16/06/15
November 2, 1971 was a milestone date in Australian thoroughbred racing as it was the first time the Melbourne Cup was worth total prizemoney of $100,000 and was won by Silver Knight from Igloo and Tails.
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November 5, 1985 was another milestone date in Australian thoroughbred racing as it was the first time the Melbourne Cup was worth total prizemoney of $1 million. Carlton United Breweries sponsored the 1985 Melbourne Cup which was won by What A Nuisance from Koiro Corrie May and Tripsacum.
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When the flashy chestnut, Rory’s Jester, (Crown Jester x Rory’s Rocket) retired to stud he’d won seven races from 17 starts for trainer Colin Hayes. His only Group 1 victory came in the Golden Slipper. Apart from that Group 1 win, he didn’t win above Group 3 level. But Rory’s Jester’s stud career was assured before he went to stud as his five year older half brother Sovereign Rocket (Wolver Hollow x Rory’s Rocket) only won three non-black type Melbourne races in his career but he served good numbers of mares in his first three years at stud (1982, 1983 and 1984) – 49, 44 and 48 – according to official Australian Stud Book records. Sovereign Rocket died after only three seasons at stud but his first foals to hit the racetrack could run. Silver Satellite won the 2YO Matinee Stakes (1000m) at Sandown and Ivory won at Bendigo.
Rory’s Jester stood for 19 consecutive seasons from 1986 to 2004 inclusive and he served up to 118 mares (1998) in his time at stud. The lowest number he served was 30, in his last year at stud (2004).
In his wonderful career at stud which saw him have 1090 live foals he had a winners-to-runners ratio of around 74% and a stakeswinners-to-runners ratio of over 9%.
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The Des Burns trained Sleep Walk won 11 of his first 12 starts and the only time he was defeated in those 12 starts was when he ran second on debut after missing the start. By the Great Britain born stallion Exiled out of a mare called Such Charm, Sleep Walk had to withstand a double protest to win his eleventh race at his twelfth race start. He started at 3/1 on when he won at the Bundamba track in Ipswich at start 12, but jockeys Ken Russell (Amboina) and Denis McLune on the Sydney visitor Irish Glen both fired in a protest against first past the post Sleep Walk. Sleep Walk’s jockey Jim Cook acknowledged his mount had hit the fence on the home turn and bounced off it. Stewards dismissed both protests after Cook told them “Sleep Walk was cantering but he got on the wrong leg after he hit the fence”. Trainer Des Burns told journalists after the Bundamba win, “I’ll go home and study the programmes to see if we can come up with a suitable race in town for him. Maybe then we might get a reasonable price”.
Owned by a Dingo based farmer named Pat Butler, Sleep Walk retired having won an incredible 34 races in his career between 800 metres and 1200 metres, including four city races.
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When a filly bred by Mr and Mrs Ian Hedley was presented to an Elders Pastoral Co yearling sale at the Gold Coast she failed to attract a bid. None of the “experts” in attendance was interested in taking her home. She was by a stallion called Tingo (x Petingo) which stood at Stratheden Stud at Tamworth and she was out of the Montezuma mare Inca Lass. The Hedley’s had no option but to keep the filly.
Growing up to be named Tingo Tango and entrusted to Brisbane trainer Doug Bougoure, she only won five races in her career, but included in those five wins were the 1985 fillies Triple Crown in Sydney in her 3YO year – the Furious Stakes, Reginald Allen Stakes and the Flight Stakes. When she won the Flight Stakes she gave a Brisbane based kid, Shane Scriven, a Group 1 winner.
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In late 1985, only a margin of a neck separated Strawberry Road from earning the greatest prize ever earned by an Australian-bred horse, when he went down by that margin to the champion British mare Peebles in the US$2.6 million Breeders’ Cup Turf Handicap.
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When he was aged 14 in 1985 an offer of $37 million for New Zealand champion stallion Sir Tristram was rejected by Patrick Hogan. “The horse is simply not for sale at any price”, Hogan advised the media at the time.
That’s an extraordinary amount of money given it was 30 years ago. At the time though, Sir Tristram was the third leading sire of Group 1 winners in the world – behind Northern Dancer and Nijinsky.
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The late Maureen Dittman, wife of champion jockey Mick Dittman, trained her first Sydney winner in December 1985 when Well Connected won at Canterbury at an odds-on quote of 4/5 ($1.80). An apprentice, Tracey Bartley, who in later life became a trainer and won the Group 1 Stradbroke at Eagle Farm in 2007 with Sniper’s Bullet, had the ride.
Maureen Dittman had moved her small team to Sydney a couple of years earlier when Mick Dittman accepted the job of stable jockey for Tommy Smith.
The win by Well Connected broke a frustrating Sydney run for Maureen Dittman after the horse she trained, Ulan Boy, had run 10 placings in Sydney without winning a race there.
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Many people think when Carbine defeated 38 rivals to win the 1890 Melbourne up that that was the biggest field ever assembled in an Australian thoroughbred race. That’s not so. In fact that race only clocks in fifth. The biggest field to ever start in an Australian thoroughbred race was 43 in the Rosehill Cup in Sydney in 1897 when a horse called Kelso won.
The second biggest field started in the VATC Ladies’ Trophy, run at Caulfield on 30/6/1883. A horse called The Ghost (R. Batty) won the race which had 42 starters.
The 1885 Caulfield Cup had 41 starters so it clocks in third. No fewer than 16 horses fell in the event and jockey Donald Nicholson was killed in the race. A horse called Grace Darling was victorious.
The fourth biggest race field in Australian thoroughbred history ever was when 40 horses contested the Carrington Stakes in Sydney in 1889 and a neddy called The Gift was successful.
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