Ron Corvi leads Daybreak Lover and Gary Palmer back to scale after they had combined to win a Stradbroke Handicap.

If you went seeking an 'experienced' opinion on many facets of the racing industry, you would be hard pressed to find anyone with a better CV than Ipswich identity Ron Corvi. After all he has known every jockey, trainer, horse and racing official to grace South East Queensland tracks in the last quarter of a century.

Born in the Brisbane suburb of Everton Park 66 years ago, Ron recalls as a child helping the family 'milk 100 cows by hand each day'. His first job when leaving school at the ripe old age of 11 was working on a milk run delivering milk in his local area. The family eventually sold the dairy farm and moved to Oxley - another Brisbane suburb - where young Ron became an apprentice saddler to a chap called Alec Dewar, who was a Member of Parliament. It was at Oxley that Ron started breaking in horses and developing his skills as a horseman that would stand by him for the rest of his life.

From 1962 he performed with Jim Ross, Don Ross and John Bozier at the Brisbane Exhibition each year  'doing stunt work with horses in an act called Ross Brothers.  We travelled from Cairns to Sydney with that show and I got paid 5 pounds ($10) each time I fell off - getting shot as an Indian or stage coach driver or whatever the act was'.  I also worked around a lot of rodeos and did other stunt work'.

A pivotal year in the life of Ron Corvi was 1964.  Apart from marrying Helen in that year, he got his break into the racing industry.  'I was on the roof doing tiling at my brother’s house when Arthur Berry,  the Course Ranger at Bundamba, came around to ask my brother if he’d like to be Clerk of the Course at Ipswich, as the bloke who was doing it had resigned suddenly.  My brother didn’t want to do it, but I yelled out from the roof “how much does it pay” and the reply came back “six quid ($12)”, so I said “I’ll do it”.  Arthur and I discussed it and he asked my brother could I sit on a horse and so I got the job'.

A succession of different race-day roles followed. As Ron explains,  'I got on well with Alan Shuck who was the Course Ranger at Ipswich.  Alan got the job at Eagle Farm around 1982 as Course Ranger and Starter.  Alan rang me up soon after he commenced at Eagle Farm and asked me would I go down there on Saturdays.  He said all the barrier staff did there was push horses in – no one would hold the head of a horse when they are loaded into the barrier.  So I finished up working there for 20 years on a Saturday and eventually became Clerk of the Course at both Eagle Farm and Doomben.  One day I was riding my horse in the parade yard at Eagle Farm on a race day and (then) Ipswich Chairman Loftus Foote grabbed me by the leg to get my attention and said “I want you to be Course Ranger and Starter” and that’s how I got the full time job at Ipswich”.'  Ron Corvi stayed in that role as Course Ranger until his resignation in March 2002 and today still retains his role as Starter, declaring, 'Whilst I feel fit and able and my reflexes are good, I’ll keep going'.

But for a handshake in 1963, Ron Corvi says he’d have 'walked away from race tracks forever.  I was working at Doomben as Clerk of the Course and the starter was Steve Kelly.  A horse had bailed up at the 1000 metres and I went around to get it.  When I got it to the barrier he berated me terribly in front of the jockeys and staff.  When the field jumped I told him what he could do with his job and he just stood there with his mouth open.  Obviously no one had ever spoken to him like that.  I’d made up my mind to finish after the last race.  As the field jumped away in the last, he came over to me and said something to the effect, son, I say things on race days I shouldn’t in the heat of the moment.  What say we shake hands and forget it?  So we shook hands and had no further problems'.

Asked what he felt the secrets of being a good Starter are, Ron said,  'Whilst a Starter has the powers to fine jockeys, I’ve never fined one yet. I’ll just have a little quiet talk on the side to them.  You see often a jockey is wasting and may not have eaten for three days and might have only had a black coffee in that time, so he’s a bit fizzed up.  I’ve always treated jockeys as humans and equals.  Before I start the last race each race day, I always say to the jockeys, thanks very much for your co-operation today – I appreciate it.  Do you know it’s taken 25 years, but some (jockeys) now thank us (barrier staff) before the last.'  Ron continued by saying, "Good starting is about being able to read the horses.  (The late trainer) Alby Pratt used to say there are mental horses like there are mental people – and the longer I do my job the more I think he’s right.  I also think a stock whip in the right hands is a good tool – in the wrong hands it’s not.  A nervous bloke would never be a Starter because every trainer has a story why their horse should go in last. My rule of thinking is you go in where you draw.  Why shouldn’t the well-mannered horse be able to go into the barrier, in his turn? Why should it have to go in first?  The bookies blue because the rogue was allowed to go in last and so on!'

Ron vividly recalls when he first started doing Clerk of the Course duties at Ipswich in 1970 that 'there were 80 bookies fielding at Ipswich – 40 on the locals and 40 to 45 on southern events.  Some of them would let punters on for big money, you know.  A bookie called Frank Burke would let a punter have, say, 5000 pounds ($10,000) on a horse at 5/1.  When his clerk would issue the ticket to the punter, Burke would say to the punter as he walked away, do you want it again Sonny and wind it out a point.  You know that bookie Frank Burke actually owned the first barrier stalls in South East Queensland.  They used to drive them from one track to the other back then, as individual clubs – with the exception of Eagle Farm and Doomben – couldn’t afford them, so Frank Burke bought them and rented them out to the clubs.  Guess they paid for themselves a hundred times over.'

Ron Corvi also was Clerk of the Course at Albion Park Paceway in Brisbane from opening night on 7 September 1968 and stayed working there for 18 years.  He was also Clerk of the Course at Albion Park thoroughbred races and declared, “if they’d have put lights in there (on the gallops track), they’d have still been racing”.

Asked the biggest crowd he officiated in front of on a racecourse as Clerk of the Course, Ron named “Gunsynd farewell day at Doomben on May 7^th, 1973' as that day.

On the subject of naming some funny incidents that he’d seen on racetracks, Ron had a giggle at four that stood out.  'Firstly, I was leading Len Hill around behind the barrier one day at Doomben and Steve Kelly was the Starter.  Steve Kelly asked him to put the horse in, but Len said to me "go around again" to which Kelly said to Len "I fine you 5 pounds ($10)".  At that point Len muttered "you old Irish bastard".  Kelly replied "that will cost you another 5 (pounds) – would you like to try for 15 (pounds)"?  Len Hill then moved the horse in without further questioning.

'The second funny incident was at Laidley (since closed).  Alby Pratt had a horse in a race and at the barriers the horse dumped the jockey and jumped the fence and headed out along the main street.  Alby got in his car and went looking for it.  He caught it, brought it back – and it won the race.  The whole incident held the race up about 10 minutes.

'The third funny incident happened in Brisbane to a horse Jimmy Atkins trained called Elite 'N' Fleet.  Terry Lucas was riding it and it was in the days of caller Ron Anwin or Vince Curry.  This bloke rang 4BC - who were doing the broadcasts then - and told them if Elite ’N’ Fleet didn’t win he was going to shoot Terry Lucas.  The horse always got a lead to the barrier because it was a fractious type of horse.  I was trying to relax Terry a bit on the way to the barrier and he was saying about getting shot and that.  I had a joke with him saying something like you’d better make sure it wins, but he didn’t see the funny side of it saying this is "serious".  Did the horse win Ron? I asked, to which he just laughed and said, 'It swung for home three in front and won by eight”.

'The fourth funny event involved Kingston Town.  He was to lead the field out in some feature race and I was to hold him and lead him out, but they presented him in the mounting yard with only a rearing bit on and a little strap around his head and he was bucking and playing up.  The Chairman of the club, Sir Edward Williams, picked up on it straight away (the lack of a bridle) and quickly came over to me and said “for Christ’s sake don’t let him go son, I don’t know whether we’ve got enough insurance to cover it (if he gets away)”.'

Ron said he did train one horse – 'a bucking rogue called Let’s Hope that got sent down from the late Peter Berghofer in Toowoomba.  I’d said to him one day at the races that I wouldn’t mind training a racehorse, so one day soon after a horse float turned up at my front gate with a horse in it.  He had four starts and broke down.  We had a big go SP (starting price) on him one day at Gatton.  You wouldn’t believe it but two inches (50mm) of rain fell before the race and we couldn’t call our bets off.  He got beaten in a photo by Silver Smoke, which was a brother to that good horse Red Smoke.  Sammy (Lyle) Rowe and Brian Wakefield used to ride him.  In fact I was very close to Sammy Rowe and my oldest son Sam is named after him.'

Asked to name the best horses he’d seen across both codes, Ron said, 'I saw Tulloch when he won the Cup (1961 Brisbane Cup) but I thought Divide And Rule was a great racehorse.  He could miss the start by 6 lengths and win by 6 lengths.  He was a very excitable horse and (trainer) Dick Roden came and saw me before they landed the big plonk in the Stradbroke and asked me to get him to the barriers safe and calm.  I told him he’d have to get the stewards to authorise me to lead him to the start.  So he went and saw them and they okayed that and he won the race.

'I also liked that horse Winfreux – he was the plainest horse I ever saw, but gee he could gallop.'

On harness horses Ron said whilse he’d seen 'all the greats like Welcome Advice, Hondo Grattan, Paleface Adios, Monaro and whilst they had the score on the board, I really liked a horse that the Fred Kersley bloke from Northerly fame lobbed here with in the early 70’s called Red Vicar.  They put him in a big race at Albion Park (Inter-Dominion) and did just enough to qualify him for the final, then they plonked the horse in the final.  It galloped away but should have won and therefore would have beaten the best.'

On the subject of jockeys Ron singled out Peter Cook as a 'great jockey' and continued by saying 'if Peter Cook had been dedicated, he would be the best jockey I’ve ever seen.  Horses would travel for him on a piece of cotton and he could pick a horse up at the end of a race.  Dittman could make a horse lift with the whip but Peter Cook was a hands and heels genius.'

Ron estimates he has started about 14,500 races in his life.  Asked how many horses he and his staff couldn’t successfully load over the last 20 years, Ron thought for quite a while and said 'about half a dozen.'  He said the worst two horses he ever saw at the barrier were Zenith Prince and Turf Ruler.  'Zenith Prince was a full brother to that real good sprinter Handsome Prince - and got himself banned about 8 times.  They took him to Sydney and were going to re-educate him and get him back to the races, but he was never heard of again.  The other horse Turf Ruler was a stallion and he would actually charge at you with his mouth open to bite you.  He was an ill tempered horse'.

Apart from the handshake incident at Doomben, Ron Corvi has enjoyed his time in racing.  In many ways he feels he still owes racing, as racing was very kind to him and his wife and family when, like many other people, the massive floods of 1974 invaded their Goodna home.  Ron says, 'Our house was under 40 feet of water for two weeks – we didn’t even know if we’d have a house when the water went down. We did – but it was a mess.  A man came and asked if I was okay when I was cleaning a foot of mud out of the house with a shovel.  He stayed and worked all day with me.  He asked me how many kids I had and I told him three.  That night he returned with a box of toys.  He said he’d gone home to his place and asked his children if they’d like to give my kids some of their toys.  I never saw him before - or after - that day, but I'll remember his kindness forever.

'The racing industry was great to us in that flood,' Ron says. 'The jockeys took the hat around at the races for me and my family one day after the flood.  I didn’t have a clue until after the last and I got called into the stewards' room by Clive Morgan and Andy Tindall.  They just said you are wanted in the stewards' room and I thought oh what have I done?  Then they presented me with a good sum of money.  I couldn’t believe it and cried like a baby.  You see racing people do stick like that.'