The Big Book of Australian Racing Stories

by Jim Haynes

  And I saw Tulloch and Gunsynd and they were tough and fast,

  Kingston Town was brilliant, so strong the mare Sunline,

  But for true fighting spirit there was just one champ for mine!

  No champion that ever strode the turf could make me feel

  The way I felt about that gallant brown son of Zabeel.

  O for Octagonal to be racing once again,

  O for Octagonal, on him you could depend,

  He never gave up trying, he’d stick right to the end,

  O for Octagonal, he was the punter’s friend.

  Derby Day in ’96 you should have heard the cheers,

  From the biggest crowd the Randwick track had seen for thirty years.

  With Saintly, Nothing Leica Dane, Filante down the straight,

  I won’t see another race like that, however long I wait.

  It was true grit and courage that wore the others down,

  His will to win that drove him on to take the Triple Crown.

  His stamina unparalleled, his action was sublime,

  Oh what I’d give to see old ‘Ocky’ race just one more time!

  O for Octagonal to be racing once again,

  O for Octagonal, on him you could depend,

  He never gave up trying, he’d stick right to the end,

  O for Octagonal, he was the punter’s friend.

  THEY ALL LOVE SUNLINE

  JIM HAYNES

  ‘They all love Sunline.’

  It was the bloke standing beside me in the TAB. The place was abuzz with comments, the usual ill-informed, well-informed and half-informed opinions that you get in any TAB when it is more than likely that a protest will be lodged. Blokes talking to anyone who will listen, or to no one in particular, or to no one at all.

  But this was different.

  It was not only the Cox Plate; the horses involved were the best three horses racing at the time!

  It was 27 October 2001.

  I’d backed Viscount, the Inghams’ immaculately bred and trained three-year-old. I thought he was a classy conveyance and well suited at weight-for-age against the two champs, Sunline and Northerly. I still think the same. He should have won.

  Sunline had led into the straight with Viscount behind her, waiting to start his winning run, and Northerly had been working home down the outside.

  In his efforts to lift Northerly and reach the mighty mare, Damien Oliver had ridden the Western Australian champion out vigorously. Northerly had strained every sinew to the limit until the effort was too much. Then he ducked in under pressure, just as Sunline rolled out slightly for the same reason.

  Viscount was the meat in the sandwich; he was crunched in between the two older horses, lost all momentum and was lucky to stay on his feet. Sunline’s head went way up in the air as she, too, lost momentum, and Northerly, the main offender and the only horse of the trio to keep his momentum, pulled ahead to win by half a length.

  The booing started as the horses returned to the birdcage.

  That’s when I commented through my pocket to the bloke beside me, ‘No wonder they’re booing,’ I said, ‘Viscount was robbed!’

  He looked at me in that sad way older racing addicts have when confronted by ignorance. Then he said, ‘They’re not worried about the Inghams’ horse, mate, they’re booing ’cos Sunline didn’t win—they all love Sunline.’

  Maybe he was a Kiwi, but he was right anyway. They all did love Sunline.

  Certainly all New Zealand loved her; when she died there was a news special on national television.

  And why wouldn’t they love her? Not only was she undefeated in her home country, she travelled to Australia and beat our best, and then went to Hong Kong and beat the mighty Fairy King Prawn over a mile in a world-class international event. She was the best middle-distance horse of her era and certainly the best mare to ever race over middle distances in Australasian turf history. Her record proves it.

  When the protests came that day there were three of them: Sunline against Northerly, and Viscount against the other two, so second against first, and third against first and second.

  In a travesty of justice, all were dismissed.

  I still maintain that Viscount should have won. And all fair-minded racing fans consider that Sunline’s record against Northerly should show one victory and two losses, instead of three losses.

  I still maintain it should have been Viscount first, Sunline second and Northerly third.

  In any case, we all agree the mighty mare should have been put ahead of Northerly—a champion in his own right—just once in her career!

  ‘But Northerly won by half a length,’ I hear the voice of reason saying, ‘and that was why the stewards gave him the race.’

  ‘Yes,’ I answer in my imagination, with more than a hint of frustration, ‘and he won by that far because the interference was so bad!’

  Punters have long and bitter memories of racing injustices.

  While I was writing this story, it was announced that Sunline had lost her long battle with laminitis and had been put down. That sad news made me think back to how I’d seen her in victory and defeat, in the flesh, not on the TAB television screens.

  I have two vivid memories of Sunline. I saw her race maybe half a dozen times, but two memories are unforgettably clear. Because they were the most memorable two-horse-wars I ever saw.

  Randwick is a track that really sorts out the champs from the pretenders down the straight. Sunline started there twelve times, usually carrying big weights, for six wins and four placings.

  I saw her win her second Doncaster in 2002, defeating Shogun Lodge after they raced side by side for two entire furlongs. That was the best nose-to-nose tussle I ever saw at Randwick.

  The crowd was in a frenzy; it was too close to call at the end. I thought she’d been beaten, but the photo showed her courage had paid off by a nose. The pundits thought she had too much weight that day to possibly win over the toughest mile course in the world.

  I still can’t believe you could get odds of 5 to 1 about Sunline in the ring when they jumped. And I still can’t believe I didn’t take it!

  Strangely enough, the mighty mare also featured in the best battle down the straight I ever saw in Melbourne, at Caulfield, in the Caulfield Stakes in 2002.

  It was a match race between Sunline, when she was approaching the end of her career, and Lonhro, who was nearing the peak of his career. There were some pretty handy horses in the supporting cast of the drama that day, but they were really only there for the crowd scenes, just making up the numbers.

  Trevor McKee and his son, Stephen, owners of Sunline, and the Ingham brothers, who owned Lonhro, rate as true enthusiasts and lovers of racing. It is credit to the McKees that Sunline, who could have been quickly retired to stud, raced on as a mare to give us all so many wonderful memories. The McKee motto was always, ‘We’re here to race.’

  Mind you, Sunline was an awesome force on any racetrack at any age, even at seven. She was strong and robust and towered over most of her male counterparts. She never looked frail, weak or delicate of disposition, attributes which many consider to be feminine. In fact, Greg Childs, who rode her for 32 of her 48 starts, described her as ‘a freak of nature’ and attributed her amazing ability to what he called her ‘masculine qualities’.

  She was feminine enough, however, to leave behind two sons and two daughters when she passed away prematurely at the age of just thirteen.

  As usual the crowd at Caulfield that day mostly supported Sunline. Not many Victorian racegoers were fans of the New South Wales horse in the cerise colours, although they would come to admire him—and his progeny—in seasons to follow.

  It was a mighty struggle between the young stallion and the seven-year-old mare, all the way down the straight, but neither horse shirked the task. Lonhro won by a head, with the rest of the field fighting out third place 6 lengths behind.

  But Sunline will be remembered for the races she won, not those she bar
ely lost.

  Her two Cox Plate wins are enough to place her among the immortals. In the first she defeated Redoute’s Choice, Commands, Testa Rossa, Tie The Knot and Sky Heights—an impressive lineup of legendary horses! And she won the second by a record 7 lengths, defeating Caulfield Cup winner Diatribe along with Referral, Show A Heart and Shogun Lodge, as well as Testa Rossa, Tie The Knot and Sky Heights yet again.

  Add to those two Cox Plate wins her other Group 1 victories, two Doncaster Handicaps, two All-Aged Stakes, two Waikato Sprints, two Coolmore Classics (carrying 60 kg each time), a Flight Stakes, a Manikato Stakes, her controversial second to Northerly in a third Cox Plate, and her international victory in Hong Kong, and you have a record unbeaten in Australasian racing history.

  From her Group 3 victory in the Moonee Valley Oaks as a three-year-old filly, until the end of her career at age seven, Sunline only ever competed in races at Group 1 or Group 2 level.

  Her win rate was 68 per cent and her place rate 94 per cent, and she raced at least two seasons beyond what most consider to be the correct age for racing mares to retire. She was the top stakes-winning horse in Australasian history in her day, and the top stakes-winning mare in the world. She is the only horse ever voted Australian Horse of the Year three times.

  How does her record compare to other great mares?

  Well, given that comparisons from different eras are rather silly to begin with, the only racing mares who even come close to Sunline are Wakeful, Desert Gold, Tranquil Star, Flight, Emancipation and Makybe Diva.

  Wakeful had a win rate of 58 per cent, well below Sunline’s a century later. Her place rate, at 41 from 44 starts, is amazingly close (at 93.3 per cent) to Sunline’s 45 from 48 (94 per cent). Each mare was unplaced only three times.

  Wakeful was more versatile than Sunline, winning from 5 furlongs to 3 miles and carrying 10 st (63.5 kg) to run second in the Melbourne Cup, less than a length behind Lord Cardigan, carrying more than 3 stone less at 6 st 8 lb (42 kg). Wakeful comes very close to giving Sunline a run for her money, but where she won ten races that would now be considered Group 1 level, Sunline won thirteen.

  Desert Gold was a New Zealander like Sunline. Her amazing run of nineteen wins in a row easily eclipses Sunline’s best run of eight consecutive wins. Desert Gold, however, did most of her racing in New Zealand at a very different level to Sunline and, although she won a number of classic New Zealand races and had a great five-year-old season in Australia, winning quite a few weight-for-age events, her record at the very top level does not match Sunline’s.

  Desert Gold raced through the dark days of World War I for an overall record of 36 wins, thirteen seconds and four thirds from 59 starts, very close to Sunline’s record. Her place rate is a very respectable 90 per cent, 4 per cent less than Sunline’s. Her win rate, at 61 per cent, again comes close to Sunline’s 69 per cent, but not close enough.

  Tranquil Star had an iron constitution. She started 111 times for 23 wins. That was her main claim to fame, her amazing stamina. She would have been a match for the great masculine mare, Sunline, as far as stamina went, and, like our heroine, she raced until she was past the age when most mares retired; in fact, Tranquil Star raced a season more than Sunline, well into her eighth year. Unfortunately, she doesn’t really measure up in other ways.

  In her three-year-old season Tranquil Star became only the second female to win the St Leger. In her fourth year, however, Tranquil Star raced 21 times for only two wins and eight placings. Her Caulfield Cup win was commendable and, like Sunline, she won the Cox Plate twice in a row.

  Also, despite breaking her jaw in a bad fall at Moonee Valley, Tranquil Star went on, with a wired jaw, to win the Memsie Stakes, William Reid Stakes and the Mackinnon Stakes for the third time!

  Tranquil Star was, however, a beaten favourite on a record eighteen occasions! The racegoers who had time to go on the punt during World War II must have been far more tolerant than they were in Sunline’s day!

  Within months of Tranquil Star’s retirement, a new heroine emerged to excite the wartime and post-war crowds. Flight, famously bought for 60 guineas by Brian Crowley, would go on to race 65 times for 24 wins, nineteen seconds and nine thirds.

  While her statistics don’t measure up to Sunline’s, we are often told that Flight had to race against one of the greatest horses of all time in Bernborough, who she only managed to beat the day he broke down in the Mackinnon Stakes in 1946. She did, however, race into her sixth year and managed to emulate Sunline with two wins in the Cox Plate, in 1945 and 1946. She also won two Craven Plates, and the Mackinnon, C.F. Orr, Adrian Knox and Colin Stephen Stakes.

  Like Sunline, Flight produced only four foals before passing away. The only filly foal was Flight’s Daughter, who became the mother of champion Golden Slipper winners, Skyline and Sky High. Sky High stood at stud in the USA and sired Autobiography, the best handicapper in the USA in 1972.

  Flight won only six Group 1 races, less than half of Sunline’s total. Her claim to fame is based as much on her impact as a broodmare as it is on her two Cox Plate wins. So any real comparison to Sunline may take years to assess.

  Emancipation had many characteristics in common with Sunline. She was a great middle-distance mare and won many of the same races Sunline won: the Doncaster, All-Aged Stakes and George Main Stakes among them. In her three-year-old season she won ten from thirteen starts and her record overall was nine from fifteen; and as a four-year-old, her Group 1 tally was seven.

  Emancipation failed when she travelled away from Sydney and she also failed to run out 2000 metres. She was unplaced behind Strawberry Road in the Cox Plate.

  As a broodmare Emancipation, like Flight and Wakeful, made her mark. Her son Royal Pardon was placed in the AJC Derby and won good races; her daughters, Suffragette and Virage, produced champions in Railings and Virage De Fortune.

  We may have to wait a generation or two before we see if Sunline’s blood will resurface into champions, as did the blood of Flight, Wakeful and Emancipation. With only four living foals before her untimely death, it may be hard for Sunline to match the broodmare record of her predecessors. However, with the miraculous Sunline, who knows?

  It is a strange fact that the brilliance of great race mares appears to skip a generation and reappear in the foals of their daughters, and sons to a lesser extent.

  There is ample proof, as we have seen, of the daughters of great race mares being poor performers but great producers. There are also examples of sons and grandsons being great sires. Wakeful’s son Baverstock only managed to win one race, but became a hugely successful sire, as did Flight’s grandson Sky High.

  We will have to wait to see what influence Sunline has on future generations. And that is also true of one other great mare to whom she is often compared.

  Nine days before Sunline scored her last race win in the Group 2 Mudgeway Stakes at Hasting in New Zealand, a mare having her second race start and bred to northern hemisphere seasons won her maiden at Wangaratta. The mighty staying mare Makybe Diva had arrived.

  There is an account of her career and place in racing history later in this collection, ‘Queens of the Cup’, so I will make her comparison to Sunline quite brief.

  We are possibly comparing the greatest middle-distance mare that ever lived to the greatest staying mare Australia has ever seen. However, we can go through the process of comparing records, just for the sake of it.

  As a stayer, Makybe Diva obviously ran in more ‘lead-up’ races towards her major goals, so her record of fifteen wins, four seconds and three thirds from 36 starts looks quite poor against Sunline’s 33 wins, nine seconds and three thirds from 48.

  The figures give Makybe Diva a win rate of 42 per cent and a place rate of 61 per cent, well below Sunline’s remarkable 69 per cent and 94 per cent. But we are doing no more with such statistics than comparing oranges to apples.

  Group 1 wins? Well, it’s no contest. Sunline won almost twice as many times at the elite Group 1
level, with thirteen victories to Makybe Diva’s seven. And when we look at overall wins at group level, it’s ten to Makybe Diva and 27 to Sunline.

  It’s tempting to do what many have done, including the Melbourne Herald Sun in an article comparing contemporary champions in December 2009, and say ‘Sunline was simply a one-off freak’.

  That’s hardly good enough, though—you can’t dismiss a champion because he or she was ‘freakishly talented’. After all, that’s what being a champion often amounts to!

  When Sunline died, her regular jockey Greg Childs, who had taken his family to visit her after her retirement, described her as ‘a freak of nature’ who took all New Zealand on a great journey.

  ‘She was a big influence on my life,’ Childs said. ‘She lifted my profile and my bank balance. . . she helped pay for the house we are living in.

  ‘It’s not only the jockey, it is the family as well, my wife and my kids,’ said Childs, ‘they all love Sunline.’

  DO THEY KNOW?

  A.B. ‘BANJO’ PATERSON

  Do they know? At the turn to the straight

  Where the favourites fail,

  And every last atom of weight

  Is telling its tale;

  As some grim old stayer hard-pressed

  Runs true to his breed,

  And with head just in front of the rest

  Fights on in the lead;

  When the jockeys are out with the whips,

  With a furlong to go,

  And the backers grow white to the lips—

  Do you think they don’t know?

  Do they know? As they come back to weigh

  In a whirlwind of cheers,

  Though the spurs have left marks of the fray,

  Though the sweat on the ears

  Gathers cold, and they sob with distress

  As they roll up the track,

  They know just as well their success

  As the man on their back.

  As they walk through a dense human lane

  That sways to and fro,