Best Australian Racing Stories (7 page)

Heroic was purchased by a colourful character in Charles Kellow, a well-known former champion cyclist who had made his fortune selling those new-fangled motor cars in the first two decades of the century and performing entrepreneurial stunts such as delivering newspapers to country towns by motor car during the rail strike of 1903, and setting a record in 1908 for driving from Melbourne to Sydney (25 hours and 40 minutes!).

No horse in Australian history made as many headlines as Heroic—at least headlines that didn't concern racing results—and every move in the saga was reported in the press and devoured eagerly by his adoring public.

Kellow sent Heroic to Jack Holt to be trained and the task must have aged the great trainer considerably. The horse won only three of his first 15 starts for Holt and his barrier manners became even worse than before. At the Randwick Autumn Carnival of 1925 he won the Autumn Stakes, and four days later was entered in two classic races on the same day, the All-Aged Stakes over a mile and the Cumberland Stakes over 14 furlongs. The record books show him as ‘unplaced' in both races, but the truth is that he simply refused to start both times and took no part in either race!

Heroic won the Memsie Stakes and Caulfield Stakes in 1925 but was as erratic as ever, placing and finishing unplaced all through the spring. At wit's end with the erratic champion, Jack Holt proposed a daring plan to Kellow. He would train Heroic to sprint and attempt to win the 1926 Newmarket Handicap with the wayward champion.

Holt's friend, rival trainer James Scobie, had the good New Zealand stayer Pilliewinkle, and the two men wanted to try for the Newmarket–Australian Cup double with their two horses.

Kellow agreed—he needed to recoup many thousands lost on Heroic through the spring—and the plan was put into action. Holt's stable jockey, Billy Duncan, had had enough and was happy to step aside and allow Heroic's former jockey, Hughie Cairns, who had served out his one-year riding ban, to take charge of the horse again.

For once Heroic jumped away with the field and charged home to win the classic sprint, his only win in 11 starts between October 1925 and April 1926. Pilliewinkle fulfilled his part of the deal by winning the Australian Cup, and Kellow recouped huge amounts to restore his bank balance.

Back in Sydney, for the autumn of 1926, Heroic decided he would start in the Cumberland Stakes that year and duly won the race, but failed carrying 9 st 7 lb (60.5 kg) in the Sydney Cup, as he did the following year carrying even more, a hefty 10 st (63.5 kg).

Heroic showed his true class when he went on a winning spree at the Victorian Spring Carnival of 1926, taking out six races in a row: the Underwood and Memsie Stakes, Cox Plate and William Reid, CF Orr and St George Stakes.

Two weeks after his St George Stakes win he was unplaced attempting to win the Newmarket sprint for a second time, carrying a whopping 10 st 2 lb (64.5 kg).

Heroic's final victory saw him win at 2 miles for the first time in his career, in the Governor's Plate at Flemington in March 1927. After four unplaced runs at the Sydney Autumn Carnival he was retired, aged five, to start his career at stud in the spring of 1927.

More sensations were to follow as Heroic went on to be the nation's leading sire for four consecutive seasons. From nine crops he sired 184 winners of 964 races. Among his progeny were the mighty Ajax and Melbourne Cup winner Hall Mark.

Another sensation followed when the champion sire suddenly became impotent after nine seasons of great results at stud. Nothing could solve the problem and Heroic lived on for another six years until his wayward behaviour finally took its toll. A bolt of lightning in a sudden storm caused the old horse to gallop wildly across the paddock and slip over on the wet grass in December 1939. He broke a leg and was put down at the age of 18. His record of 21 wins, 11 seconds and four thirds is no real indication of the erratic champion's true ability.

*This is
not
the STC we have today, which was formed by the NSW Government in 1944 to run what had been ‘proprietory' or privately owned racetracks.

The ‘Age of Champions': 1924–26

JIM HAYNES

I
N THE HISTORY OF
Australian racing there has probably never been such a golden age as that which occurred in the mid-1920s.

Heroic, The Hawk and Gloaming were all racing and winning major races, and four other great champions in Spearfelt, Windbag, Manfred and Amounis joined them during this time.

Spearfelt (foaled 1921)

Spearfelt was a small horse who was bred in the Goulburn Valley in Victoria but raised at Widden Stud in New South Wales after his mother died while being transported there with her foal at foot. He may well be the only bottle-raised horse to win the Melbourne Cup, and the little champ-to-be was purchased cheaply, for a mere 120 guineas, by Mr D.C. Grant, who was looking for a cheap colt with Carbine bloodlines to be trained by his friend, Melbourne trainer Vin O'Neill.

Spearfelt was a grandson of Spearmint, an Epsom Derby winner and son of Carbine. He won five races at two, then took the VRC Derby before starting favourite in the Melbourne Cup of 1924. The little colt ran into interference and finished an unlucky third behind Backwood.

The following year he won the VRC St Leger and the King's Plate, but fell heavily in the Sydney Cup and then contracted pneumonia. He was still not fully recovered and was racing below his best when he ran mid-field in the Melbourne Cup that year behind Windbag.

He was fully recovered by the spring of 1926 and won the AJC Spring Stakes before finishing third behind Manfred in the Melbourne Stakes.

Trainer Vin O'Neill thought Spearfelt was poorly ridden in the Melbourne Stakes and replaced jockey George Young with Hughie Grant for the Melbourne Cup three days later. Manfred pulled up sore after his Melbourne Stakes victory and was scratched from the Cup which Spearfelt won, equalling Windbag's record time of the year before, 3 minutes 22.75 seconds.

The record crowd of 118,877 at the Cup that year remained an Australian record for a sporting event for 43 years, until broken by the Carlton–Essendon Grand Final crowd in 1968.

Spearfelt's career was blighted by sickness and injury and he won only nine races, but he was a brilliant champion. He was also a success at stud, counting many good horses amongst his progeny, including the 1943 Melbourne Cup winner Dark Felt.

Windbag (foaled 1921)

Windbag was bred at the famous Kia Ora Stud in New South Wales by Percy Miller and was by the imported English stallion Magpie, who would go on to be Australian Champion Sire in 1928–29. His dam was the New Zealand mare Charleville, a grand-daughter of St Simon, which meant that St Simon was on both sides of Windbag's family, as Magpie was St Simon's great-grandson.

Windbag was a ‘bad walker' and was famously knocked down at the Inglis Yearling Sales to agent Ian Duncan for 160 guineas. Duncan then decided he couldn't take the horse due to his poor gait and Clive Inglis graciously cancelled the sale and convinced the breeder's brother, Robert Miller, to race him.

From this embarrassing start Windbag became the Sydney champion horse of his day, winning 18 races in his career and a Melbourne Cup.

In fact, he had a very unusual Melbourne Cup preparation. He started racing in July 1925, winning over 6 furlongs at Randwick, and stayed in training right through the winter and spring, taking the Spring Stakes, Craven Plate and Randwick Plate at the Sydney Spring Carnival before heading to Melbourne, where he ran third behind Pilliewinkle in the Melbourne Stakes before winning the Melbourne Cup.

The 1925 Melbourne Cup was history-making as it was the first to be broadcast on radio, by the ABC. Manfred led for most of the race and the pace was hot, but Windbag outstayed his younger rival to win by half a length in record time with Pilliewinkle, the Australian Cup and Melbourne Stakes winner, a close third. Spearfelt also raced in the Cup that year, but was not well and finished well back.

Windbag didn't sire a Melbourne Cup winner, but he did sire many good horses including Chatham, the outstanding miler who won two WS Cox Plates in the 1930s.

Manfred (foaled 1922)

Although Windbag, the older, tougher stayer, beat Manfred in the 1925 Cup, the younger horse was a strong-minded individual whose effort to win the AJC Derby in 1925 eclipsed Heroic's effort of the previous year.

Manfred shared a few things in common with Heroic. Both were sired by Valais, both were notorious barrier rogues, and both put up unbelievable efforts to win the AJC Derby.

In the AJC Derby of 1925 Manfred, who had won the Champagne Stakes at two, refused to start until the clerk of the course rode at him with his whip. He finally set off, seven seconds after the barrier had risen, and trailed the field by a good half furlong before settling for jockey Billy Duncan, who did not attempt to fight the horse but allowed him to settle at his own pace. He caught the field at the mile and raced level with Frank McGrath's champion Amounis before racing clear at the top of the straight to win easily.

Manfred also counted the Cox Plate, VRC Derby, Caulfield Cup, Caulfield Stakes, Melbourne Stakes and October Stakes in his tally of 11 career wins—an impressive resume.

Manfred had Bend Or on both sides of his bloodline, and his dam was a great-grand-daughter of St Simon via his brilliant son Persimmon. He was a great success at stud and sired many winning horses, including The Trump, who completed the Caulfield Cup– Melbourne Cup double in 1937.

Amounis (foaled 1922)

Amounis was an unlucky horse in some ways; he ran into Manfred at his best and later Nightmarch and then the mighty Phar Lap. He had the distinction of beating Phar Lap in the VATC St George Stakes of 1930, when Phar Lap was three and Amounis was seven. He also stopped Phar Lap's great winning streak of 24 victories by defeating the ‘Red Terror' by a head in the Warwick Stakes of 1930.

Like Windbag, Amounis was bred by Percy Miller at Kia Ora and was by Magpie. His dam, Loved One, was a great-grand-daughter of St Simon, giving Amounis the familiar champion's bloodlines of ‘St Simon on both sides'.

In Sydney Amounis won two Epsoms, a Rosehill Guineas, Chipping Norton, All-Aged Stakes, Craven Plate and Warwick Stakes and, in Melbourne, three Linlithgow Stakes, two Essendon Stakes and two Cantala Stakes, as well as a WS Cox Plate, and Futurity and St George Stakes. He then won the Caulfield Stakes and the Caulfield Cup at eight. In fact Amounis has the distinction of having won at least one race that would today be a Group 1 event in every year of his career from age three to age eight.

With a record of 33 wins, 11 seconds and eight thirds from 79 starts, Amounis was the ‘iron gelding' of his age.

In the century since Jorrocks was the darling of racegoers, many great horses had stirred the hearts of the Australian racing public. By 1930 radio, newsreel film and improved travel and communication made it easier to follow the exploits of the great inspirational champions of the turf, and the Australian appetite for racing and champion horses had grown even greater. The stage was set for the most loved champion of them all.

Phar Lap: Australia's favourite horse

JIM HAYNES

P
HAR LAP'S SPECTACULAR CAREER
has been continually documented and mythologised in books and films for 80 years, and his tragic end has been analysed and debated again and again.

In spite of his iconic status, it would be hard to imagine any champion whose career had less auspicious beginnings than the ‘Red Terror'.

Both his sire and dam were failures on the track and, in breeding terms, both were outcasts, unwanted even by breeders of mediocre racehorses at the poorer end of the racing game.

In researching the breeding history of Phar Lap's sire, Night Raid, dam, Entreaty, and grand-dam, Prayer Wheel, the phrase I came across most frequently was ‘got rid of '.

Night Raid was bred in England but was not a well-conformed horse when young and, although he was well bred, his breeder ‘got rid of ' him for a mere 100 guineas as a yearling. He was trained by a good trainer named Tom Hogg but only ever ran third in a poor-class ‘selling' race, so Hogg ‘got rid of ' him to Australia, where he was trained in Sydney by Peter Keith and managed one win in a restricted race at Randwick, and even that was a dead heat.

Keith then ‘got rid of ' him to breeder Paddy Wade, who stood him at stud in Wagga Wagga, New South Wales, but the horse could not even attract mares from local owners, so Wade decided to ‘get rid of ' him to New Zealand breeder A.F. Roberts and sold him for half what he had paid for him.

Phar Lap's dam, Entreaty, had an even worse history. Her dam Prayer Wheel was a failure on the track and a failure at stud and was culled from the breeding stock of Trelawney Park aged 15 and sold for 20 guineas. It was not even known if she was in foal at the time, but she was, to the imported stallion Winkie.

Prayer Wheel was sold again before giving birth to a black filly. Named Entreaty, the filly was put into training but damaged a shoulder and raced once only, at five, and performed poorly. She was left in the paddock and forgotten by her owners until they heard that Roberts was looking for second-rate mares to be served by outcast stallion Night Raid, so they promptly ‘got rid of ' her to Roberts for 60 guineas. Phar Lap, born in 1926, was her first foal, from Night Raid's second crop.

More than anything, Phar Lap's success demonstrates the importance of being able to see potential in bloodlines and ignore racetrack results and preconceptions.

Harry Telford had the ability to do just that—and he didn't have the budget to do much else!

If we ignore results and look at breeding we see, as Telford did, that Night Raid was a grandson of both Bend Or and Spearmint and had Galopin blood on both sides and St Simon and Carbine (and thus Musket) blood. Prayer Wheel had Musket blood on her dam side and Entreaty had St Simon and Galopin blood via her sire. It was a potent mix.