The Big Book of Australian Racing Stories

by Jim Haynes

  And cheers them again and again,

  Do you think they don’t know?

  LONHRO NEVER LIKED MOONEE VALLEY

  JIM HAYNES

  ‘And Lonhro stands motionless, gazing off into the distance as he so often does before a race . . . he’ll be the last to be loaded.’

  It was April 19, 2004.

  As the course commentator’s voice echoed across from the stands, Lonhro gazed towards the traffic moving endlessly along Alison Road, then turned his head for a last long look across the wide expanses of Royal Randwick towards the University of New South Wales buildings to the south.

  On nine of the eleven occasions Lonhro had raced here at Randwick he’d been victorious. Today was to be different, but somehow it hardly mattered.

  It was Queen Elizabeth Stakes Day, last day of the Autumn Carnival, and the feature race was to be Lonhro’s swan song, the final curtain call in a magnificent and well-orchestrated racing career. It was a race in which he had nothing left to prove, but it was an opportunity for the AJC to bring much-needed media attention to racing. It was also a chance for those who had watched and loved the horse for four glorious racing seasons to say farewell.

  It was, in fact, uncannily similar to his father’s farewell day at Randwick seven years earlier. There was to be a real sense of déjà vu.

  Both he and his famous sire, Octagonal, finished their racing careers in the Queen Elizabeth Stakes. On both occasions the AJC made the day into a carnival and promoted it as a chance to farewell a champion. On both occasions the party was spoiled and the fairytale ending denied when the retiring champion was defeated, finishing second in the feature event.

  Yet, in both cases, it hardly mattered—the race itself was simply a coda to a great career.

  Octagonal had nothing left to prove when the AJC put on a party for his farewell in 1997. Having passed his target of winning an Australasian record of more than $6 million in prizemoney several weeks before, the ‘Big O’ could have simply headed off to stud. There was really no reason to risk running the champion again in the Queen Elizabeth Stakes when he had nothing left to prove and was worth many, many millions as a stallion.

  Indeed, a reporter asked Jack Ingham that very question after Octagonal won the Tancred Cup at Rosehill: ‘Why risk the horse now, when he has achieved his goal and everything you ever expected of him?’

  With typical Inghamesque logic, Jack simply looked the reporter in the eye and asked, ‘Don’t you want to see him race again?’

  As an AJC committee member Jack was also no doubt aware that he was giving the club a chance to attract much-needed support and media attention—he was a gracious man, Jack Ingham.

  Octagonal was defeated in his farewell race by a useful stayer called Intergaze, who would go on to win an Australian Cup.

  And then here we were, seven years later, watching his illustrious son stand at the 2000-metre start, gazing off into the distance before taking his position in the barrier, only to be defeated by Gai Waterhouse’s good horse Grand Armee, who had also defeated Lonhro in a Doncaster Handicap.

  Grand Armee’s cause was helped to an extent by an atypical poorly judged ride by Darren Beadman, who allowed the winner to get away with a slow pace and an easy lead, giving Lonhro no real chance of running him down in the straight.

  Unlike his father Octagonal, who crept up on the racing world through his two-year-old season, Lonhro had lived his entire life in the spotlight. Being the first foal of Octagonal’s first crop, he entered the world in a blaze of publicity. His mother, Shadea, had won the Group 3 Sweet Embrace Stakes and had been placed in both the AJC Sires Produce and Champagne Stakes.

  As soon as he was born at the Inghams’ Woodlands Stud, his anxious owners asked for a first-hand report and were told that the foal was ‘small but perfectly formed’.

  This report gave Suzanne Philcox, who had the task of naming all the Woodlands foals, a good pointer towards an appropriate cryptic name for the foal. His name is a deliberate misspelling of the stock exchange code for the London Rhodesian Mining and Land Company, LONRHO. The CEO of this company was the controversial Roland ‘Tiny’ Rowlands, who was always sarcastically referred to as ‘small but perfectly formed’ by the satirical magazine Private Eye, which exposed some of his perfidious activities in the 1980s and 1990s. The misspelling was to avoid possible legal difficulties and enable the thoroughbred registrar to accept the name.

  Lonhro finished second at his first start in November 2000 and was then spelled before winning easily over 1100 metres at Rosehill. A trip to Melbourne followed, resulting in an impressive win in the Blue Diamond Prelude and a close fourth, behind True Jewels, in the Blue Diamond itself.

  The Inghams and trainer John Hawkes saw Lonhro as a potential weight-for-age horse and took their time with him. He was spelled until July and then contested the Missile Stakes as a two-year-old, finishing third. This was the last time in his entire racing career that Lonhro would lose two consecutive races.

  Woodlands’ other champion two-year-old of that year, Viscount, won the AJC Sires Produce and Champagne Stakes while Lonhro was in the spelling paddock.

  When he returned to racing, the first son of Octagonal had developed into an impressive big, almost black horse who was to be unbeaten at three. He took out the weight-for-age Warwick Stakes, the Ming Dynasty Quality, the Heritage Stakes and the Stan Fox Stakes, one after the other, all at Group or Listed Race level. He was then sent to Melbourne to race against a class field, including stablemate Viscount, in the Caulfield Guineas. He won running away by 1½ lengths.

  A minor injury saw Lonhro spelled again, leaving stablemate Viscount to wear the famous all-cerise colours in the 2001 Cox Plate.

  Sandwiched between Northerly laying in and Sunline shifting out, Viscount was robbed of a Cox Plate victory in a controversial decision that saw the ‘past the post’ placings upheld after multiple protests.

  Lonhro and another Woodlands horse, Freemason, would later avenge to a degree the ‘unfair’ defeat of their courageous stablemate at weight-for-age. Lonhro famously defeated Sunline in the Caulfield Stakes of 2002, and the dour old stayer Freemason handed Northerly an unexpected defeat at weight-for-age in the Tancred Cup at Rosehill on Golden Slipper Day in 2003.

  Lonhro returned to racing in February 2002 to win the Royal Sovereign Stakes and the Hobartville Stakes, both at Group 2, before a virus saw him put away again until the spring. Amazingly, the Royal Sovereign Stakes was the first of 25 consecutive races in his career that saw him start favourite.

  Lonhro came back in the spring, once again in the Missile Stakes over 1100 metres. Ridden for the first time by Darren Beadman, he won effortlessly by 4 lengths. Previously he had mostly been ridden in Sydney by Rod Quinn, though Digger McLellan and Jim Cassidy had also won on him. In Melbourne it had been Darren Gauci and Brett Prebble. But from the start of his four-year-old season until he retired, Lonhro was ridden by Darren Beadman and no one else.

  The imposing sleek dark horse they were now starting to call ‘the Black Flash’, although he was never ‘officially’ black, was sent out red-hot favourite at his next start in the Warwick Stakes, over 1400 metres.

  Perhaps he was a little flat second-up after a long spell, or perhaps the step up from 1100 to 1400 was too much, for he failed by half a head to run down Guy Walter’s good horse Defier.

  Lonhro was to finish behind Defier four times in his career, twice in the Cox Plate, although the gelding was easily defeated three times by Lonhro at Group 1 level in Lonhro’s five-year-old season.

  Defier was a gallant and unlucky horse who finished second in the Cox Plate twice, in 2002 and 2003. Lonhro finished sixth in 2002, his worst-ever result in a race, and third in 2003.

  After the 2003 race Defier’s trainer Guy Walter cheekily quipped, ‘Finished behind us again,’ to John Hawkes in the birdcage at Moonee Valley.

  Hawkes famously replied, ‘Yes, but ours still has his undercarriage.’

  Lonh
ro was never at home at Moonee Valley and his two Cox Plate runs were probably the most disappointing in his stellar career. The man who knew the horse best, trainer John Hawkes, thought Lonhro never liked Moonee Valley for some reason—perhaps the StrathAyr surface didn’t feel right to the big stallion. Perhaps he disliked the closed-in cauldron-like atmosphere. He didn’t stand and stare for long before entering the barriers in his two runs at Moonee Valley.

  Although he was never to run to his best in the Cox Plate, he went on as a four- and five-year-old to win seventeen of his 23 starts, all at Group level, at distances ranging from 1100 to 2000 metres.

  There are those who claim Lonhro was a false champion who had many ‘easy kills’ in Group races, never won a derby or a Cox Plate, and failed to prove himself as a handicapper in the Doncaster of 2003.

  There is no doubt that John Hawkes had the luxury of being able to pick the champion’s races. Woodlands had other great horses, notably Viscount, racing at the time and could plan complementary campaigns for their horses.

  It is also true that Lonhro was never at home at Moonee Valley. It was the only track on which he started and never won a race. His two efforts there were arguably among the four worst performances of his career—although a sixth and third in the Cox Plate are not bad for ‘worst’ performances.

  He carried the top-weight of 57.5 kilograms to finish fourth in the Doncaster behind Grand Armee, carrying 6 kilos less, on a wet track and, as a sprinter/middle-distance horse, he was never going to run in derbies or the Melbourne Cup.

  Those who question the horse’s bravery and stamina, who doubt that he inherited his father’s bulldog determination, should have been at Caulfield on Yalumba Caulfield Stakes Day 2002.

  I travelled out to Caulfield that day to see Lonhro run against Sunline. The Caulfield Stakes that day was basically a match race between Sunline and Lonhro, with a few other pretty good horses like Republic Lass, Prized Gem, Distinctly Secret and Tully Thunder making up the numbers.

  It was a rematch in a sense. Two weeks earlier in Sydney, Lonhro had finished fourth, one place behind the mighty mare, in the George Main Stakes won by Defier. It was one of those races in which a small field produces an odd tempo and tactics. Defier, Excellerator and Shogun Lodge managed to keep Lonhro pocketed until it was too late to get out and chase effectively.

  Sunline was a freak; at seven she was as strong and robust a horse as I ever saw. She towered over most of her male counterparts and was fit and at her peak for the spring carnivals.

  Not many of the crowd seemed to be supporting Lonhro, just the Ingham family and a few others who had strayed south of the border for the spring racing.

  Lonhro proved that day that he had inherited his sire’s incredible will to win.

  Beadman moved Lonhro up onto the outside of Sunline as they rounded the big home bend at Caulfield and he was a half-length behind her when they straightened.

  The famously religious jockey appeared to have faith in his colt’s ability to run a metre faster per furlong than the mare at weight-for-age. He rode Lonhro out steadily and made ground on Sunline centimetre by centimetre. It was a two-horse war with the rest of the field forgotten, a true test of stamina, strength and courage between two champions, with neither horse giving in at any point and each stretched to the extreme. At the post it was a clear victory to the big black horse carrying the famous cerise colours.

  Perhaps Lonhro’s greatest victory was to come eighteen months later at what was his Melbourne farewell, the Australian Cup at Flemington.

  The sporting Melbourne crowd cheered him again and again that day as he came back to the winner’s stall having won a miraculous and memorable victory over the three horses Melbourne racegoers loved best at that time—Mummify, Elvstroem and Makybe Diva.

  After having his momentum stopped dead twice in the straight and being turned almost completely sideways, the ‘Black Flash’ pushed out, started up his big engine again, and made up impossible lengths in a hundred metres to run down a good three-year-old in Delzao at weight-for-age. In doing so, he also defeated that season’s VRC Derby winner, Elvstroem, the Caulfield Cup winner Mummify, and the Melbourne Cup winner Makybe Diva.

  Those who wish to find fault with his record of 26 wins from 35 starts might like to consider that his Group 1 winning strike rate of 64 per cent is the best ever recorded since the system began. His overall winning strike rate of 74 per cent is far better than that of Tulloch, Kingston Town and Phar Lap. Indeed it is second only to Carbine, arguably the greatest racehorse that ever breathed, and a horse who raced a century before Lonhro was born.

  It is true that Lonhro’s campaigns were well planned and orchestrated to get the best results. However, it is also true that he raced in an era of great racehorses, and he didn’t exactly avoid them!

  Lonhro raced against and defeated Sunline, Viking Ruler, Dash For Cash, Viscount, Shogun Lodge, Tie the Knot, Universal Prince, Magic Albert, Republic Lass, Freemason, Platinum Scissors, Grand Armee, Private Steer, Clangalang, Belle Du Jour, Elvstroem, Mummify and the great Makybe Diva.

  His progeny have already sold individually for more than $1 million and Denman, from his second crop, was the most exciting colt to be seen in Australia for years, before being sent to race in Dubai and Europe.

  Denman is named after the town in the Hunter Valley near Woodlands Stud, where Lonhro now stands as a stallion. In between his stud duties, the beautiful near-black horse often stands motionless, gazing off into the distance.

  Apparently Lonhro enjoys looking out across the upper reaches of the Hunter Valley. It’s a long way from Moonee Valley. Lonhro never liked Moonee Valley.

  CAVIAR TO THE GENERAL

  JIM HAYNES

  ‘She’s amazing, but I’m sick of looking at her bum!’

  That’s what Glyn Schofield said in response to being asked his opinion of Black Caviar, just after he had ridden the great sprinter Hay List to finish second to her, for the fourth time, at Group 1 level.

  It was the day the great mare equalled the record for successive race wins in Australia, in the Lightning Stakes of 2012.

  Hay List was a champion, fifteen times a winner from 28 starts, as good a sprinter as you would see in a decade and the best horse Glyn Schofield ever rode according to the jockey himself. But luck and timing can be cruel things in racing and Hay List will be forever remembered as the horse who wasn’t as good as Black Caviar. Still, that puts him in some pretty good company—because no horse was as good as Black Caviar. She was so good, in fact, that we didn’t really understand how good she was.

  We ‘ooohed and aaahed’ as she demolished fields made up of great sprinters such as Hay List, Buffering, Star Witness, Hot Danish, Crystal Lily, Karuta Queen, Epaulette and others, but few of us at the time realised what we were witnessing. There was nothing to compare her to, she was beyond the understanding of modern racegoers because she was so much better than any horse we had ever seen race.

  There is a scene in Hamlet where the troubled prince talks to an actor about a play he once saw the actor’s company perform. The play was wonderful, Hamlet remembers, but the general public didn’t realise how good it was. Hamlet says it was, ‘caviar to the general’, meaning far too good for the general public to realise its worth. That was Black Caviar, she was beyond superlatives and the phrases we used to describe champion racehorses before her were simply insufficient to describe her.

  She was, of course, undefeated in 25 starts, rated the world-champion sprinter four years in a row, the highest Timeform rated filly or mare in history. She broke Kingston Town’s Australian record by winning fifteen races at Group 1 level and smashed the long-standing Australasian record of nineteen successive wins, held jointly by Gloaming and Desert Gold. She also won several of her races with torn muscles and she recovered from a torn suspensory ligament injury sustained in her three-year-old season to win twenty more races at the ages of four, five and six.

  She also won most of her races being
eased down and she won her 25 races by an average distance of 3 lengths.

  A cursory glance at the great mare’s pedigree reveals the mighty sprinter Vain on both sides, and no less than four generations back, along with the great Northern Dancer–Nijinski–Royal Academy male line leading to her father, the ‘rather handy’ sprinter Bel Esprit. Through her female side Black Caviar was a cousin to the mighty Sunline, so it’s no wonder that Peter Moody happily paid a respectable $210,000 for her at the Melbourne Premier Yearling sale in 2008.

  Having been syndicated to a group of eight owners, mostly comprising members of the Wilkie family, the future champ appeared on a racetrack for the first time as a two-year-old filly in the autumn of 2009 and won a restricted handicap for her age at Flemington by 5 lengths. That seemed promising, so she was entered for the much tougher Blue Sapphire Stakes—and promptly won that by 6 lengths.

  After that result she was ‘put away’ to await the spring.

  As a three-year-old in the spring of 2009, with Luke Nolan replacing Jarrad Noske as her regular rider, she won three times over 1200 metres, including the Group 2 Danehill Stakes at Flemington and the Australia Stakes at Moonee Valley.

  Luke Nolan would go on to ride Black Caviar in every one of her races from that point, except the 2010 Patinack Classic when Nolan was serving a suspension and Ben Melham had the privilege of sitting on her broad back as she passed the winning post.

  Her three-year-old season was terminated early by a serious suspensory ligament injury, enough to send many a good filly with her breeding and record straight to the breeding barn. The Black Caviar syndicate were there to race, however; they had not designed their new salmon and black racing colours to hang in some display case with a photograph of a handy unbeaten filly.

  Produced as a four-year-old in the spring of 2010, she was no longer a ‘promising filly’ but a well-muscled mature mare standing 16.2 hands and ready to sprint against all-comers. After two warm-up wins at Group 2 level in the Schillaci Stakes at Caulfield and Schweppes Stakes at Moonee Valley, Black Caviar took out six Group 1 races in succession at racetracks from Flemington and Moonee Valley in the south to Randwick and Doomben further north. By the end of her four-year-old season the legend had been born, thirteen wins in succession and undefeated. We were all starting to count now.