Kent claims the

sun scolds his eyes, others wonder what plotting might go on behind the dark veneer.

’

David Hayes and Gai Waterhouse are more interested in the Davie theories and both have bought treadmills. Hayes said it was no coincidence his best horses – Miss Finland, Rewaaya, Tawqeet and others – had impressive test figures.

Kent, 45, is a curious character.

Ideas others regard as “out there” are his mainstream.

He is intense, prone to walking straight past mates at racetracks or yearling sales, oblivious to anything but the unusual thoughts in his head. He wears dark sunglasses on sunny and overcast days, even indoors. Kent claims the sun scolds his eyes, others wonder what plotting might go on behind the dark veneer.

Kent is not a great people person, by his own admission.

He cannot sit still. He recently bought a speedboat which he refuses to use for fi shing because he would go nuts sitting still for more than 30 seconds. He used TOOLS: This device helps Michael Kent check lactic acid levels in his horses.

44 THE THOROUGHBRED

to run and hide in the jockeys’ room to avoid contact with owners, and slinks off before a race to sit alone in a corner of a grandstand so he can watch his horses without distraction.

He says the experience of fickle owners in Singapore and Macau has improved his people skills but even so he will never engage in mounting yard sing-alongs as Waterhouse does.

While in many ways unusual, Kent is also intriguing; an adaptor and a thinker. Back in the old picnic racing days, when he rode as an amateur, there was often more of a quid in losing than winning.

At Yea one day, when he was 19, Kent and mate Tiger Keenan rode in a two-horse race. Tiger was on the odds-on favourite, Kent the roughie.

The bookies were screaming that the race stank even before it had been run. Tiger’s favourite mysteriously missed the start by 100 yards, ridden along vigorously only when it passed a stewards’ tower.

Kent still smirks when he thinks about it.

Kent, who grew up in the Cranbourne area, had a tough childhood and left school at 13.

He credits veteran trainer Laurie Cleary as being his surrogate father and mentor. Kent always wanted to train and was a natural at it, just ask any of the old-timers at Cranbourne.

In his 20s and early 30s he had a terrific strike rate with horses

such as his first Group 1 winner, the 1994 SA Derby winner Bullwinkle (B g 1990, Bellotto – Pintaj, by Taj Rossi), Sockerano (B g 1990, The Challenge – Sockane,

by Relay Race) and Ruling Regent (B g 1991, Brave Regent – ManiLotus, by Manihi). Staying horses seemed to be his forte and still are.

Kent was winning plenty of races but not making any money. Singapore was a chance to become fi nancially stable and a launching pad to travel the world to study various alternative training methods.

He rolled the dice and took off for Singapore in 1996. He trained there successfully until 2001 when he shifted to Macau for four years.

In South-East Asia, Kent gained a reputation as a master of the patient plunge, ironic given he is extremely impatient by nature.

They still talk about the wily Aussie trainer in the dark shades up there.

It would be nothing for his rich Chinese owners to punt $200,000 on a well-planned strike. They would wait a year if necessary.

“Those guys in Asia, they’d sell their house to back a horse, so I always had to be really sure,” Kent said in his Cranbourne office.

“I had an owner who’d have $200,000 on a horse but he wouldn’t bet under 5-1. So you had to have a good thing but it had to be good odds, which is extremely difficult in a place like Singapore because training is extremely closely monitored; strappers tip, the handicapping is so precise.

You just had to be canny and keep as quiet as you could. You had to learn to be patient.”

You also needed all the tools.

Kent says he has always been curious, keen to challenge the accepted wisdom of training.

“I was always open to alternatives, better ways to train horses. In a lot of ways the quality of training has deteriorated with the economic constraints of having a high staff to horse ratio, and most rely on big numbers to unearth the stars these days,” he said.

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THE ART OF TRAINING

In Singapore in the late 1990s, Kent was introduced to Davie, a fellow Aussie who immediately sparked the trainer’s interest.

Davie was keen to apply his theories, ranging from measuring blood lactates and utilising genetic research, to Kent’s racehorses.

After several hit-and-miss tests on horses at trackwork, they decided the various tests would be more reliable using a treadmill.

Kent’s horses were tested, results carefully recorded. They told stories of fitness and stamina.

The results would help plot Kent’s training regime.

Simply put, the lower the lactate level, the better the stamina, the better the horse.

“It is not the be all and end all but it’s a very good tool,” Kent said.

In Singapore, Kent bought a horse from the great Aidan O’Brien. It had run several placings in Ireland and was thought to be a non-trier. Kent ran it a couple of times, in standard sit and sprint style, and the horse disappointed. Kent put him on the treadmill and checked his lactic acid levels, which indicated the horse had immense stamina, just no quick change-up speed.

“I remember sitting bolt upright in bed one night when it dawned on me that the race tactics were all wrong; he had fantastic values and we were not exploiting his strengths,” Kent said.

Riding tactics were changed, bets placed. “I told the jockey, when the pace slackens, no matter how far out, just go, pour it on. He bolted in. We did the same thing at his next start and he won by a huge margin. The technology gave us the answers,” he said.

Davie joined up with Kent in Macau for six months and the tests continued. They discovered American dirt track breeds had great, low lactate levels and therefore great natural stamina, which was imperative to dirt racing in which the muscle load was greater; a big advantage in Macau where they race on dirt and turf.

46 THE THOROUGHBRED

‘ Pure speed doesn’t win a race, it’s the speed at the end that wins races. You’ve seen it in horses like Northerly, Makybe Diva and Octagonal – they keep going.’

TESTING: Michael Kent supervises Romantic Dane in a stirring workout on the treadmill at this Cranbourne stables.

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THE ART OF TRAINING

Kent’s plunges were becoming more scientific and more successful.

Davie went on to present his theories at conferences around the world. He made the keynote address at the European Veterinary Conference at Cambridge University early last year. Almost immediately, British trainers started inquiring about treadmills.

Davie’s expertise extended to genealogy, DNA and mitochondria, or aerobic energy. When he and Kent latched on to a genetics laboratory in China, they delved further into the science of horse training.

Kent heard of a Chinese soccer player who was given a muscle strength test by the genetics lab, which indicated he would be better off on the athletics field than the soccer pitch. The sceptical soccer player, Liu Xiang,

Michael Kent AGE: 45 STABLES: CRANBOURNE MAJOR WINS: SINGAPORE 1997 Tiger Beer Triple Crown Series, Southerly Wind 1998 Lion City Cup (G1), The Jolly Rodger 1998 Coronation Cup (G1), Rosebery 1998 Singapore Magic Millions, Set The Fashion 1999 Silver Cup (G1), Lucky Tycoon 1999 Singapore Gold Cup (G1, fi rst $1 million race in Singapore), Carry The Flag MACAU 2001 Macau Derby (G1), Documentary 2001 Gold Cup (G1), Thunder Bird AUSTRALIA 1994 South Australian Derby (G1), Bullwinkle 2006 South Australian Oaks (G2), Watches 2005 Moonee Valley Hurdle, Vazoom

48 THE THOROUGHBRED

accepted the tip and won Olympic gold in the 110m hurdles at Athens in 2004; the first Chinese athlete to win Olympic track gold.

Kent has spent at least $60,000 on similar genetic research in the hope it will narrow the gamble in fi nding top horses. He has tested more than 100 horses so far. There is more work, more research, to do.

“Lots of things make up an elite athlete,” he said. “We all know that when you race horses they can’t do a lot of work through the run and win – they are generally anaerobically poor. That’s why the Zabeels, horses like Maldivian, are so good. They stay on.

“Pure speed doesn’t win a race, it’s the speed at the end that wins races. You’ve seen it in horses like Northerly, Makybe Diva and Octagonal – they keep going.

“By studying elite and non-elite horses from the same families, we’re trying to see a pattern in the DNA that is common in the elite horses, so in the future we could save spending lots of time training trying to develop a horse that has no chance of being elite. Like any gene work, it’s lots of money, lots of numbers and a long process, and we could well come up with more questions than answers but we’re seeing some interesting things.”

Kent returned to Cranbourne from Macau in 2005. Much had changed. The competition had become tougher. Back in the mid-1990s, there were six leading trainers. A decade later there were 20 or 30, all partly evened up by identical feeding regimes and veterinary advice.

Yearling sales were going strong. Hayes, Waterhouse and

ANIMATED: Michael Kent explains tactics to jockey Craig Newitt at Flemington.

Freedman attended sales with open chequebooks, prepared to take a punt, against the damning statistics, that their $2 million yearlings would somehow pay their way.

Kent did not have an open chequebook or the inclination to gamble on the buoyant yearling market. He was adamant there were cheaper, more reliable and scientific ways of working out if a horse could gallop. And there was still the odd well-orchestrated plunge to consider to keep things humming along.

“I’m just a bit over the yearling sale business,” he said. “All the deals that go on, then there’s justifying getting someone to pay a few hundred thousand for a horse you have never seen trot and will more than likely be running around for nine grand.

“I simply don’t have the clients who are prepared to do that or who could cope with an expensive failure. I’ve got to look to unearth a good horse in a different way.”

Kent says he is on a journey of discovery, one that others such as Hayes and Waterhouse are monitoring with interest.

He has faith in his off-beat theories but says it is crucial to balance science with raw horsemanship.

“I’m exploring,” he said. “To me, we’ve been doing the same thing for so long. Horses aren’t really any faster than they were 50 years ago, whereas human athletes lower times year after year.

“All the experts spend weeks poring over pedigrees and physical type and they usually get it wrong – Kingston Town, Manikato, Sunline, Northerly and even Makybe Diva all struggled to get a bid at the sales.

“There has to be more to it. We’re trying to find what that is, I’ve just got to be patient.”

Kent has about 40 horses in work at Cranbourne. Most are staying-bred because stayers tend to be cheaper. Some have shown promise; all visit the treadmill.

The elusive elite athlete, the flawless lactic acid test, the next Makybe Diva, is out there somewhere.

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GREAT MATES

Racingâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Enduring Partnership For Pat Hyland and Jim Moloney it is a matter of trust and loyalty, as it has been for more than half a century. Hyland was an aspiring teenage jockey when he and Moloney joined forces and they have formed an unshakeable bond built on respect that has been passed on to their sons. They still see each other regularly, as close as father and son as they chat about the subjects closest to their hearts â&#x20AC;&#x201C; horses and their shared successes on the track. By ALAN MCLEAN.

50 THE THOROUGHBRED

R

acing generates colourful chapters and characters, but one of its most dramatic themes indirectly involves the horse. One unsuccessful ride; an unhappy trainer’s snappy comment to a probing media; and a professional trainer-jockey partnership can be over, swept out of a stable like damp straw.

In such a world, it is hard to imagine a link between a trainer and a jockey that has lasted for more than 50 years!

Even while that successful partnership continued, the next generations of both families took up the baton and still work together.

Jim Moloney was training horses at Warrnambool in 1956. Pat Hyland was 14, his family running a café business in nearby Port Fairy.

A soft-drink delivery man, an uncle of the brilliant jockey Geoff Lane, told a non-scholarly Pat that Moloney was looking for an apprentice.

The day before Pat’s 15th birthday, he moved to Warrnambool to live with Jim and Pauline Moloney. The youngster, who had never lived away from home, was surprised to learn that they were relocating immediately to Mordialloc, to the Epsom training track. Fifty-one years later, they remain firm friends.

“Pat came virtually recommended,” Jim explained. “To be frank he was a bit roly-poly, but I was impressed by his

grit and determination to succeed. That’s what I needed if I was to teach someone to be the best jockey in the business, which is what he later became.”

Licensed since 1948, Jim is now 83. His father, Jerry, also trained in the western district early last century, winning the Grand National Hurdle at Flemington in 1933 with his horse, Belar, a son of the 1920 Melbourne Cup winner Poitrel.

Hyland undertook an initial six months’ probation, then six months’ apprenticeship, before being granted his apprentice rider’s licence.

“The apprenticeship was a formal arrangement,” Hyland, 66, said. “But after that, there was no formality.

Jim drove me to the races, I rode his horses, and he drove us home. I didn’t have to call him Mr Moloney, as many apprentices called their ‘master’ back then.”

Hyland lived with the Moloneys for a decade until he married Maree in 1965.

In more than 30 years with Pat as stable jockey, the most successful horse of the Moloney-Hyland partnership was Vain (Ch c 1966 Wilkes – Elated, by Orgoglio).

Australia’s unchallenged best sprinter started 14 times for an extraordinary 12 thrilling victories, and two seconds.

Vain set an Australian stakes record in his two-yearold year, winning six of seven starts. He won the 1969 Group 1 Golden Slipper (1200m), at Rosehill, by four lengths in a memorable race that was billed as the clash

THE TWO OF US: Jim Moloney (left) and Pat Hyland enjoy a laugh at Hyland’s Cranbourne stables.

GREAT MATES

between Melbourne’s colt and the flying Sydney filly Special Girl.

Three weeks later, he won the Group 1 Champagne Stakes, at Randwick, by 10 lengths, in the fastest time recorded by a twoyear-old over six furlongs (1200m).

At three, he won another six of seven races. The two losses were as memorable as the wins.

In Sydney’s Group 1 AJC Sires Produce Stakes (1400m), at Randwick, in 1969, Vain lacked trackwork (due to persistent heavy rain) and lowered his colours when Beau Babylon, ridden by Roy Higgins, swamped him in the final strides. It was to be Vain’s only loss when Hyland was in the saddle.

“After Vain’s win in the Ascot Vale Stakes of 1969, I was suspended.

The ride in the Moonee Valley Stakes (Group 2, 1600m, at Moonee Valley) went to Roy Higgins and Vain (who started long odds-on favourite) finished second to Daryl’s Joy (who went on to win the Cox Plate and the Victoria Derby that spring, and later a successful sire in the US). I got back on next start for the Caulfield Guineas (Group 1, 1600m, at Caulfield) and Vain did the job in another race-record time,” Hyland said.

Vain was set for the Melbourne Cup carnival at Flemington, an ambitious three-race program over three distances, against open-aged horses, in seven days. It is the sprinter’s version of what the great Phar Lap achieved in 1930 when he won on all four days of the famous carnival – the Melbourne Stakes (2000m), Melbourne Cup (3200m), Linlithgow Stakes (1600m) and the C. B. Fisher Plate (2400m). Vain’s performances were just as decisive and memorable.

On Derby Day, the winning margin was 12 lengths in what is now known as The Age Classic (Group 1 handicap, 1200m, at Flemington), six lengths on Oaks Day in the Linlithgow Stakes (Group 2, WFA, 1400m, at Flemington) and in the George Adams Handicap (Group 1, 1600m handicap, at Flemington), his last race, he carried 8st 10lbs (55.5kg),

52 THE THOROUGHBRED

GOOD TIMES: Jim Moloney (centre) and Pat Hyland with their champion Vain.

With them is strapper Colin White.

10lbs (4.5kg) over weight-for-age to win by a length and three-quarters.

Vain (Ch h 1966, Wilkes – Elated

by Orgoglio) was injured in his preparation for the autumn carnival and retired to Widden Stud in the Hunter Valley, NSW, where he became one of Australia’s premier stallions, siring 44 stakes winners of 96 stakes races.

Moloney was delighted to recall his partnership with Hyland.

“When Pat finished his apprenticeship, I told him he was free. He could have ridden anywhere for anyone, but he said he would rather stay with me,” Moloney said.

“A doctor owner had a promising horse with me and asked me to engage another jockey. I gently explained that for horses trained by me, P. Hyland was the rider. There was a polite exchange of letters, and the horse was moved to another trainer, as was his right. But I had my stable rules.”

It is little wonder that the two men connected. In a separate chat and unprompted, Hyland related the same incident, saying: “There was a strong component of loyalty built into that episode.”

The pair shared other successes.

They won the 1970 Group 1

Sydney Cup (3200m), at Randwick, with the wonderful stayer Arctic Symbol (By h 1965, Arctic Explorer – Star Symbol by Voluntary).

Warri Symbol (By h 1974, Arctic Symbol – Golden Wattle, by Sweet William) ran second in the 1979 Group 1 Caulfield Cup (2400m) at Caulfield, and started favourite in the 1979 Melbourne Cup, finishing sixth to Hyperno.

Mr. Independent (B h 1976, Boucher – Acclaim by Kingfisher) won the 1981 Group 2 T.S. Carlyon Cup (2000m), at Caulfield, having run second to Kingston Town in the 1980 Group 1 AJC Derby (2400m), at Randwick. Moloney and Hyland won the 1982 Group 1 VRC Oaks (2500m), at Flemington, with Rom’s Stiletto (Gr m 1979, Sharp Edge – Snow Shoes by Showdown), the 1984 Caulfield Cup with Affinity (Br g 1979, Zamazaan – Geraniums Red by Brigadier

‘ We may have

disagreed occasionally, but I can honestly say we have never had a fight. PAT HYLAND

’

Gerard), and the centenary Group 1 Goodwood Handicap (1200m), at Morphettville, in 1985 with Mighty Avenger (Br h 1980, Twig Moss – Game As Ned by Without Fear).

Swynphilos (1955 Group 1 Newmarket Handicap, 1200m, at Flemington) was one of their early feature race wins, while one of the better horses in the final days of their partnership was the quality mare Princess Pushy (B m 1985, Cossack Prince – Royal Remembrance by Century). The mare went on to win the Group 2 Herbert Power Handicap (2400m), at Caulfield, in 1991, after Pat had retired from the saddle.

The two men, of good Irish stock, were asked independently whether they have had an argument.

“It was all about trust,” Hyland said. “Jim and I would sit down and discuss how a race might be won.

That was without the video study which goes on these days.”

“Riding tactics can always be debated in the search for a win, and Pat was a willing participant in any discussion,” Moloney recalled.

Said Hyland: “We may have disagreed occasionally, but I can honestly say we have never had a fight.”

The successes would have helped, but between wins were many other also-ran results.

“And don’t worry,” said Moloney, “I gave Pat a rocket if he turned in a bad ride!”

The trainer said Hyland’s ride on Affinity to win the Caulfield Cup was “right off the top shelf”.

Hyland believes patience is Moloney’s greatest attribute as a trainer. “He was patient when he was broke – when he had an excuse not to be – he never pushed a horse when he was on the bones of his bum,” Hyland said.

“Jim used to frustrate me at times, he was so bloody patient with his horses.

“I don’t think we started Arctic Symbol until he was a late threeyear-old. Owners were a lot more patient in those days, too.”

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GREAT MATES

in Vain was unexpected, forcing Moloney to alter his training, and swinging with the punches of having a champion in his care.

“Vain just forced himself upon us. I remember at the end of the 1968 season, after a meeting at Moe, and we won a race. I was the leading country jockey, because I was riding for (leading Ballarat trainer) Noel Kelly which helped a bit, but Jim had trained only five winners for the season, and only one of them was in the city,” Hyland said.

“Unbeknown to us, we had Vain (as a rising 2YO) at home in the stable. By October, Vain had won the Debutant Stakes (Listed, at Caulfield). There is no way that Jim Moloney would normally run a horse three days over the Flemington Cup carnival (as Vain did in 1969), but as I said, Vain forced himself on us. He was just a freak horse.”

Close to being father and son, the men socialise about once a month, other commitments permitting.

“We laugh about the changes in racing. How stewards used to suspend a jockey for weeks from observing a race with binoculars, with no replays. These days, if some incident is not on film for closer study, they would not rub anyone out,” Hyland said.

Hyland’s greatest success was in 1985, when he rode What A Nuisance to victory in the Melbourne Cup, for trainer John Meagher and owners Lloyd Williams and Dennis Gowing.

Hyland retired, aged 47, one of Australia’s greatest jockeys.

Hyland started training soon after from a farm he developed near Cranbourne. In 1995, the crack filly Saleous (B m 1992, Salieri – Bounteous, by Bletchingly) gave him his first Group 1 winner as a trainer when she won the VRC Oaks (2500m) at Flemington. Hyland’s training record now stands at four Group 1 wins.

His most recent stakes success was with Zarita (B f 2004, Pentire – Gin Player by Defensive Play) in the Group 2 Wakeful Stakes (2000m), at Flemington on Derby Day last

54 THE THOROUGHBRED

THE NEXT GENERATION: Pat Hyland’s son Sam (left) works closely with Jim Moloney’s sons Gerard (centre) and John at their Caulfi eld stables.

spring at only her fifth start, but the filly failed to repeat Saleous’ VRC Oaks success, finishing eighth behind Arapaho Miss after starting $5 favourite.

Hyland’s race riding ended in December 1989, and his last winning ride, at Ballarat on December 14, was on Printer’s Choice (Ch g 1985, Proud Knight – Autumn’s Choice, by Home Sweet Holme), a fast sprinter trained by Jim Moloney. Before that Hyland’s son, Matthew, rode Printer’s Choice as an apprentice to win in the gelding’s first start, at Pakenham in September 1988.

To complete an amazing sequence, Hyland’s youngest son, Sam, also won on Printer’s Choice, when the eight-year-old won at Pakenham in the winter of 1994.

The baton had been passed on and informal partnerships continue.

The Hyland boys, Paul, Matthew, Chris, Sam and Patrick jnr, though younger than the Moloney lads John, Gerard and Des, grew up like an extended family. Though there is no relationship by blood or marriage, the Hylands refer to Jim Moloney as “Uncle Jim”.

Like his father, Matthew was also apprenticed to Jim Moloney, and rode 90 winners before weight forced him to discard the silks.

Chris was not a jockey but, like Pat and Matthew, is a licensed

trainer with a keen interest in jumpers. Chris made headlines in 2006 when his high-class jumper Personal Drum won the Grand National Steeplechase (4500m) and A.V. Hiskens Steeplechase (3700m) double.

Jim remains one of Victoria’s oldest registered trainers, behind George Hanlon who is 90.

Sons John, 51, licensed in 1980, and Gerard, 50, licensed in 1986, have taken the reins with 30 boxes at Vain Lodge at Caulfield. The Moloneys moved to Caulfield in 1998 when the Epsom training track was sold.

Jim still trains Pedrillo (who scored a dramatic last-to-first win, first up in the mud at Sandown on December 22) and attends the stables almost every day. He is keenly aware of all the stable runners. “Bonded has had no luck; drawn the car-park barrier at his last three starts. Amberino loves Moonee Valley. Princess Pushy matured late, so her son Daneheart might be similar,” he said.

Jim, John and Gerard Moloney have regularly raced against horses trained by Pat, Matthew or Chris Hyland.

The Moloneys do not retain a stable jockey. They spread their race riding work around, among left and right-handers, vigorous and placid riders, depending upon

specific needs for a given horse.

They regularly engage Sam Hyland, sometimes riding against horses trained by his father or brothers.

Sam rides trackwork at Caulfield twice a week, and the Moloney stable is his first call. Sam has his father’s quick, dry wit and the repartee between Sam and the Moloneys darts across the stable courtyard like a pinball.

Like his father before him, Sam is held in high regard by the Moloneys and his input to their training regime is valued.

“I’ll put Sam up as a preference, but he is not always available at the weight and some horses call out for a particular jockey or need a weight deduction with a claiming apprentice,” John Moloney said.

Gerard Moloney, who sometimes spells horses at Matthew Hyland’s Cranbourne property, respects Sam’s horsemanship: “With a young horse on the training track, I really value Sam’s opinion of its ability.”

Sam said his biggest thrill in racing was riding Zabuan (B g 1993, Zabeel – Duanette’s Girl,

by Balmerino) in a Melbourne Cup for Jim Moloney in 1999.

The gelding finished 11th (at 250-1) behind Rogan Josh. “I am always pleased to extend the tradition, riding any of the horses professionally turned out by John and Gerard,” he said.

Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s playtime trackside.

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THE BREAKER

OldSchool

W

hen reporting on racing for The Herald in the late 1980s, it was a labour of love to attend trackwork mornings at Flemington. After filing a story by phone from the vacant bar in the Racecourse Hotel, I would step into a stream of city-bound cars as the traffic built to its peak.

It wasn’t uncommon, and it remains so, that amid all that morning mayhem a horse and cart could be seen dodging between trucks and trams. It was a scene of dramatic contrast. Imagine a painter incorporating a Grollobuilt skyscraper into an outback landscape and you get the picture.

The director in charge of the scene was John Patterson who was expertly steering a young Clydesdale strapped into a jinker with heavy wheels; the powerful young working horse anxiously stopped at an intersection on busy Flemington Road. The colt, with his nostrils nervously flared, sucks in the fumes of a more modern conveyance, and patiently waits

56 THE THOROUGHBRED

with a gentle touch

for a masterly signal to move on between the traffic and roadside obstacles. Clip clop, jingle jingle.

The Herald is long gone, and so too has the Racecourse Hotel, but despite the changing face of suburban Flemington and Ascot Vale, the same wily old horseman, wide-brimmed hat pulled down over his eyes, can still be seen gently cajoling a skittish horse between the never-ending rush of modern life.

Patterson, as weathered and historic as the old stables in the backyard of his suburban Edwardian house in Flemington, is a horseman of the ilk that his namesake, Banjo Patterson, waxed lyrical about in his poetry.

A horseman from another time who quite happily co-exists, as he has done for 50 years, educating his horses around the streets of Flemington.

And Clancy of the Overflow came down to lend a hand. No better horseman ever held the reins; For never a horse could throw him while the saddle-girths would stand, He learnt to ride while droving on the plains.

From The Man From Snowy River, Banjo Patterson.

John Patterson was born in Coleraine. He moved to Melbourne at the age of 14 to try his luck as a jockey. He was apprenticed to leading Flemington trainer Phil Burke who had stables in Crown

Street, a furlong’s dash from the top of the famous straight six. (The apple rarely falls far from the tree.

More than 50 years on, Patterson still lives in Crown Street).

Patterson, who outgrew the saddle while he was an apprentice, started breaking horses for a living “around 1958”, not long after he rode his last winner, a horse name Farquhar at Caulfield. “I tired of that caper (being a jockey) – there had to be a better way of earning a living than starving.

“I boarded with a renowned horse-breaker of the time, Vic Cowan, so when I wasn’t riding in races, I helped him with the breakers.” Teaching became Patterson’s profession. It was a school of hard knocks and the classmates were untamed, majestic, finely-bred thoroughbreds.

School is still in at Crown Street.

Patterson doesn’t find himself as busy as he was in the halcyon days of the 1970s, but there remains

‘ I tired of that

caper (being a jockey) – there had to be a better way of earning a living than starving.

’

a steady flow of youngsters who feel the tenderness of a human’s hand. Patterson says there isn’t much difference between the thoroughbreds of 50 years ago and today, except that maybe the horses of today are more spoiled.

But life in Flemington in the 1950s was vastly different to as it is now. “Then it was like a big country town in the middle of the city,” Patterson said.

With the famous Flemington sale yards and abattoirs across the road, Patterson remembers “two or three mobs” of sheep grazing on the Flemington racecourse flats between race meetings, oblivious to their fate of a few days later. These days his access to Flemington’s surrounds are limited by the sheer growth of suburbia and the development of the racecourse, but for Patterson and his son Shane and daughter Sheralee, the famous racecourse is their office.

Patterson possesses a wit as dry as the back roads of Boort.

Recently, an eager owner, dressed like a William Street lawyer, asked Patterson for his opinion of his yearling colt which arrived at Patterson’s Flemington stables. “He’s a chestnut with three white feet and a white blaze,” was Patterson’s matter-of-fact reply. Nothing more to say. In ‘Patto’ speak, it means that at this stage of this horse’s life, he is a horse like all the others.

PHOTO BY SEAN GARNSWORTHY (GSP IMAGES)

John Patterson has been breaking horses at Flemington for 50 years.

His weathered stables are marked with a history of famous horses and wonderful stories of horsemanship.

DANNY POWER reports.

TIME FRAME: Although this portrait of veteran Flemington horse-breaker John Patterson was shot in 2007, it could have been a photo taken any time in the past 50 years.

THE THOROUGHBRED 57

PHOTO BY LACHLAN CUNNINGHAM (GSP IMAGES)

THE BREAKER

A MAN AND HIS HORSE: John Patterson, on his trusty grey gelding, relaxes between races as the Clerk of the Course at Flemington.

Six weeks later, on a crisp July morning, as that colt cantered around Flemington, head tucked and enjoying life as if he had done it for years, Patterson watched with the same group of expectant owners anxiously waiting for an appraisal of the racing future of the cheaply bought chestnut. “I have recently broken in horses who cost hundreds of thousands of dollars more than him, and they don’t move as well,” was Patterson’s only comment. In Patto’s class, that’s as good as a gold star on the school report.

Patterson is a shy and modest man. To ask him to rattle off the great horses he has broken in, is like asking Jack Denham for a tip.

Patterson is no bragger, yet during our general conversation names of horses came up, like Melbourne Cup winner Gala Supreme and the brilliant Grey Spirit. Names that sparked Patto’s memory: “I broke him in” and “yeah, I picked him up from Cohuna and broke him for Billy McNabb”.

“Gala Supreme was big and gawky. I led him in (as clerk of the course) when he won the Melbourne Cup (in 1973).” It would have been an immensely proud

58 THE THOROUGHBRED

‘ Patterson is a shy

and modest man.

To ask him to rattle off the great horses he has broken in, is like asking Jack Denham for a tip.

’

THE HANDS OF A HORSEMAN: John Patterson’s calloused, hardened hands are in contrast to the gentle, reassuring rub they can offer a frightened yearling.

moment for Patterson, but the only indication of his achievement would have been a rub on the forelock of the bay gelding as jubilant jockey Frank Reys acknowledged the cheers of the crowd at Flemington.

Patterson began working as a clerk of the course at Flemington in 1961. He was second in charge to Reg Kent for 10 years, but took over as the headman in 1969. “Rain Lover was the first Melbourne Cup winner I led in,” he said. Patterson has led in every Cup winner since bar Gold And Black, in 1977, due to a bunged up knee from a tangle with a fl ighty yearling. An occupational hazard for any horse-breaker.

Patterson’s reputation as a breaker goes beyond the racetrack.

One of his loves is the working Clydesdale, and it is rare to this day that the big head of an unbroken Clydesdale isn’t poking out of one of Patterson’s stalls.

In 2002, he was given the job of breaking two rare black Clydesdales, who had been rescued from the drought-ravaged back blocks of New South Wales. The brothers “Sam” and “Jack” were mistreated, and mistrusted humans.

“They were taught to lead by tying them to the back of a truck and dragging them along,” Patterson said in a tone of disgust.

Mike Keogh, head teamster for South Australia’s Cooper’s Brewery, found the black brothers and sent the rare pair to Patterson, who started breaking them after the 2002 Melbourne Cup, won by Media Puzzle, and by February 2003, the two magnificent horses had made a clean sweep of the Canberra Show.

They completed a stellar year in the show ring by winning at the Sydney Royal Easter Show and at the Royal Melbourne Show.

Patterson says his breaking methods haven’t changed in 50 years. It remains an art of soothing voice and gentle hand. He has seen the harshness of some so-called horsemen, but it is rare. While he respects the modern day “showmen” breakers like American “horse whisperer” Monty Roberts for sheer horsemanship, he believes he and other Australian breakers have the same talent.

“I could do what Monty Roberts does with his selected horses, but I don’t have the same ability to talk. I couldn’t sell it,” he said. “We do the same, only he does it in public as part of a show.”

Crown Street became “the breakers’ street”. Patterson’s longtime neighbour was noted trotting trainer and driver Les Turner, of Adios Bear and Never Say Die fame. While Patterson broke in thoroughbreds, and working and show horses, Turner was a master at the racing trotter and pacer.

Turner no longer works his magic through the streets of Flemington, the closure of the Showgrounds from harness racing, and the recent revamp of the grounds, sealed his fate. For Patterson, as he closes on 70 years of age, life goes on without any thought of stopping.

Besides, until computers can tame and educate a 16 hands, raucous thoroughbred colt, the John Pattersons of this world, horsemen from another time, will have something to do.

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BEHIND THE CAMERA

Clark OF THE COURSE

My family had virtually no history in horse racing. The only connection in my early days was quite tenuous – I’d go with Dad to the TAB and he would let me write out his tickets. I thought that was pretty cool at the time.

I backed the winner of the 1973 Melbourne Cup with my first bet. I was in Grade 7 and we all had a bet on the Cup. I put $1 on Gala Supreme, and it got up. Is it any wonder I came to love horse racing? But as a young bloke, I didn’t really know much about racing other than having a punt, which got more serious as I went through high school.

We ran an SP book at Brisbane Boys’ Grammar School in our final year. I was in partnership with Michael Sullivan, who is now the leading bookmaker in the country – his company is Sportingbet. We had students and even teachers placing

60 THE THOROUGHBRED

bets with us. It was great fun. It created a lot of interest and we had a good book, too.

I had to choose between cricket and journalism as a career, which was a tough decision at the time.

I played with (Test cricket stars) Allan Border and Kepler Wessels at Valley Cricket Club in Brisbane.

I opened the batting with Wessels one day and he ran me out before I had even faced a ball! I was from the same generation as (fellow Queenslanders) Ian Healy and Craig McDermott. When I was about 18 (in 1980), I had to make a choice about whether I would pursue a cricket career or get a job. I had always wanted to be a journalist.

Mum said: ‘You’d better get yourself a job’, so I decided I would. That put an end to the cricket dream. I studied journalism at uni.

I was a music writer at first. I got a cadetship at The Courier-Mail

in Brisbane. The first year of my cadetship included a three-month stint on the racing guide. My first official role was as the music writer.

But that was just a temporary thing because David Fowler, who is now the leading trots caller in Queensland, left The Courier-Mail to join The Telegraph (now defunct).

They knew I liked the races and having a bet, so they asked me: ‘Would you like to have a go at being a racing writer?’ I jumped at it. They were a great team, and I had a great first boss, Jimmy Anderson.

I didn’t know much about racing.

I would go to the races with my mates and have a good time, never thinking that one day I would find myself in the position I’m in now.

‘You can have the bones hanging out of your arse, but don’t look like it’. That was the first piece of advice I received from Jim Anderson. He was big on looking

PHOTO BY LACHLAN CUNNINGHAM (GSP IMAGES)

As a youngster Bruce Clark had a dream like many other Australians – to become a Test cricketer. He came closer than most but he gave up on that long ago as he pursued his other great love – racing. His media star has been constantly on the rise since he began as a cadet journalist in Brisbane. His career has taken many twists and turns, from track clocker, to manager of leading jockeys, to radio and TV host, all with a professional touch and eye for detail. He has brought flair to the sport’s coverage and loves his work, as BEN COLLINS discovers.

MEDIA THRONG: Bruce Clark (right) enjoys a winning moment with trainer Steve Richards after Playwright (Brad Rawiller) wins at Flemington in January.

BEHIND THE CAMERA

It’s not a story if David Hayes thinks his horse is going to win on Saturday – that’s not news. The key is to find out something else about the horse or the trainer to make it interesting. I might come up with a different angle on something and think: ‘Well, I might not use all that today, but I’ll store it away and if the right time comes I’ll bring it out’.

And hopefully it comes out seeming quite natural.

the part, and always wearing a suit to the races. He also said: ‘Make sure you’re nice to everybody on the way up because you’re going to need them on the way down’. Hopefully I haven’t burnt too many bridges. I don’t think I have.

I became the clocker at Deagon, a training track out of Brisbane.

It was a 40-minute drive but I just loved getting up early and going there every Tuesday and Thursday morning and learning about horses and people. It was a great grounding because there were some eccentric trainers there, including Johnny Size, who is now one of the leading trainers in Hong Kong. John hasn’t changed a bit; he was always a hard worker. There was also a great old trainer by the name of Gordon Williams, who was a bit of an icon of training in Queensland. When he got there at about 5am, he’d have a couple of Bacardi Rums and wobble over to us on his push-bike. I learned so much from him. He’d say things like: ‘Listen to how this horse breathes as it comes up the straight. You learn a lot about a horse’s fitness that way’. I also learned a lot about Gordon from when he breathed because fumes would be coming out of his mouth!

Because I was raw, they tried to pull swifties on me. I’d ask: ‘What’s that horse’s name?’ They’d say: ‘That’s Gully Ghost’. The horse never existed! But I gradually got to know horses by learning their markings, their brands. I’ve always been a pretty good observer. I just sponge it up.

If you make the effort to listen, learn and be respectful, you get it in return. People started trusting me because they saw I was keen.

As much as I was doing my job, I also became quite close friends with a lot of people.

Here’s a story that captures how valuable it is to learn and make contacts. Michael Sullivan and I lived together when we were going to uni. At the time, Michael was trying to do something respectable in life but he ended up becoming

62 THE THOROUGHBRED

You have to know your stuff, understand who you are talking to, know more about them than they think, surprise them if you can, try not to ask a stupid question, and that way I think they come to respect your professionalism. I also try to know the answer before I ask the question. If you know the type of answer you want to get, try to work out how to get it.

THE SCRIBE: Bruce Clark, working for The Courier-Mail, talks to jockey Jim Cassidy.

a bookmaker instead! Anyway, I came home from the track one day and told Michael: ‘I’ve got one. We’ve got to back this horse – Daybreak Lover’. Before then, I’d laid the odd bet, but I’d never really been a big punter. We scrambled together $1000 each and rang a bookie and backed it to win the Stradbroke Handicap (1984) at 10-1. We then managed to get some more money, and we also took the field and the field in the trifecta. It ran an Australian record time, and the trifecta paid another $10,000. It was one of those great things. After doing all this work to learn about horses, we were able to put it all into practice and we pulled it off.

The winning trainer, Danny Duke, was in hospital at the time after allegedly slipping on a butter knife at home and finishing up with it in his stomach. Danny never used to talk to the press, but because I built up a relationship with him I was able to get things from him that others couldn’t. He’d say: ‘If you want to talk to me, ring me twice and hang up, and then ring me again and I’ll talk to you’.

No mobile phones in those days.

I thought: ‘It would be great if we

got a picture of Danny in hospital?’

I knew he didn’t have a radio, so I bought a radio and gave it to him in hospital the day before the race.

As soon as the race was over, I went to the hospital with a photographer and we got this great picture. It was an exclusive story and it was on the front page of the Sunday paper.

I’d only been writing for about two years at that stage, so it was quite a scoop for a young bloke.

I love meeting people and gaining their confidence. You can only do that by being natural, and being yourself. It’s almost like you’re making the effort without making the effort. I can’t recall anyone being hard to deal with. I haven’t really had problems like that.

There’s no substitute for research and preparation. I’m a prolific researcher. I love reading and trying to come up with different angles.

‘ Once you get

involved in horse racing, you never get out of it. That’s by choice, though.

’

The horse racing industry is like a big family. While there is obviously a lot of competition, people genuinely care about each other and are very giving. Once you get involved in horse racing, you never get out of it. That’s by choice, though. You become hooked, and it becomes a way of life. I love it. Because I live in it, I’m probably a bit cocooned from the outside world, but they become your workmates and your social circle as well. Most of the people I mix with are either racing people or we have met through racing. It’s all intertwined.

I fell into jockey management. In 1995, a great Brisbane jockey named Gary Palmer asked me if I’d like to manage him and I said: ‘I’d love to have a go’. In our first year together (1995) Gary finished second in the jockeys’ premiership and won the Stradbroke Handicap on a John Morish horse named Rouslan, who beat Schillaci. Gary has two sons – Matthew and Michael – who are also jockeys and are going great guns.

I admired Gary immensely but he was very hard to sell because he had very little personality.

I managed Damien Oliver for seven years. Damien had just come

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back from Hong Kong, and we were out for dinner in Brisbane, he said: ‘So you’re managing Gary’. I said: ‘Yeah’. He asked: ‘Well, would you be interested in managing me?’ It was a great opportunity.

By that stage I’d done 15 years in journalism and was cruising along.

I could have still been there now.

I thought: ‘You’ve got to have a challenge’, so I took Damien up on his offer. I came to Melbourne for that reason.

Managing Damien was great and sad. I just knew he’d win the 2002 Melbourne Cup on Media Puzzle.

We had a party with (Irish trainer) Dermot Weld that night and at six o’clock the next morning we were on the plane to Perth to attend (Damien’s brother) Jason’s funeral.

My motto was: ‘I’ll get you the rides, and you ride them, and let’s not swap jobs’. That’s how we always worked it. Damien was very trusting and loyal, which I found a great help.

I’ve managed some other highprofile jockeys who have made plenty of news. I managed Chris Munce for a number of years. He’s an old mate from Queensland – a champion bloke and a great rider.

What’s happened to him and his family is just a horrible disgrace. (In March 2007, Munce was sentenced to 30 months’ jail after being convicted of conspiring to trade tips

‘ Damien was very

trusting and loyal, which I found a great help.

PHOTO BY LACHLAN CUNNINGHAM (GSP IMAGES)

’

64 THE THOROUGHBRED

PHOTO BY LACHLAN CUNNINGHAM (GSP IMAGES)

BEHIND THE CAMERA

SPOTLIGHTS: Bruce Clark (standing) prepares with his TVN co-host Steve Moran (left) to interview trainer Rod Douglas at Flemington.

in return for bets in Hong Kong.)

I also had Craig Newitt. Anthony Freedman had asked me: ‘Who’s this kid in Tasmania?’ Craig was terrible to look at – he wasn’t the most stylish rider – but there was something about him and he kept winning races. Craig is a unique talent. He has no other talent or interest in life bar riding horses. He had that terrible setback (in April 2004) when he was suspended for 18 months (for giving false evidence at the Leone Chiara inquiry). I sat with him on many occasions trying to get to the bottom of how it all transpired, and I still don’t know if I did. I knew he’d come back well from it, though.

Michael Walker from New Zealand is one of the most talented jockeys I’ve seen. I targeted Michael when he was about 15. He’d broken all the New Zealand records and done more than Shane Dye. I wrote him a letter saying, ‘Congratulations on all of your success. If you’re ever thinking of coming to Australia, I’d love to have a chat’. A couple of years later we got Michael to Australia. He’d had a tough Maori upbringing in a very dysfunctional family and I think the big city got to him. He got into poker machines and drugs and his career was on the backburner. To his great credit, he

went home, cleaned himself up and he has broken the records again this season. He’s young enough to come back here and succeed. I think he’s a superstar. He’s got the natural gift of riding, but he also has the X factor: the looks, the spunk. And he’s great to work with.

I drifted out of management when Damien made his comeback (in 2006, after recuperating for 18 months from a race fall at Moonee Valley in April 2005). I’d just gotten involved at TVN. Damien asked me: ‘Do you think you can do it?’ I said: ‘Yeah, I’ll just manage you, no one else. But it’s up to you.

You know what my workload’s like.

You’ve done all the hard yards to get back and you don’t need me hindering you if you think I’m going to’. A week later he told me: ‘I’ve had a good think about it and I think I’ll be better off with someone else’.

I said: ‘Good as gold’. I understand how things work. No hard feelings.

He probably saved me further grief by making that decision.

Don’t fall in love with your horses. The best of my horses was True Glo, which Lee (Freedman) bought for $40,000, won $700,000 and we were offered $1 million for it. I thought: ‘You have to win a lot of races to win $1 million, and that’s what’s on the table’. Unfortunately,

it wasn’t sold because it was difficult to get the nine owners to agree to it. It won about $250,000 after the offer. True Glo was great for us.

He won Group 2 races, and almost won us a Group 1 race, the (2003) Emirates Stakes, when he was beaten by a millimetre by Titanic Jack. That was good fun.

Are you in racing for the fun or the money? When you’re an owner, a bit of bottom line comes into it.

I also loved the name of a Kiwi horse we had with Lee. It was called Fluffy Duck, and was by Tale Of The Cat, out of a mare called Quack. It had two starts and Craig Newitt rode it and he said: ‘Get rid of it’. Before it had even crossed the line, Lee was on the phone saying: ‘Send it home’.

It then won five in a row in New Zealand. Those things happen.

Love your racing, but don’t love your horses.

There is no definitive method of studying form. If there was, we wouldn’t be sitting here.

People have all these different systems, but I think they’re almost pointless because there are so many factors and variables: state of the track, barriers, jockeys, speed, tempo, etc. It’s just a knack; a subliminal, subconscious

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BEHIND THE CAMERA

Regardless of the form of media, the challenge is to make it interesting. You can’t be boring or take anything for granted because people will just switch off. How do you make it interesting? I don’t know – just try. There is still the old journo in me, and I’ve had all forums to do that, which has been good from a personal development and experience point of view. You’re always learning new skills. I’m 45 now and I still think I’m young.

I’m wide-eyed about things, and still full of so much admiration for people who achieve things in racing. At times, I’m still like a kid – I get star-struck on occasions.

WITH THE TOFFS: An elegantly dressed Bruce Clark interviews jockey Jay Ford for TVN at Royal Ascot in 2007.

thing you develop over years of watching races.

I jumped at the chance to do the morning show on Sport 927. It was a chance to get back into journalism. I did that for two years and loved it. It was a great time to do it because there was all the controversy between Betfair and Tabcorp. The most famous moment there would have been when Robert Nason (then CEO of Racing Victoria) came on the program. Robert always accused me of being an apologist for Betfair.

I wasn’t there to promote either of them; we always offered both sides the opportunity to present their argument. The big moment was when Robert said: ‘I’d rather shut down the spring racing carnival than have Betfair operating in this country’. That was in the middle of the carnival and it created quite a stir. In that kind of situation, you try to present an informed discussion and help listeners make up their own minds.

I was offered a full-time job at ThoroughVisioN (TVN in February 2006), which was

66 THE THOROUGHBRED

very flattering because I had always wanted to have a dip at it. It was an opportunity to have an impact on how racing is covered. I remember sitting at home watching the racing on Sky Channel and thinking: ‘The coverage can be better than this’. It lacked personality. All we saw was race after race, and the numbers.

You still see the jockey’s name displayed in the book as ‘D. Oliver’.

There is a story in every horse, trainer, jockey and owner. Let’s tell those stories. In racing, there was so much raw emotion in a win, and a loss, that never got on to TV and out to the viewers.

Racing has been very poor at promoting its talent. I just thought that TVN had the opportunity to do that better because it didn’t have the constraints of having to screen every race back-to-back. It sits alongside Sky Channel, not against it. Sky fulfils a great role within the industry in terms of driving the wagering, but TVN complements it well in that it promotes the raw passion of racing. You would love to have more time between races at the track, but you can’t have a

10-hour race day. Someone might watch TVN and say: ‘Oh, so that’s what happens after you win a race’.

We want to show the viewers things they wouldn’t normally see. There is so much more we can do. We’re on air 24 hours a day, including eight hours of live races. No other sport does a live coverage for eight hours a day.

I try to present as a viewer.

Whenever I’m on-air, I’m always thinking: ‘What does this look like on the other side of the camera?’

I am always conscious of making it more human by bringing out the human touch and the human stories. The punter isn’t so cold that he doesn’t want to see hearts and flowers at times. Let’s not just look at another horse in a mounting yard or go to another race; let’s show people rejoicing in a great win, or booing a loss.

‘ The punter isn’t so cold that he doesn’t want to see hearts and flowers at times.

’

One thing you need in racing is humour, because it throws so many different scenarios at you.

Most racing people have humour and we try to bring some of it out for the viewers. At TVN, our core business is about showcasing thoroughbred racing, but it’s also important to remember that you’re in the entertainment game. You can’t just blandly say: ‘No. 1 is Knackers, to be ridden by Fred Smith’. You need to stimulate people one way or another. I try to make it feel like it’s a chat at the bar, so that it’s easier to digest for viewers rather than just force-feeding them.

Our coverage of yearling sales has been well received. It was a case of taking viewers somewhere they’ve never been and would like to see.

Most people wouldn’t know how to buy a horse, or how a yearling sale works, and we might interview the likes of Sheikh Mohammed, and that breaks down a barrier. People who don’t even like racing watched it because it was good television – they’d never seen it before.

There is scope to include a host of other shows: Footy Show-type shows, quiz shows, anything, as long as it showcases the personalities of racing, and puts a face to a name. We remain open-minded.

The EI (Equine Influenza) crisis was, in some ways, the making of TVN. It was a massive story in the industry and, to some extent, it was

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BEHIND THE CAMERA

have 20 bucks on their favourite horse, or constantly check out what’s happening in the marquees.

TVN has built its audience and the argument that Channel Seven would lose viewers to TVN is totally erroneous. It doesn’t make any sense, and it’s very disappointing.

our CNN-type experience. From the time it happened, we were on air with six or eight hours devoted to it a day. It was the only place people could stay updated. From our limited resources, I think we did a great job. And there was great leadership from the VRC (Victoria Racing Club) – they were always accessible to us.

‘ I would hope that

within five years TVN would expand to become the preeminent source of racing coverage, news and colour.

’

I’ve always admired Bruce McAvaney. His dedication, professionalism and preparation are inspiring. I shook his hand one day and said: ‘G’day’, and he said: ‘I’ve been watching; you’re doing a good job’. That was good. It made me feel like I was on the right track.

It’s OK to look up to people, but you can’t try to be them. It won’t

68 THE THOROUGHBRED

PHOTO BY LACHLAN CUNNINGHAM (GSP IMAGES)

I’ve been lucky enough to cover international races in places such as Dubai, Royal Ascot and Hong Kong. I work for Dubai – I’m their Australasian agent so there’s a vested interest there – but it’s an amazing place for racing and I have no doubt the future of world racing will be centred there. Different places bring different, special things to the sport. England brings history; Dubai brings the great unknown; Hong Kong is club-based and punter-driven. Australia brings egalitarianism because anyone can own the Melbourne Cup winner.

The bloke with the most money doesn’t win all the races. The battler from Bairnsdale can win if he has the right horse. That’s why we are so blessed in this country. You don’t have to be Sheikh so-and-so or Lord Derby to win the biggest races in the land.

2012 is the big bang year for racing. It’s the relicensing year for the wagering licence, and the contract between the VRC and Channel Seven is up again. If everything is in place for us by then, we will be poised to go the right way, and TVN is a big part of that.

BEHIND THE SCENES: Bruce Clark on air on TVN during a meeting at Flemington.

come across as natural. All you can be is yourself, and whether people accept that or not is another matter. I can only bring my own personality to the job – I can’t bring anyone else’s. I can’t pretend I’m someone I’m not.

If you accept the pats on the back, you also have to be prepared to cop the knocks. You need a thick skin. There are always going to be people who knock you or disagree with you, and you get that in any field. That’s life, and you just have to accept it. As long as you have based your judgment on sound research, you shouldn’t have too many problems. It’s important to assess at the end of the day what we got right and what we got wrong.

You never get blasé about a day at the races because you’re always meeting someone new. You make so many friends and acquaintances – for life – at the racetrack. You never run out of stories in racing.

Things happen that you couldn’t possibly script. There are stories of exhilarating wins, lamentable stories about the punt, and everything in between.

TVN has weathered many storms

from critics and doubters in its three years. We have come a long way, perhaps not quickly, and we’re getting there. The best is yet to come. I would hope that within five years TVN would expand to become the pre-eminent source of racing coverage, news and colour.

Racing Victoria is certainly the leader in racing administration in Australia. They are well set up to move to the next level. It’s exciting times. Now we’ve got a new board with hopefully fresh ideas and the clout to finally have control over all aspects of the industry. I’m sure they’ll get it right. If they don’t, we’ll have something else to talk about on TVN! Last year’s spring racing carnival at Flemington left a bitter taste in the mouth. Channel Seven had exclusive access and TVN was kept off the course and on two-minute delay, which was astonishing considering the VRC owns 12.5 per cent of the station.

Yes, it’s great to have free-to-air coverage, and it’s a terrific deal for the VRC and I presume Channel Seven, but not everybody wants to watch some two-bit celebrity

The industry can benefit from one organisation controlling the media rights. As part of the restructure of Victorian racing, with a new board of governance, they see the benefits of amalgamating media rights; and that TVN’s acquisition of Best Bets and Winning Post brings print media into television rights.

The next step would be to bring Sport 927 into the picture. The industry itself can then go out to the corporate world and say: ‘We have the media rights to Victorian racing that cover all spheres: television, radio, print, internet, new media’. Hopefully the onestop shop will be TVN. It would be a great benefit to the industry – the AFL has proved that.

Going to the races doesn’t seem like a job. Racing is a great passion of mine. I love going to work. I love getting ready to go to work. I love preparing for work – watching race videos and reading about racing, and researching and studying form. My job excites me. It doesn’t seem like a job at all. It’s like going home with the family. Whether it’s going to Melbourne Cup week or to Ballarat on a freezing cold day in June, I enjoy it all.

I feel blessed about the way my life has panned out. Whether that would have happened if I had played cricket, I’m not sure. I could have been in the Channel Nine commentary box by now – but I don’t think I would have looked too good in beige.

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AT THE GALLOP: Track rider Kym Eden puts the Beckett colt through his paces during pretraining at Cranbourne.

READY TO RACE

the making of a

Racehorse PART 2

In our first issue last spring, The Thoroughbred introduced you to the all-Victorian bred son of imported sire Beckett, tracing the steps from his birth, the dramatic death of his mother that left him an orphan, to his sale as a yearling and his early days with trainer Robbie Griffiths. DANNY POWER continues to follow the journey of this budding young racehorse.

PHOTO BY LACHLAN CUNNINGHAM (GSP IMAGES)

W

hen trainer Robbie Griffiths raised his hand at $60,000 for a striking brown colt by new sire Beckett (B c 1997, Fairy King – Groom Order,

by Groom Dancer) at the 2007 Inglis Melbourne Premier Yearling Sale, he became part of a story that began 18 months earlier on a small farm near Bendigo.

There was nothing eventful on a crisp September night in 2005 when the grand old mare Centrullah (B f 1973, Century – Native Rhythm, by Steel Pulse), at the age of 22, produced her Beckett colt at the property of hobby breeders Don and Sue Leahy. This was her 13th foal, although her first for three years.

The foaling went according to Hoyle.

Centrullah was the fi rst broodmare and the pride and joy of her owners. She had produced the brilliant speedster Arena Star (by Spartacus) but more recently gained respect as the dam of the four-time stakes-winning mare Skewiff (by Mookta).

Her 2005 colt was a smart little fellow. While he was the image of his father – compact and strong – he also displayed the feisty nature of his mother. Cantankerous Centrullah had gained a healthy respect from all those who handled her in her long career as a broodmare.

But for Centrullah, the birth of the colt was unlucky number 13. Three weeks after the foaling, she was mated to Bel Esprit at Eliza Park, Kerrie, and scan tests showed she was again in foal. The joy of the union turned to tragedy within weeks when Centrullah succumbed to an uncompromising bout of colic and lost her life. The orphaned little colt was initially bottle-fed

by the Leahys before the clever introduction of a foster mare substituted his nurturing.

The Beckett colt grew into a handsome yearling. He was prepared for sale at Oakford Thoroughbred Farm, Maldon, owned by Brian and Judith McKnight. Brian McKnight found the cheeky, headstrong youngster a bit of a handful, but with skilful and careful persuasion, the yearling was moulded into an outstanding looking athlete, primed for presentation to Australia’s leading trainers at the Melbourne Premier Sale, at Oaklands Junction in March 2007.

Griffiths, who had seen the colt during a visit to the Leahys’ property six months earlier, was one of many prospective buyers who inspected the Beckett colt at the Oaklands Junction complex.

Griffiths trained the colt’s half-sister, the speedy city winner Arena Star, and he was keen to add her half-brother to his roster. Griffiths bid the reserve of $60,000 and secured the colt. Mike Becker, principal of Independent Stallions, which stands Beckett at a fee of $11,000, was so impressed by the colt that he also bought a share, while the Leahys stayed in.

Griffiths’ father, John, a noted horseman, broke in the youngster during the winter, and Robbie gave the colt further education during a short campaign in August, before turning him out for a spell at Fulmen Park, Tyabb, on the lush spring grass.

With the Beckett colt showing Griffiths enough on the track to recommend him to his owners, seven of 10 shares were sold in the colt, and life as a racehorse began.

THE THOROUGHBRED 71

Learning to run – pre-training The Beckett colt spelled at Fulmen Park until mid-November. Trainer Robbie Griffiths said the youngster had developed into a powerful two-year-old. “He didn’t grow much taller, but he has filled right out. He’s very strong,” he said.

Griffiths’ first step was to send the Beckett colt to fellow Cranbourne trainer Enver Jusufovic.

Jusufovic, or EJ as he is more than happy to accept, pre-trains for other trainers (mainly Griffiths) from a functional property with its own track at the back of the Cranbourne racecourse.

It usually takes 12 weeks to have a thoroughbred, who has spelled for at least six weeks, close to race fitness. Most thoroughbreds “let down” completely in a spell of six to eight weeks. The rule of thumb for trainers giving horses a short break – two to four weeks – is that it takes double the length of a spell for a horse to be ready to race. For example, a two-week spell results in four weeks’ training.

EJ pre-trained the Beckett colt for six weeks. Taking him through a slow routine of trot and canter work at the beginning to having him striding a strong 600 metres in even time (15 secs to the 200m) before he is returned to Griffiths to be taken through to galloping and trialling.

The Griffiths-Jusufovic “partnership” works to the benefit of both trainers. The use of EJ’s facilities and his horsemanship gives Griffiths another string to his bow, and allows him to have more horses in work than his stables at

Cranbourne can accommodate. For EJ, who trains only a small team, the Griffiths-trained horses fill his boxes and allow him to make full use of his property.

“I can have up to 25 of Rob’s horses at a time. Some are here only a few weeks, others may take more education to the point where I virtually take them through to the trialling stage,” EJ said.

“Whatever the scenario, all the work with the horses is done under the supervision of Rob. Importantly, we are stabled next to each other at the Cranbourne training track, so Rob is checking on the horses on a daily basis. If he doesn’t see them there, he is constantly monitoring them at my place.”

EJ was impressed with the condition of the Beckett colt when he arrived at his stables.

He had furnished into a powerful individual. “He’s a cheeky colt, who can be a bit boisterous, but when he gets down to work he is sensible, strong and competitive,” EJ said.

He said the impressive thing about the colt was that he possessed a stride and athleticism that belied his size and powerful build. “When you ride him he doesn’t feel like a bulldog. He doesn’t have that square action associated with a smallish horse.

He really lengthens out when he moves,” he said.

“The more work you do with him the less colty he gets. I quite like him. He has a good action, he has speed, he’s tough and he’s nicely conformed. He ticks all the boxes.”

The Beckett colt completed his six weeks with EJ and moved to Griffiths’ Cranbourne stables just after Christmas.

Pre-training routine

WASHED UP: The colt enjoys a hosedown after working at Cranbourne.

72 THE THOROUGHBRED

Morning: Woken at 5am, fed.

Put on the walking machine for 10 minutes to loosen up.

All slow-work mornings are done at Jusufovic’s home track.

On fast work mornings (twice a week), the colt is floated to the Cranbourne training centre.

EXERCISE: Time on the walker is an important part of the colt’s training regime.

After work, he is washed and returned to the walker for 10 minutes to dry and cool down.

Fed and bedded down.

Afternoon: A choice between time on the walker or a leisurely pick of grass. Fed and bedded down for the evening.

Fast work with the trainer The Beckett colt returned to Griffiths in fine condition. He had muscled and strengthened.

His attitude was right. “He had developed well in his body, which is what I wanted him to do,” Griffiths said.

The colt was stepped in his work to galloping, and he immediately showed the speed expected of his pedigree. “He runs good sectionals on the track, as far as his ability is concerned, I am very happy with him,” he said.

But Griffiths found that the fitter the youngster became, and the more confident he grew in his surroundings, his attitude began to take a shift from a cheeky colt, to a loud, bragging lad with a mind capable of wandering from the job.

“We took him to the jump-outs (unofficial trials) at Pakenham (on January 21) and as soon as he went on to the track he started screaming out, and he showed off to the girls in all his glory.

His mind wasn’t on galloping,” Griffiths said.

“He has gone from a cheeky colt to a bit above that as he is starting to realise he is a colt. At this stage, he is going to have to have a good, hard look at himself, otherwise he will be gelded.”

Griffiths plans to give the Beckett colt another jump-out at Cranbourne before his immediate future is decided. “If we consider it is better he is gelded, then that will done and he will go out for a break.

If not, we will get him named and head towards a race,” he said.

A shareholder Racing tragic Richard Sims, who is the advertising manager of the weekly racing publication Winning Post, is one of the shareholders to buy into the Beckett colt. Griffiths said Sims was a keen owner who loved to watch his horses work and trial.

Sims bought into the colt after seeing him at Griffiths’ open day last year. “I was primed with drink by Griffiths and Mike Becker (another part-owner) who tapped me on the shoulder and told me to take a share,” Sims said with a laugh.

“They said if I was drinking with them, then it was tantamount to admitting I was in the ownership.

They kept filling up the glass. The deal was done.”

Sims hopes the Beckett colt can break a run of bad luck with horses.

“I have been owning horses with my father (David) for 20 years, and let’s say I have had sporadic success,” Sims said.

PHOTOS BY LACHLAN CUNNINGHAM (GSP IMAGES)

READY TO RACE

Key Players Bay colt, by Beckett (IRE) from Centrullah THE SIRE Beckett (IRE) 1998, dark bay stallion by Fairy King from Groom Order Beckett was the world’s highestpriced yearling sold in 1999. He was bought by noted authority Demi O’Byrne for 1.7 million guineas (A$3.55 million) at the 1999 Tattersalls Houghton Sales, England, on behalf of Coolmore Stud’s John Magnier and Michael Tabor. The colt, consigned by Roy Strudwick’s Ballygallon Stud, went into the ring with an 80,000 guineas reserve, but such was his wonderful conformation – also helped by a vigorous bidding duel between O’Byrne and Sheikh Mohammed’s agent John Ferguson – his price soared beyond expectations.

Beckett, the racehorse, lived up to his good looks. From only six starts, he won three races including the 2000 Group 1 National Stakes (1400m) at The Curragh, Ireland, in an illustrious juvenile season in which he was rated the United Kingdom’s equal top two-year-old (with Darley’s Tobougg) with a Timeform rating of 116.

He stood his first season at Independent Stallions, near Nagambie in Victoria, in 2004 at a fee of $11,000 (inc. GST).

The result of 106 matings produced 71 foals, of which one was a brown colt from the mare Centrullah.

His first crop of Australianbred foals are now two-yearolds, and at time of writing he has had only five starters for two placegetters. Beckett will be represented by three yearlings in the upcoming Inglis Melbourne Premier Yearling Sales at Oaklands Junction – two colts and a filly.

THE DAM Centrullah 1983, brown mare by Century from Native Rhythm Centrullah is a daughter of champion Victorian-based sire Century, a son of the great Victorian stallion Better Boy. Her dam, Native Rhythm, is a daughter of American import Steel Pulse and the exceptional broodmare Illawong.

Illawong is the dam of the stakes winners Tumberlua (Villiers Stakes and dam of the Flight Stakes winner Apollua), I’m Scarlet (winner of the Expressway Stakes and Canterbury Stakes and second to John’s Hope in the 1972 Golden Slipper) and Big Scope (Flemington Stakes).

She was initially owned by Barrie Griffiths, who later went on to own and part-own 1989 Melbourne Cup winner Tawrrific and the 1992 Caulfield Cup winner Mannerism.

Centrullah, a big mare with shocking front legs, was retired to the breeding shed without being broken in.

She had several owners before Don Leahy, from Bendigo, bought her in 2000 for $18,000.

Her two best offspring are the top-class race fillies Skewiff (by Mootka) and Arena Star (by Spartacus).

Skewiff has won the 2004 Group 3 Jayco Stakes (1400m) and the 2005 Group 3 Schweppes Stakes (1600m), both at Flemington. Arena Star was a brilliant juvenile who won at Moonee Valley and placed twice at stakes level.

Centrullah’s 2005 colt foal by Beckett was her 13th and her last. Although she was mated to Bel Esprit on September 29, 2005, she died a month later from an attack of colic, leaving her colt an orphan.

THE BREEDERS Don and Sue Leahy, Bendigo.

For Don and Sue Leahy the art of breeding racehorses, which started in 2000 as a hobby, has become an obsession. Not that the Leahys, of Bendigo, are complaining. Their obsession in breeding quality racehorses gives them tremendous fulfilment and rewards.

Their first foray into breeding began with the purchase of the mare Centrullah in 2000 for $18,000. The daughter of Century was in foal to Spartacus and she had a colt by North Reef at foot.

They sold the North Reef colt, whom the Leahys prepared and presented, at the 2001 Melbourne sales for $30,000.

In 2002, the resultant Spartacus foal, a brown filly, was sold at the Melbourne sales to trainer Robbie Griffiths for $40,000. That filly, Arena Star, not only gave Griffiths’ training career a boost when she won her first two starts by big margins, she also gave the Leahys the impetus to expand their breeding operation.

THE TRAINER Robbie Griffiths, Cranbourne.

Robbie Griffiths was a more than handy jockey who rode 208 winners before increasing weight forced him to retire. His most important winners were the 1988 Group 3 Tasmanian Oaks (2200m) on Sound Gold (trained

by Lee Freedman) and the 1990 Listed Diamond Jubilee Stakes (1600m) at Moonee Valley on Marathon Star.

Griffiths comes from a renowned racing family. His father John, who also holds a trainers’ licence, is a respected horse breaker, and his brother Rod was an outstanding Group 1-winning

jockey before increasing weight forced him out of the saddle.

Griffiths retired from riding in 1990. He immediately started learning his training trade as foreman for his close friend Tony Vasil. Griffiths took out his licence in 1991, and his first winner was Star View at Geelong on Boxing Day 1991.

He said his biggest thrill as a trainer was winning the 2003 Group 2 Saab Quality (2500m) with Big Pat at Flemington on Derby Day. Three days later, he saddled up the grey to finish 10th to Makybe Diva in the Emirates Melbourne Cup.

THE PART-OWNER Richard Sims, Cranbourne Richard Sims is the advertising manager of leading racing publication Winning Post. Sims bought a 10 per cent share in the Beckett colt after enjoying the convivial atmosphere at trainer Robbie Griffiths’ open day in the winter of 2007 when all Griffiths’ yearling purchases were paraded.

Sims admits to being a luckless owner – in 20 years he is yet to celebrate a city winner – and he hopes the cheeky son of Beckett can break the cycle.

“My father David and I have bred and raced a number of horses and we get a great thrill out of it, even if the luck hasn’t gone our way,” he said.

Sims also has a 3YO gelding

by Brief Truce (from Sahaaran,

by Loosen Up), a horse he bred, in training with Griffiths, as well as shares in Monsam (B g 2002, Danehill Dancer – Sahaahan) with Tony Noonan at Mornington, and Artina (Br f 2004, Street Cry – Strictly Speaking, by Grosvenor) with Mark Minervini in Adelaide.

THE THOROUGHBRED 73

THE CALVERTS

Sacred Kingdom A Victorian Success Story Hobby breeders, the Calvert family of Kornong Stud, suspected they were on a winner when there was keen interest in their broodmare Courtroom Sweetie. The reason became apparent when Courtroom Sweetie’s son, who sold for $200,000 as a yearling, began showing promise in Hong Kong. Sacred Kingdom has since become international hot property after winning the Hong Kong International Sprint (1200m) at Sha Tin in December.

Stephen Howell visited the Calverts’ property in western Victoria, where they are hoping to capitalise on the success of their breeding venture.

WORDS STEPHEN HOWELL PHOTOGRAPHS BRUNO CANNATELLI

74 T H E T H O R O U G H B R E D

K

ornong Stud is easy to find, if you have carefully transcribed directions: turn left just before you get to Streatham, almost an hour west of Ballarat, and drive seven kilometres down the road to Nerrin Nerrin. A big white mail box is the marker. Look closely on the fence behind it and you can see the farm name.

Go through the gate and be guided down a long drive by lines of agapanthus, green and blue pointers to what has always been for the Calverts a special place and is now, perhaps, their sacred kingdom.

Andy Calvert, his wife Julia and his mum Noel live there, Noel in the large stone house built in 1908 for the well-known Chirnside family, Andy and Julia in the adjacent cottage.

Opposite those is a stone and timber barn from another era, but perfectly presented and brought out of the past by the Falcon ute parked between the rows of stalls.

Peer through the trees and horses graze in dry paddocks. Walk through the gate around the other side of the house and the garden is superb. Look beyond and the view is breathtaking, even if the locals are holding their breath for rain. The only negative appears to be the flies, and on a hot summer’s day this is their playground. It has been a Calvert workplace since 1921 when the parents of

THE SNIFF OF SUCCESS: Andy Calvert enjoys a tender moment with Sacred Kingdomâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s yearling half-brother.

The colt, by Fastnet Rock, will sell at the 2008 Easter Yearling Sales in Sydney.

THE CALVERTS

Noel’s late husband Alan snr, Alan and Joan, bought the 1200-hectare property. Sheep and crops (canola, wheat and barley) are the staples today. And there are the horses, a small band of broodmares and their progeny. The four-legged matriarch is Courtroom Sweetie, a 15-year-old (B m 1992, Zedative – Morlin Maid by Sir Tristram) who lives up to Andy Calvert’s description: “She’s no oil painting.”

She is also quiet and nicenatured. And she is the dam of the sprinting world’s horse of STAR: Sacred Kingdom (Gerard Mosse) wins the Group 1 Hong Kong International Sprint (1200m) at Sha Tin in December.

the moment – Sacred Kingdom, conqueror of a super quick field that included Australia’s Miss Andretti in the International Sprint in Hong Kong in December.

The Calverts sold her colt foal

by Encosta De Lago at the 2004 Melbourne Premier Sale, and were pleased with the $200,000 paid

by Hong Kong trainer Ricky Yiu. About a year later they started getting calls about whether Courtroom Sweetie was for sale.

The penny quickly dropped that her colt must be showing promise,

so they kept the mare. And kept a close eye on the Encosta colt, sensational winner as Jumbo Star of a trial in Sydney, where Yiu had left him with trainer Clarry Conners, and eventually ultrasensational winner of races in Hong Kong, where owner Sin Kang Yuk renamed him Sacred Kingdom.

With Courtroom Sweetie in the paddock now is her latest foal, an inquisitive Elvstroem filly, and she is in foal to the same stallion (B h 2000 Danehill – Circles of Gold by Marscay). The return

mating with Blue Gum’s success story was brought about by the Equine Influenza outbreak that put Encosta De Lago (B h 1993, Fairky King – Shoal Creek by Star Way) out of reach at Coolmore’s Hunter Valley stud.

While the Calverts will have to wait another season for that mating – imagine what a full brother to Sacred Kingdom would bring! – they hope to have a big winner this sales season.

The immediate future was in a small paddock with one of Noel Calvert’s old geldings, just through the trees from his dam, when The Thoroughbred called. The big, strong bay (Courtroom Sweetie’s seventh foal) was happy to put his head in a Kornong Stud collar to pose with Andy, helped, of course, by the bucket of feed brought along

by Julia.

‘About a year

later they started getting calls about whether Courtroom Sweetie was for sale.

The penny quickly dropped that her colt must be showing promise, so they kept the mare.

’

This colt is known as Rocky, being by Fastnet Rock (B h 2001 Danehill – Piccadilly Circus by Royal Academy), whose first crop are yearlings. Andy Calvert’s answer to why he paid $50,000 to send Courtroom Sweetie to Paul Perry’s former sprinter is simple: “He was quick.”

Young Rocky was scheduled to go to the Melbourne Premier Sale in March, but Sacred Kingdom’s success brought a switch to Sydney in April with the expectation of a bigger price. Much bigger.

“Blue Gum will be preparing the colt for us,” said Calvert, who

76 T H E T H O R O U G H B R E D

planned to send Rocky to Euroa about eight weeks before the sale to get him ready, physically and mentally. With Blue Gum to take three others to Sydney, the colt will have “friends” to travel and stay with, rather than fret on his own in a row of boxes.

Noel Calvert is the family’s breeding matriarch and historian.

She said her husband, Alan, raced horses and as the Kornong team grew so did training bills, hence they decided about 35-40 years ago to sell the colts as yearlings and keep the fillies.

Andy chipped in with, “I was just picking up the horseshit then ... I’m still doing that”, but added his parents taught him everything he knew about horses.

“I was very horsey and I wanted something to do,” Noel continued, saying she had been asked, “Doesn’t anybody talk about anything but horses in this family?”

Noel described horses and the breeding business as “a wonderful interest to me”.

After Alan died she decided to sell the fillies as yearlings, too.

The Calverts’ Encosta De LagoHermitage Lane (Ch m 1990, Balmerino – Bound To Honour by Balkan Knight) filly topped the Premier sale at $260,000 the year Sacred Kingdom sold for $200,000.

Bart Cummings bought her. Called Head Girl, she is unraced.

Two more yearlings were heading to the Melbourne sale this March, an Exceed And Excel-Hermitage Lane filly and an Elvstroem-Plot filly.

Courtroom Sweetie was bought in foal to Flying Spur in 1999 after having a Catrail (B h 1990 Storm Cat – Tough As Nails by Majestic Light) filly. Since then she has had foals by Octagonal, Redoute’s Choice, Encosta De Lago, Choisir, Fastnet Rock and Elvstroem. She missed to Danzero when served in 2000 and after Sacred Kingdom was born on November 18, 2003, she was not served.

Andy said Sacred Kingdom was a normal yearling, high spirited and, at times, a bit of a handful, “even a

MANOR BORN: The historic farm house at Kornong Stud was once owned by the Chirnside family.

bit half-mad”. When he and Julia saw him in his box at Yiu’s Hong Kong stables two days before he won the Group 1 sprint, he was a four-year-old gelding “as quiet as a kid’s pony”.

On track he has acceleration to burn, and during the minute and a bit he took to dispose of his world-class opposition over 1200 metres on December 9, the younger Calverts were probably the only two Australians at Sha Tin not willing Miss Andretti on –

Noel, minding the farm, watched on television.

“I thought he was buggered down the back,” Andy said of Sacred Kingdom. “He got so far back. He was third last, way back, horses all around him.” Until he accelerated.

When the Calverts send Rocky on a float down “Agapanthus Alley” to their front gate they will be hoping he can develop a similar turn of foot. Or, at least, that yearling buyers anticipate he can.

THE FUTURE: The Calverts tend to their mare Courtroom Sweetie and her fi lly by Elvstroem.

Courtroom Sweetie and her foals 15yo bay mare, Zeditave-Morlin Maid Raced 9 times for 3 wins (Canterbury, Gosford, Wyong) 1998 bay filly by Catrail (Saffie Darling, 30 starts for 2 wins) 1999 bay colt by Flying Spur (Under Oath, 27 starts for 5 wins) 2000 bay filly by Octagonal (Sweet Octagonal, unraced) 2001 missed to Danzero 2002 bay colt by Redoute’s Choice (Opter, 28 starts for 6 wins) 2003 bay colt by Encosta De Lago (Sacred Kingdom, 9 starts for 8 wins) 2004 not served 2005 bay colt by Choisir (Postgraduate, unraced) 2006 bay colt by Fastnet Rock (in 2008 Sydney Easter sale) 2007 bay filly by Elvstroem (born Sept 26, 2007) 2008 served by Elvstroem Oct 31, 2007

THE THOROUGHBRED 77

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GUINEAS

A race born from a

VISION

looks at the history of the Cadbury Guineas, run at Flemington; how the foresight of one man fostered the development of one of Australia’s most significant Group 1 races.

PHOTO BY BRUNO CANNATELLI

DANNY POWER

N

ot so long ago, when Diggers Rest was a small country town rather than an “outer suburb” of Melbourne as it is now, it was the centre of a major thoroughbred breeding region that boasted Ken Cox’s famed Stockwell Stud and Doug Reid’s St. John’s Lane Stud.

It was from the paddocks of St. John’s Lane that former top-class tennis player Reid (he was good enough to play at Wimbledon) bred the great mare Maybe Mahal (B f 1972, Maybe Lad – Faithfully Yours,

by Todman).

And it was through Reid’s love of racing, and specifically his desire to restore the importance of the Victorian breeding industry, that he came up with the idea of a feature race for three-year-olds to be run during the autumn carnival.

Reid, who joined the Victoria Racing Club committee in 1977, floated the idea of the 1600m race, run at set weights, to VRC secretary Murray Cox and his assistant Rod Johnson in 1985.

A year later the first Australian Guineas was run at Flemington.

CHAMPIONS AT STRETCH: Reset (Danny Nikolic) reaches for the post to beat Starcraft (Scott Seamer) in the 2004 Cadbury Guineas at Flemington.

THE THOROUGHBRED 79

GUINEAS

Reid pushed the idea of the race to complement the Group 1 Australian Cup (WFA 2000m) and the Sydney autumn carnival, which featured the Group 1 Triple Crown for three-year-olds – the Canterbury Guineas (1900m), Rosehill Guineas (2000m) and AJC Derby (2400m).

The AJC Derby, run at Randwick, has grown significantly in stature since it was moved (in 1977) from the spring to the autumn. Reid was conscious that Victoria, which lacked an autumn Group 1 race for three-year-olds, needed to challenge Sydney’s dominance.

The VRC made much fanfare of the new race, and that push

remains more than 20 years later.

The significance of the Guineas is emphasised by the fact the overall prizemoney in 1985 was $100,000, a massive stake for the time. In comparison, the Group 1 Lightning Stakes (WFA 1000m), also run in the autumn, was then worth only $40,000. The 2008 Guineas carried prizemoney of $755,000.

Johnson remembers the birth of the Australian Guineas well.

“The credit for the Australian Guineas goes to Doug Reid.

From the time he joined the VRC committee in 1977, he always was looking to promote races for young horses (Reid also developed the VOBIS scheme),” Johnson said.

“I was chairman of the group and listed races committee at the time, so we were able to get the first Australian Guineas registered as a Group 3 race. I doubt that would happen with a new race these days.”

Johnson took over from Cox in 1986 and oversaw the first Australian Guineas, run on February 15, as chief executive, with Les Benton as racing manager.

The race attracted plenty of media attention and a crack field of threeyear-olds.

Significantly, the in-form $3 favourite, the Angus Armanascotrained – and Victorian-bred – True Version (Br c 1982, Bletchingly – Fiction Star, by Kaoru Star), ridden

Cadbury Guineas Winners At Stud YEAR

HORSE (FOALED) SIRE

STAKES WINNERS BEST G1 PROGENY

1986

True Version (1982),

by Bletchingly

1 stakes winner

No G1 winners

1987

Military Plume (1983),

by Sir Tristram

24 stakes winners

Northwood Plume (3 G1 wins, including 1994 VRC Oaks)

1988

Flotilla (1984), by Dalmacia

2 stakes winners

No G1 winners (sent to Thailand in 1996)

1989

King’s High (1985),

by Full On Aces

6 stakes winners

No G1 winners (sent to Thailand in 1997)

1990

*Zabeel (1986), by Zabeel

108 stakes winners

Octagonal (10 G1 wins including 1995 Cox Plate, 1996 AJC Australian Derby); Efficient (2 G1 wins, including 2007 Melbourne Cup; 2006 Victoria Derby); Might And Power (7 G1 wins, including 1997 Melbourne Cup); Vengeance And Rain (4 G1 wins in Hong Kong); Sky Heights (4 G1 wins, including 1999 Caulfield Cup, 1999 AJC Australian Derby).

1993

Kenny’s Best Pal (1989),

by Bletchingly

5 stakes winners

No G1 winners

1995

*Baryshnikov (1991),

by Kenmare

3 stakes winners

No G1 winners (sent to France in 2001)

1996

Flying Spur (1992),

by Danehill

54 stakes winners

Forensics (2007 Golden Slipper); Mentality (2 G1 wins, including 2007 Randwick Guineas); Sleek Chassis (2007 Blue Diamond Stakes)

1997

Mouawad (1993),

by Zabeel

0 stakes winners (infertile)

No G1 winners (sent to China in 1998)

2000

Pins (1996), by Snippets

16 stakes winners

El Segundo (4 G1 wins, including 2007 Cox Plate); Econsul (2004 Caulfield Guineas); Legs (2 G1 wins including 2006 Kelt Capital Stakes).

2002

Dash For Cash (1998),

by Secret Savings

2 stakes winners

Oldest progeny are 3YOs. No G1 winners

2003

Delago Brom (1999),

by Encosta De Lago

0 stakes winners

Oldest progeny are 3YOs. No G1 winners

2004

Reset (2000), by Zabeel

0 stakes winners

Oldest progeny are 2YOs

2005

Al Maher (2001),

by Danehill

0 stakes winners

Oldest progeny are yearlings

* Zabeel (Sir Tristram – Lady Giselle) and Baryshnikov (Kenmare – Lady Giselle) are half-brothers.

80 THE THOROUGHBRED

by Darren Gauci, won impressively from Caledonian Boy and Black Charleston. True Version was unluckily beaten by Caledonian Boy in The Debonair (1400m) at Flemington on February 1, after beating the older sprinters in the Group 3 Standish Handicap (1200m) at Flemington on New Year’s Day. True Version, who as a juvenile won the Group 1 Champagne Stakes (1600m) at Randwick and the Group 2 QTC Sires’ Produce Stakes (1400m) at Eagle Farm, injured himself on the track after the Guineas and did not race again.

Reid’s prediction, and hope, that the Australian Guineas would be a race from which the breeding industry could source stallions had an immediate impact when True Version, line-bred 3x3 to the great Star Kingdom (Ch c 1946, Stardust – Impromptu,

by Concerto), was snapped up

by Widden Stud, in the Hunter Valley, to join his sire Bletchingly (Br c 1970, Biscay – Coogee, by Relic), who had also been trained

by Armanasco.

Johnson said such was the influence of the Australian Guineas that the prizemoney for the second running was raised to $150,000 and the race was not only elevated to Group 1 status, but a sponsor, Cadbury Schweppes, came on board.

The company has remained the sponsor of the Australian Guineas since and its name is so synonymous with the race that the race name has been changed to the Cadbury Guineas.

The first filly to win was Jack Denham’s Triscay (Ch f 1987, Marscay – Tristram Lady, by Sir Tristram), who beat the New Zealand-trained visitor My Eagle Eye (B g 1987, Grosvenor – Ogle,

by Wandering Eyes) in 1991.

The race has become a source of stallions to rival that of Sydney’s famous scamper, the Golden Slipper (1200m), run at Rosehill later in the autumn. There have been 14 colts win the 22 editions of the race, and all 14 have gone to stud.

GUINEAS

Zabeel and Flying Spur (1996 winner) (B c 1992, Danehill – Rolls, by Mr. Prospector) have achieved champion status as sires. Some others, including the disappointing True Version and Octagonal’s infertile brother Mouawad (1997) (B c 1993, Zabeel – Eight Carat, by Pieces Of Eight), have not left a lasting legacy from the stallion barn.

The Cadbury Guineas was tried as a 2000m event for three years (1998-2000). The race also was moved from February to the Newmarket Handicap-Australian Cup weekend in March.

The Victorian racing leaders felt that the Sydney autumn carnival needed some competition, so they devised a Triple Crown for three-year-olds –the Alister Clark Stakes (1600m) at Moonee Valley, the Autumn Classic (1800m) at Caulfield and the Cadbury Guineas over the extended distance.

In 2005, the VRC moved the Cadbury Australian Guineas, the Newmarket Handicap and the Australian Cup to make one spectacular race day in March.

This was partly due to the fact the Guineas, as it was designed by Reid, had not been used as a lead-up to the Australian Cup; not one Guineas winner has run in both races as a three-year-old.

Reid’s foresight has enabled the Cadbury Australian Guineas to develop into one of the premier races on the Australian racing calendar and he can be proud the race has bolstered his beloved Victorian breeding industry. Three of the past four colts to win the Guineas – Dash For Cash (Gr c 1998, Secret Savings – Gulistan, by Rubiton); Delago Brom (B c 1999, Encosta De Lago – Brompton Cross, by El Qahira) and Reset (B c 2000, Zabeel – Assertive Lass, by Zeditave) – are firmly entrenched at Victorian-based studs.

Dash For Cash, last season’s leading Victorian first season sire, is standing at Swettenham Stud; Delago Brom has started his stud career impressively at Eliza Park Stud; and Reset, who stands at Darley, has his first runners this season.

Cadbury Guineas history 3YOs, SW, 1600m, run at Flemington YEAR

WINNER

TRAINER

JOCKEY

SECOND

THIRD

2007

Miss Finland

David Hayes

Craig Williams

Casino Prince

Jokers Wild

2006

Apache Cat

Greg Eurell

Noel Callow

Darci Brahma

Thin and Crispy

2005

Al Maher

Gai Waterhouse

Noel Callow

Danehill Express

Econsul

2004

Reset

Graeme Rogerson

Danny Nikolic

Starcraft

Under The Bridge

2003

Delago Brom

Tommy Hughes

Patrick Payne

Tycoon Ruler

Thorn Park

2002

Dash For Cash

Rick Hore-Lacy

Scott Seamer

Royal Code

Ustinov

2001

Mr Murphy

Lee Freedman

Damien Oliver

Neptune’s Journey

Outgate

*2000

Pins

Clarry Conners

Shane Dye

Freemason

Hades

*1999

Dignity Dancer

Bill Mitchell

Jim Cassidy

Mossman

Lease

*1998

Gold Guru

Leon Macdonald

Greg Childs

Zonda

Il Don

1997

Mouawad

Clarry Conners

Grant Cooksley

O’Reilly

Tarnpir Lane

1996

Flying Spur

Lee Freedman

D. Oliver

Saleous

Video Prince

1995

Baryshnikov

Kerry Jordan

Jim Cassidy

Hurricane Sky

St. Covet

1994

Mahogany

Lee Freedman

Greg Hall

Pride of Rancho

Mr. Mutual Respect

1993

Kenny’s Best Pal

Rick Hore-Lacy

Greg Childs

Sarason

From The Park

1992

Jolly Old Mac

John Sadler

Darren Gauci

Naturalism

Laranto

1991

Triscay

Jack Denham

Mick Dittman

My Eagle Eye

Centro = 3 Durbridge = 3

1990

Zabeel

Colin Hayes

Michael Clarke

Ark Regal

Academien

1989

King’s High

Colin Hayes

Gary Clarke

Vitalic

Sir Midas

1988

Flotilla

Jack Denham

Greg Hall

Sky Chase

Spacecraft

1987

Military Plume

Colin Hayes

Michael Clarke

Vo Rogue

Hunza’s Ace

1986

True Version

Angus Armanasco

Darren Gauci

Caledonian Boy

Black Charleston

*run over 2000m. Run at Caulfield in 2007

THE THOROUGHBRED 81

MAN IN CHARGE

Duffy; the task ahead DANNY POWER talks to

Michael Duffy, who is looking forward to the challenge of implementing changes in Victorian racing.

M

ichael Duffy, the new chairman of Racing Victoria Limited, is an imposing individual.

It’s not so much his size – he’s built more like a traditional Collingwood six-footer – but when he walks into a room, he has a presence. A bloodstock agent would be attracted to his bright eye, infectious smile and embracing disposition.

But don’t be deceived by Duffy’s genial demeanour. He’s a man who has made a career of making the tough decisions on behalf of others.

Duffy, 69, is very comfortable in his new position in racing after successful careers in law and politics.

For 16 years – 1980-96 – Duffy was a key player in Federal Parliament as the Member for Holt. Duffy was a minister in the Bob Hawke and Paul Keating Labor Governments – serving as the Attorney-General, Minister for Trade and Minister for Communications.

Duffy is perfectly placed to control the many factions that exist in the racing industry.

Parliamentarians don’t rise to Federal Minister status if they can’t handle the nagging world of the lobbyist. The man in the street – in racing parlance that means the every-day punter – will also need the ear of the chairman.

In racing, a lobbyist lurks around

82 THE THOROUGHBRED

every corner. The betting ring at Flemington and the local TAB are places of folding cash, form guides and forthright opinions. “I’ll tell you what’s wrong with racing …” is as much part of the conversation as a whinge about the ‘slaughter’ of the beaten favourite.

Duffy first became known to the racing public when the brilliant Bel Esprit (B c 1999, Royal Academy – Bespoken, by Vain) burst on the scene as the star two-year-old galloper in Victoria in the 2001-02 season, unbeaten in five starts including the 2002 Group 1 Blue Diamond Stakes (1200m) at Caulfield. Duffy was the managing part-owner of a group that included AFL legend Kevin Sheedy. Sheedy had been drawn to the group by Duffy, a committed Essendon supporter.

A certainty beaten in the 2002 Caulfield Guineas (Group 1), Bel Esprit, trained by John Symons, went on to win the Group 1 Doomben 10,000 (1350m) as a three-year-old. He now stands at Eliza Park for a service fee of $20,000, and is Victoria’s leading young sire.

Duffy served as deputy chairman of RVL, under chairman Graham Duff, before taking over as chairman when Duff resigned in December 2007. Duffy said recently the RVL board’s immediate priority was “the wagering and gaming re-licensing process in the lead-up to 2012, to ensure the industry will be better off under any new arrangements resulting from the decisions of the Victorian government”.

“Based on the original 18-year deal that Tabcorp did, it is reasonable to expect that the next licence will be for a similar term, which means that we have

THE BOSS: New RVL chairman Michael Duffy is comfortable in his surroundings at Flemington.

an opportunity to improve the financial foundation of racing for the next 20 years or so.

Consequently, there can be no more important task for this board than to shape an outcome that ensures not only that racing is ‘no worse off’, but indeed much better off as a result of the re-licensing,” he said.

“Other important matters include the integrity review, a review of industry costs and the restructuring of the racing industry to ensure accountability, thereby creating real confidence within our shareholders and stakeholders.

All of this, of course, is designed to achieve continuing growth of returns to owners.”

Duffy said he was looking forward to working with the new RVL board, which he describes as “truly independent”, and which also brings together men and women with special and diverse talents.

He cites the recent review of racing dates in Victoria – which has been met with criticism from affected country clubs that have had their racing dates reduced – as an example of a board capable of making the “hard decisions” on behalf of Victorian racing.

“The change of dates will result in increased revenues and more effective country and provincial programs. The board’s debates focused on independent decisionmaking, underpinned by the basic principle of achieving the best results for racing across the board,” Duffy said.

Meanwhile, Duffy is enjoying his life in racing following the deeds of the offspring of Bel Esprit, one of whom is Beau Esprit (B g 2004, Bel Esprit – Centennial,

by Centaine) – the winner of two of his eight starts – who is part-owned by Duffy and shows considerable promise for Wodonga trainer Peter Maher.

KNOWS RACING

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