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HORSE RACING
For the 2002 Macau Jockey Club shooting
of horses, please refer to the E-mail List archives: The Sport of Bums
Look back at our struggle for freedom, Trace our present day's strength to it's source; And you'll find that man's pathway to glory Is strewn with the bones of the horse.
~Author Unknown No one ever thinks of the horse Bart Cummings There are many racing dynasties in Australia; Hayes, Waterhouse, Cummings and Freedman are the best known stars of the show that is horseracing. There are also many bit-players who do wondrous things with the horse to turn them into elite athletes. Whenever the words ‘ horse trainer’ are spoken, Australia’s own racing deity, Bart Cummings will be thought of as our best. I only know him like most Australians, as the guy who seems to have been around forever, who can turn average horses into Melbourne Cup heroes. He wins Melbourne cups like they’re just another race. At the time of writing, he was up to his 12th Cup, seven more than anyone else. He has also won all the majors on the Australian east coast, often more than once. In the book ‘Bart, the story of Bart Cummings’, Bruce Montgomerie tells how Bart was bred to be a champion. His father and uncle were successful trainers. His father Jim trained Melbourne Cup winner, Comic Court, in 1950. Notably, Bart Cummings’ whole philosophy is based around long term planning, kindness and patience with horses. This philosophy was handed down from his father. Bart always relates his admiration of his father as a horseman and says modestly of his own success that he is just continuing his father’s work. One thing that I’ve heard Bart Cummings speak of regularly is the direction of the racing and breeding industry. While he is not the rant and rave type, he has been relatively vocal about ‘softer boned’, imported stock with which we have since been inundated. Among other things, he was trying to preserve the dying ‘home-breeds’ who had perhaps adapted better to Australian conditions. Compounding the problem is that we now have more racing of two-year olds and with a focus on sprinting. Nobody listened to Bart. Each Spring we see headlines when horses from England and Ireland arrive to race on our ‘hard’ tracks. Their connections like ‘cut in the ground’. Consequently, we are irrigating our tracks more than ever. Not too many years back, tracks rated ‘Fast’ and ‘Good’ were the ideal. Nowadays, they make trainers whine. It is clear that young horses with immature bones don’t cope physically regardless of where they’re bred. Now all tracks have to be presented with a ‘dead’ surface for fear of horses jarring up. When tracks are presented dead, they are damaged more easily. Damaged tracks become uneven and next thing you know, there’s a ‘track bias’ and jockeys start scouting away from the fence looking for even ground. There’s also the risk of uneven, gouged out tracks twisting and wrenching delicate joints. As a consequence, we now have the racing industry spending millions of dollars on the research and development of synthetic tracks, some of which fail miserably. Another Sydney (via QLD) trainer, John Size, was a racing revelation. At one point in his racing life, he’d wound up the stables in Brisbane and was having an indefinite break from training. He was like so many that don’t last too long away from the horse. John had been working as a professional punter in Sydney but kept saying he missed the horses. So back he came and when he did get his momentum going in Sydney he was having so much success that he could not accommodate all the horses that were being sent to him. “I’ve put the training fees up but the horses keep coming so I’ve had to get more stables at the showground!” He was hot and his horses were racing in great form. Testimony to his rare ability was the fact that he was quickly head hunted by the Hong Kong Jockey Club, the Mecca of racing and he hasn’t come back. Most importantly, John Size works very hard on his success. When he resumed his career in Sydney he started off with a very small team. He placed his horses particularly well, that is in the weakest company possible thus giving them the best chance of winning. Swimming his horses twice as long as was then the norm, walking them thrice daily, both before and after trackwork and again in the afternoon was also a big factor. This may not sound terribly revolutionary but with limited staff some trainers are charging a small fortune yet have horses that don’t even get out of the box for a walk in the afternoon. Athletes, especially equine aren’t supposed to be confined for such long periods. The other notable John Size innovation was that he used barrier trials to bring his horses to peak fitness. Some of the horses would get three trials before a race which was unheard of. I was horrified when a racing administrator from Racing NSW complained that too many horses trialing were detrimental to the size of race fields in Sydney, his argument being that those horses in trials could have been in races bolstering numbers. It is expensive to trial horses but the benefits far outweigh the expense. Most importantly the longevity of the race horse is more likely if it is as fit as possible by trialling as many times as necessary before racing. Thus owners get more value for money. And most importantly, horses are much better educated and prepared using trials than races where they are under far more pressure both physically and mentally. A horse can go to barrier trials and have an easy time without stress. A couple more good experiences in subsequent trials and you have a more relaxed athlete on race day. When John Size started to win so many races, many other trainers adopted his methods, even leading ones. It was one of the fastest rises through the training ranks in the tough Sydney environment ever seen; he set new benchmarks in training racehorses. The thing that Bart Cummings and John Size have in common is the foundation training. The general public’s knowledge of the racing industry is limited outside of the headline-acts. The reality is that it is very hard to survive as a trainer especially on the country circuit. Back in the first year of my jockey’s apprenticeship at Coffs Harbour I had to wait eight weeks for my boss, Chris to pay me. That’s how long it took him to get paid from some of his clients. I was never concerned because boarding with Chris and his partner Angela I didn’t really need much money, I was practically part of the family. With my savings and any slings from grateful owners when I won on their horses, I had more than enough money. I’d have done it all for nothing and sometimes that’s what my rides deserved. That same year, I had to lend two trainers money to pay-up for their runners because they were so broke, otherwise they wouldn’t have been able to start their horses. JockeysIlliterate little people who hit horses Clive Robertson Just as racehorses are athletes, so too are the jockeys. It takes a great deal of fitness to ride around a dozen horses each morning. Having said that, you could ride trackwork all of your life and if you had to ride in an actual race you’d still be exhausted by the home turn, it’s sports specific. It takes another level of fitness to ride a horse in a race, no matter if that race lasts for 1000 metres or 3000 metres, let alone hurdle and steeplechase racing. Riding in a race at The Gold Coast one afternoon the field started to sprint on the home turn. I could hear snorting and snuffing behind and thought, Wow, that horse sounds terrible but it was gaining on me! As the sound got closer, I looked around and it was the famous Mel Schumacher on his comeback ride, red faced and gasping for air. One of the first things that every jockey is told is that the whip is the last resort. I remember my very first barrier trial back in Coffs Harbour. All the trainers were happy that I could use the whip. I was happy that the trainers were happy; it meant that I’d get rides from them. The best advice came from Rex Kelly, then a jockey who snarled at me after the trial and told me where to shove my whip. I always gave Rex a wide berth thereafter. Too busy dreaming of future success, I couldn’t even steer properly let alone wield a whip. I missed Rex Kelly’s point completely. Come race day people want to see you ride like a demon. There are always a few guys around known for their very strong whip riding. They must be really trying to win. At one point I used to model myself on a leading jockey called Gavan Duffy. He was well known for his short length of stirrup and his great vigour. I had more than one trainer and an owner tell me that they had actually wanted Duffy as their first choice of rider as they were giving me my instructions. “He can be a dog, this bastard, you get stuck into him as soon as you straighten”; or “the more you hit her the better she goes.” I’ll give them Duffy, I’d say to myself I hitched my stirrup irons up a few notches and gave the horse the flogging they wanted, and it won. They were ecstatic but the horse would have won anyway. While it is misguided, there is pressure on jockeys to be aggressive with the whip. Every few years, the issue of whips has come up but nothing ever changed until 2009. The whips we’ve been using hurt and leave welt marks. Horses respond to whips but it’s more by association, rhythm and the sound of the cracking. The cracking sound comes from the two pieces of leather on the end of the whip slapping against one another. There is no need to add pain to the mix. In fact, whips cause some horses to lose concentration and galloping rhythm. Often horses that are finishing a race off powerfully lose momentum as soon as they are struck. So they can be a handicap, especially in the wrong hands. I once asked a steward about the overuse of whips and his main concern was that if restrictions came in someone would have to count how many times jockeys were hitting the horses. Naturally that would be a pain in the arse. Perhaps it was the way I posed the question that was flawed. The best idea thus far has been the introduction of a kinder, padded whip. The ARB, in a media release, announced that ‘The best scientific advice available to us says that padded whips do not inflict pain or injury, and that is the outcome we want.’ It was a momentous occasion. As usual in the insular racing industry there was initial reluctance to change and some of the feedback was reported in the media. Some of the jocks quoted in the newspaper said of the old whips “It don’t hurt ‘em”. They must have been the lucky ones, who have never been hit by another jockey in the heat of battle, but I doubt that. Perhaps their memory is short also, it bloody hurts all right. I was unfortunate enough to have been in Gavan Duffy’s firing line at Doomben one afternoon the bruising was there for a week. Another leading jockey said in protest “you have to get the best out of the horse”; he may as well have said “I really need to be able to hurt the fuckers and I can’t do that with these padded whips”. In their defence, there were a couple of jockeys who said that they wouldn’t mind if the kinder whips were introduced. A few jockeys, after being interviewed by the press said that they would accept the padded whips. They sensibly reasoned that if everyone were using them it would be an even playing field. Left to the racing community the changes would never have occurred. Giving the responsibility to some jockeys where whips are concerned is like appointing Mike Tyson as relationship advisor. Being a male dominated sport, men tend to get very attached to their rods. Eventually, the ARB bowed to the will of the community and made the padded whip compulsory. Appropriately the date that the new laws commenced is August 1st 2009, the birthday of all southern hemisphere horses. The padded whips still hurt but not as much as the variety used before. A further concession for the horse is that there is now a limit on the amount of times that a horse can be hit but in the heat of the moment, jockeys forget the rules. Fines and suspensions have been dished out for whip rule breaches but the various racing authorities have lacked consistency in their interpretations causing much angst among jockeys, trainers and horse owners. The racing stewards have been unfairly lumped with the blame for the problems arising from the whip rule changes. They have been put in a difficult situation. After a race there is immense pressure to declare ‘correct weight’ within a mere few minutes, this is the job of stewards. Winning punters want their money. The whip issue has increased the workload of stewards especially on already hectic racedays. Are we a step closer to banning whips altogether? With international experience Aussie jocks seem to have embraced many overseas styles; that is, British, American and European and developed an Australian hybrid. At the core of this new style is that the rider has their foot only partially inserted in the stirrup. Most ride on the ball of the foot or even on their toes. Some have grasped it better than others. It can be balanced, pretty and aerodynamic. Others have stuck with the old way. Some are trying to have an each way bet by incorporating some of the old style into the new by kicking. I’ve seen top jockeys lose control of their mounts and it has cost them races. Their feet can fall out or get knocked out of the stirrups. It has even been banned for apprentices just starting out due to accidents. The first person I saw in Australia who mastered the American style is Sydney’s Daniel Beasley. I was a trackwork rider at Randwick when he started out but watching him I noticed that unlike other jockeys he didn’t change his style mid stream. He started out with that particular style and stuck to it. Australia’s best jockey Darren Beadman has not adopted the new style. Before he returned to Hong Kong Beadman had been riding rings around Australia’s best for a decade. Of course this is all just part of the evolution of riding styles. The next generation will probably all ride in this fashion. After a Hong Kong stint charismatic jockey Glenn Boss came back riding in the toe-in style. In 2008 he produced two daredevil rides in the 2008 Golden Slipper and then again in the Doncaster Handicap a week later. I can only put it down to his attitude and sheer will to win. Bossy shouldered his horse into a very reasonable position after missing the start and being a clear last in the mad scramble of the Slipper. In the Doncaster Handicap he used his horse again to make room where there didn’t seem to be any in the home straight. The Bossy siren went off again and he came through to win. He was the difference between a win and a luckless defeat. The irrepressible Glenn Boss kept his stirrups on both occasions. Rider safety seems to be the main reason behind the popularity of the ‘toe in’ style, the idea being that if the foot isn’t inserted all the way into the stirrup you reduce the chances of getting caught up in it. I’ve heard some horrific stories of trackwork riders being dragged for hundreds of meters or thrown over a fence while one foot was still caught – it’s every rider’s nightmare. In recent years rider safety vests were introduced. While it seems that some people have become very attached to the safety vest (it is called a safety vest after all) my concern, like many others is that the vests restrict flexibility and stop a fallen jockey from gradually rolling to a stop. I’ve seen jockeys that appear to have been speared into the turf taking most of the force on their spine and head/neck. Some jockeys expressed similar concerns about the safety vest that eventually prompted a 14-page web report by the RIRDC focused only on neck injuries (rirdc.gov.au). Titled “Assessment of protective jockey vests” the report shows the number of neck injury compensation claims through the Thoroughbred Racing Board (TRB), which resulted in more than one year off work- In the four years prior to safety vests the number of compensation claims was 26 In the four years since of safety vests the number of compensation claims was 41 The report concludes that the current safety vests do not increase the risk of neck injuries. It went on to make this recommendation- “It is recommended that consideration be given to the establishment of a national jockey injury database consisting of reports of falls, the use and specifications of protective equipment such as skull caps and vests, details of any injuries sustained and the circumstances of the fall, including where possible a video record. “ The recommendation seems to be the best thing to come of the report. Otherwise it has discounted many other factors including injured ex-jockey Norm Waymouth’s concerns about ‘rolling naturally’ pre-safety vests. It did not find that vests have reduced the number of deaths or the severity of injuries because that was not the focus of the report. Surely those figures are available? What use other than psychological or an attempt to fulfil OH&S requirements is a vest that does not increase the chances of saving a life or just as important, quality of life for the survivors of the worst falls? All of my falls occurred in the days before safety vests
and the ‘toe in’ riding style. I had five race falls in my short career and was
lucky to walk away from all of them, if not out of hospital on the same day. In
some of the falls I rolled for what seemed like an eternity. Sometimes watching
the replay it looked as if horses galloping over me were kicking me along. I
don’t remember hitting the ground in four of my falls, it all happens very
quickly and the next thing you feel is the seemingly endless rolling. I couldn’t
bring myself to watch such replays more than once, if at all unless it was
absolutely necessary for a stewards inquiry. While happy to be proven wrong by a
comprehensive study, I am of the belief that it was rolling to a stop that saved
me from serious injury. If I could ride again, I would rather take my chances
without the safety vests but I wouldn’t be allowed to. Turn of the Century Racing “You can make whatever you do an art form” Viveka Turnbull-Hocking The good news is that we started the new century with some of our best horses ever. If I could come back in another life with the choice of being any trainer, it would not be as a multiple group winning, or premiership winning trainer. It would be as Joe Janiak, so that I could travel the globe with my world-class athlete. There’s never a dull moment in racing and we take for granted the great horses and personalities that come and go each season. From humble beginnings in Queanbeyan, NSW one horse has beaten our best sprinters in every Australian state before taking on the world’s best and beating them in Great Britain, Singapore and Japan. His connections have had a magical ride on the back of this $1400 reject giving hope to those waiting for the good one to come along. Jockey Jay Ford got his ‘good horse’. He is young enough to still be around for another. Now world-renowned are Takeover Target and trainer Joe Janiak. The book is out and the movie is coming. In an era where good horses seem to be here one day and forgotten the next, Takeover Target competed at the top level over six seasons! Before Takeover Target came along racing the new millennium had been dominated by two horses. The horses Northerly and Sunline set new benchmarks in fighting spirit and winning consistently at the top level. Thus they have brought fame and fortune to everyone connected with them. From the far reaches of our racing precincts, Sunline from New Zealand and Northerly from WA, they were destined to clash in spring. Each horse won The W S Cox Plate, the ‘heavyweight championship’ of Australasian racing, not once but twice among many of our other most coveted races. I was lucky enough to be in the stand for the 2001 Cox Plate when Sunline was shooting for number three. Sunline always raced in the lead, where there is nowhere to hide. It was my first time at Moonee Valley, such a small track you get a close-up of the action. Sunline looked to have the lead comfortably but Northerly wore her down in the brutal final 200 Metres. A little 3-year-old colt called Viscount who had followed the great mare all of the way was still there, jammed in between them as they slogged out the finish with pushing and shoving aplenty. His effort was courageous just to hold his ground. It wouldn’t have been at all surprising if his finishing position had been elevated in the subsequent protest hearing. In the 2002 Cox Plate Northerly stalked Sunline again before beating her easily. The gutsy Northerly eventually retired due to a tendon injury. How Sunline never succumbed to injury is unbelievable. The best mare I ever saw, Sunline gave it her all every time she raced. Horses that try as hard as Sunline rarely stand up to the physical pressure. She could do what very few horses could do and that was to stretch her speed from 1200M to 2000M. One of her most courageous efforts was in defeat. It was in a rich race, The Dubai Duty Free, 1777 metres. Adding further merit to her performance was that she had to acclimatise to a trip across the world to race on an unfamiliar dirt surface before being constantly attacked in the lead. She still fought the opposition off until the bitter end where she was conceding only a small margin. Any other horse except perhaps the great Vo Rogue would have been spent by the home turn. Sunline’s jockey Greg Childs retired not long after Sunline. Perhaps he knew the odds against riding another ‘good one’ like her were astronomical. When I was still a jockey at Southport I chased Vo Rogue around a couple of times early in his career. He was a long, long way in front by the time we reached the post. In fact sometimes he was making his way back to scale. He had a habit of ducking out of the first left-hand gap that he saw after the post whether his jockey was ready or not. Nobody could have known what he’d go on to do. Vo Rogue’s progression to become one of Australia’s all time greats was astounding. Ask people to name some of the best horses of the 80s and 90s and they’ll probably mention a few horses that saw a lot of Vo Rogue’s bum. Jockey Cyrl Small deservedly got his ‘good horse’. Just when the racing public was coming down from the highs of Sunline and Northerly, along came another legend of the turf, Australia’s greatest staying mare, Makybe Diva. That makes four of our best ever horses in the first decade! Makybe Diva won many of Australia’s best races, The BMW (formerly known as The Tancred Stakes), The Australian Cup and a Cox Plate. The Diva is the only horse to win three Melbourne Cups, the worlds richest 3200 Metre event and Australia’s greatest sporting event. Three amazing feats of navigation by jockey Glenn Boss certainly were a huge factor in Makybe Diva’s Cups record. However, as the charismatic jockey said in post race interviews, “she seemed bottomless”; that is, when most horses are reaching for the nebuliser at the top of the straight, she just took another breath before breezing past them. If George Moore had a whistle, then Glenn Boss had a siren because it seemed like the other horses were pulling over when she flew by. In recent years the Irish gallopers have won a couple of Melbourne Cups. UK horses have been unlucky not to win more. I dare say that if they had used Australian based jockeys they would have won more. I don’t mean any disrespect but the race is 3200M under Australian conditions, which are far different from UK racing. You really want a rider who’s at least been around Australasian tracks. I will go as far as to say that they should have won a couple more cups than they did. Let’s face it, it is the Melbourne Cup and they’ve come from the other side of the world. If you get it wrong it’s not like you can make up for it next week. In 2006 the Japanese brought two horses over called Delta Blues and Eye Popper. They ran great lead ups in the Caulfield Cup and went on to totally dominate in the Melbourne Cup with only a head between them at the finish. It was an awesome display of Japanese superiority. The Japanese have spent a fortune building their racing industry and have become a racing superpower. After their Cup Quinella they promised to come back in numbers. Quarantine problems have kept them out of Australia since 2006, due to Equine Influenza (EI). The 2009 Melbourne Cup was one the great Irish jokes. In a Melbourne Cup first, three horses from the famous Aiden O’Brien of Ballydoyle stable went out and created a big early lead. It was as if they were in a race completely of their own. One of the three, Septimus, was a heavily backed favourite for the Cup and being touted as Europe’s best stayer. In the press leading up to the Cup everyone seemed to think that the Cup was as good as over before it began, such was the reputation of Septimus. All three were spent at the home turn and dropped right out of contention to finish 18th, 20th and 21st. Their jockeys and trainer having totally underestimated and misjudged the race they went back to Ireland with tired and sore horses. It’ll be as funny to them as it was to us in no less than two years. One thing is for sure, Ballydoyle is a racing giant, they will be back and they will get better with each visit. Considering Australia’s focus on two year old sprinters in recent years, I don’t see the trend of foreign horses winning our great race ending anytime soon. Bart Cummings saved us from The Cup going to a ‘pommie’ trainer in 2008. In winning his 12th Melbourne Cup he is the thin green and gold line defending our great race. A quick buck mentality means we concentrate too much on racing immature, sprinting horses and don’t have much left to offer when it comes to our classics and great staying events. They’re all knackered and that’s just the start of the bad news. This has been the most alarming change in racing in recent years; put it down to capitalism unchecked in an industry unchecked. The detrimental effects of pushing immature horses are far reaching. In recent years Australia has progressively promoted the mad scamper of frightened babies that is two year-old racing. This is where the problem of attrition originates and the marketing from the breeding industry in favour of ‘early comers’ is relentless. The prize money for the Golden Slipper is ridiculously high. They’re talking about closing in on the $5 million mark in the near future. WHY? Surely this sort of money is better spread throughout the industry. Run by the Sydney Turf Club (STC); The Golden Slipper was introduced to rival the Australian Jockey Club’s (AJC) big races. They could easily make the Golden Slipper for older horses. Australian race clubs also could do away with rivalry altogether and co-operate instead as some clubs are struggling to survive. Breeders openly state that they aren’t interested in stayers. The ‘product’ must be ‘precocious’; two of racing’s current buzzwords, along with ‘Jarred up’. We now have a situation in Australia where quality older horses are scarce. It is the selling of Australia’s racing soul. From time to time, various influential people in the industry have expressed concern about racing two-year-olds. Darren Beadman once wrote in an article for the Sydney Morning Herald that racing two-year olds had too many detrimental effects. He suggested that their racing careers could be delayed to take pressure off them. Well meaning trainers have also voiced their concern from time to time but they usually only say it once. Becoming too outspoken could be bad for business of any trainer of jockey. The physical impact on the horse has been well documented. They aren’t fully-grown and mature until about five years old. For the layperson you could liken the demands on young horses to prepping your 5 year-old kid to play sport at a national level. What sort of a crippled nut case do you think you’d end up with under that kind of physical and emotional pressure? The mental aspect is less documented. People falsely accept that racehorses are flighty. At the races when a horse plays up in the parade ring or becomes agitated in the barrier stalls people think “Oh, that’s just thoroughbreds for you”. They simply don’t realise that what you see on raceday could just be the result of oversight, poor diet, neglect and sometimes, sheer stupidity all adding to the horses stress level. The evidence is on display daily. Go and watch a horserace in Australia on any day of the week and you will see behavioural problems. Multiple broadcasts within seconds of each other put pressure on the human who in turn puts pressure on the horse. Putting pressure on a nervous and tuned up racehorse behind the barriers on race day is a recipe for disaster. Everyone is in a hurry, the barrier staff Australia-wide are under pressure to get the horses loaded and away at a specific time. All in all, about 1-2 minutes is allocated to getting the average size field of horses into the barriers and away. So when a horse chucks a wobbly, there goes your schedule. In another state, they’re holding up a race where the horses could be waiting in the barriers also about to chuck a wobbly. Race days are not the time for educating fractious horses. It is nothing short of tragic that as well educated as horse people now are, you still see horses going crazy in the barriers at the races. The barrier stalls are a dangerous place to be stuck with a petrified animal of around 500 kilograms or more. An animal thrashing around in a confined space and smashing itself to death against a steel structure is very disturbing. And sadly, that’s the ‘product’ coming off our line in Australia. I worked for a big city stable a few years back and scores of yearlings came into training. Only a couple stood up to race as two year-olds. The rest had heat in their joints and shins which ended their campaign. I’ve seen first hand how most don’t cope physically and mentally with the training required of them. Some of them never came back. The staff watch these horses grow as they go through the learning process of what being a racehorse is all about. We are relieved when a baby that isn’t coping is sent back out, we assume to the paddock. The horses come to the stables innocent and curious. Some are timid, some are friendly and others are boisterous just like pre-school kids. Still, they are delicate. Our hands are always on their legs feeling for heat or any abnormality. From the day they are foaled, someone is caring for them as if they are handling a precious human child. This goes on through the stages of breaking-in and into training. After a gallop or two you start to notice little changes in their behaviour as some cope better than others. By the time that they have had a trial there is a definite losing of that innocence that they had when they first arrived, generally referred to as sourness. Some may not even make it that far and have already gone back out. Staff are busy and don’t dwell on these things. If they don’t come back there are always others to look after. Their name might pop up in the paper in another racing precinct or it may not. When they do come back it is like seeing your adopted kid come back, hopefully big and strong. It’s wonderful to have a horse come back to you next preparation and to help it along its career. You know when a strapper’s favourite horse is back. There’s a fresh enthusiasm in their work. Almost all racing stables train at racetracks where they have a limited amount of time to get all their horses to the track. Usually between 4:30 AM and 8AM. The bigger the team the more pressure on everyone to work quickly, pressure, which inevitably transfers to the horses. Do we really work ridiculous hours so that the daily maintenance work can commence on the tracks? So many people rushing around highly sensitive animals so that someone can come to work at a sensible hour to ride around on a tractor. Addressing this single issue could solve most of our problems and increase staff retention. Trainers need the facilities to practice the art of training rather than being forced to go through the motions as quickly as possible. The best advice I was ever given was by a respected old horse breaker. As a trainer, in my 30s, I knew that I hadn’t had enough exposure to yearlings at the breaking in stage. This is because people like Theo Green protected us from educating babies. He firmly believed that it was not the job of apprentice jockeys to be breaking in horses. Going on to being a jockey and a trackwork rider, I didn’t get enough exposure to breaking in or starting young horses. I thought I’d left it too late in life to start but asked the breaker for some work experience. Making time for this on my weekends, he tolerated me helping out and asking questions. The most valuable thing the breaker imparted was; “When the horse feels that it is under too much pressure it stops thinking and may panic. If we’re going to alleviate that pressure we mustn’t stop thinking.” There is an opportunity here for breakers or pre-trainers to be given the job of spending the extra time on these horses to alleviate the pressure. A lot of trouble would be avoided later on as well as the sanity and longevity of the horse. Champion Sydney trainer Gai Waterhouse has hired horse people from the USA in the past. These so-called ‘horse whisperers’ sole purpose was to acquaint the horse with the barrier stalls. This highlights that there is a problem in Australian racing that needs serious attention. Would we attract new participants to the industry if we were seen to be, and indeed were more humane instead of treating our equine athletes like a conveyer belt product with built in obsolescence? Should we strategise for longevity in the animal rather than being suppliers for knackeries with our broken young horses? If ever there was an incentive for racing mature horses, it is that they are great for racing in many ways. Our classic races need them and the real crowd pullers, like Sunline, Northerly, Makybe Diva and Takeover Target drew enormous attention to racing, they bring people back to the track. All of the people associated with Makybe Diva, owner, trainers and jockey, noted that she was given time to mature and got better and stronger every season. The same could be argued in the case of Sunline, Northerly and the evergreen Takeover Target. He was Australia’s best sprinter and possibly world’s best sprinter when he was nine years old! When you look back at Australia’s greats, they are the seasoned campaigners. In Sunline, Makybe Diva, Northerly and Takeover Target we had four of our best ever. As great as they were, Sunline and Northerly only highlight the magnificence of the greatest horse seen on Australian tracks for generations. He is the late champion Kingston Town. Everyone experiences something unparalleled in his or her life, perhaps something freakish that stays with you forever. In my life I was fortunate enough to watch Kingston Town race. The spectacular looking black athlete won an unprecedented three W S Cox Plates. His most ardent fans hope the record will never be equalled. When I was thirteen, one of the Barker boys took me to see him at one of Smith’s Sydney stables. The King had won a race on my thirteenth birthday. I gave him a pat and a cuddle, and the cheeky bugger gave me a harmless nip. It’s close to the highlight of my racing life. One of the happiest days of my young life was when I rode my first double. It was the same day that Kingston Town ran second in the 1982 Melbourne Cup. From the jockeys’ room at Coffs Harbour, I heard the crowd roar and a trembling underfoot when he sprinted to the lead. Even people who didn’t bet on him still cheered Kingston Town. He seemed home and hosed and I’d just ridden my first double, everything in the world was working out as it should. Then the caller mentioned the eventual winner Gurner’s Lane challenging. It didn’t matter that Gurner’s Lane was a great horse who was about to complete a rare Caulfield/Melbourne Cups double nor that Mick Dittman was one of our most respected jockeys. They were the villains. There was long, mournful silence everywhere and my happiest day turned into one of the most disappointing. In horseracing, second doesn’t mean much. I’ve seen some wonderful runners-up over the years chasing the same good horses in our best races. They never get a mention once their name is out of the formguide. Kingston Town was our most discussed runner up such was the public adoration of him. As Australia’s first millionaire racehorse you had to see ‘The King’ to believe his freakish ability. I watched him coast home in some of his Randwick and Rosehill wins to standing ovations from the awestruck crowds. I’d never seen people respond to a horse like they did to this one, he’d reduce many fans to tears. Sometimes when The King shot well clear in the straight, it was just as awesome to look around and up into the stands to see the crowd’s reaction. People would duly stand as one and the applause would start at the top of the straight. The race was over. The applause would continue as Johnston trotted him back to scale and didn’t stop until The King left the enclosure. We couldn’t get enough of Kingston Town and he didn’t disappoint, winning 21 times on Sydney tracks. The King was raced for five racing seasons despite interruptions with serious injuries. He raced from distances of 1200M to 3200M and back again and he answered every call with the sort of versatility and acceleration I’ve never seen before or since. His finishing sprint was what made him different from any other horse. It was the same over 1200 metres as it was over 3200 metres. It got that way that nobody ever expected him to lose and in Sydney, he hardly ever did. Yet he only did as much as his jockey made him do in a race, he would relax as soon as he felt his jockey relax. Or was he just smart and looking after his dicky legs? Fact is that some of Kingston Town’s most memorable victories were performed carrying chronic injuries that would have ended the careers of most horses. Furthermore they were in Melbourne where it appeared he was always uncomfortable racing in the anti-clockwise direction. Not only did he beat the best horses around in both the main venues of Australian racing, i.e. Sydney and Melbourne but he won in Brisbane and Perth as well, at the end of a hard racing campaign. The very fortunate connections were the Hains, who owned The King, Sydney’s most successful trainer, TJ Smith and Malcolm Johnston, the jockey for most of his wins. However, due to suspensions, Ron Quinton and Peter Cook rode The King in the latter two of his Cox Plate wins. Johnston was famous for his perfect seat on a horse and there’s never been a prettier sight in racing than Malcolm Johnston and Kingston Town in full flight. Malcolm will go to his grave feeling like the chosen one who got to partner The King. All jockeys dream about winning a Melbourne Cup or a Cox Plate. Nobody expects to be lucky enough to ride a Kingston Town or a Makybe Diva. Conversely, nobody could know the disappointment that poor Malcolm felt when he saw his old pal win two of his three Cox Plates without him or the pain of running second in a Melbourne Cup that he should have won. Through Kingston Town, Malcolm felt the ecstasy and the gutting agony, a price any jockey would pay. For people associated with the greats it must be like experiencing death when racing careers end. Jockey Peter Cook was the human equivalent of Kingston Town where freakish ability was concerned. Peter Cook’s riding talent, it is said, is a gift that can not be passed on, i.e. you either have it or you don’t. Being an optimist, I don’t believe this. If we’re ever going to discover another Cookie, it may be now that the whip rules have been tempered. Peter Cook had a great seat but most of all he seemed to be able to get horses to try their hearts out for him while seemingly doing nothing. He was beautifully balanced and super cool in a race. That was his trademark. With his rare use of the whip he was living proof that horses don’t need to be flogged to do their best. His was a tough era; there were many, many great jockeys around during his time. Like Kingston Town, racing statistics do not do him justice and like The King, I’ve yet to see another like him, not even close. Watching Peter Cook’s historic ride on Kingston Town in his last Cox Plate victory is like watching a blockbuster film condensed into a couple of minutes. I’ve never seen Cookie so out of character on a horse. Perhaps he is mortal after all and felt the grand final nerves. Kingston Town was loafing right from the jump and Cookie harassed and terrorised him into competing. Under the whip from the start, bustled nearly all of the way and whipped again before the sprint in the straight everyone including the race caller had written the King off (It took a lot more convincing of Victorians that Kingston Town was a champion. They used to call him a “Sydney Champion”). Victorian caller Bill Collins sounded arrogant as he said those words, the ones he wished he could take right back; “Kingston Town can’t win!” No sooner were these words uttered than Kingston Town changed onto his correct leading leg. It seemed he’d been saving his battle-weary legs until it counted. Once he changed stride, the famous sprint seemed to magically reappear and the race was over. Cookie even put the whip away in the home straight. It is most fitting that our best jockey won our best race on our best horse. The
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Last revised:
18-Jul-10