Best Australian Racing Stories (12 page)

Then in the distance I could hear their hooves thudding on the hard dry ground as the field swung towards the furlong pole, and I could see a tall black horse skimming along the rails with a golden chestnut close behind him, and the rest 10 lengths away. And then I became a cold stone statue, and the world a place where nothing seemed to focus.

Then a smashing blow hit me between the shoulder blades, and an Irish voice roared joyously, ‘By the holy saints, it's Firecracker! It's the feckless loon himself, so help me Bob!'

Lonhro never liked Moonee Valley

JIM HAYNES

‘A
ND 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 crawling endlessly along Alison Road, then turned his head for a last long look across the wide expanses of Royal Randwick towards the NSW University buildings to the south.

On nine of the 11 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 prize money 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 Grand Armee, a very good horse trained by Gai Waterhouse, which 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 firsthand 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 one and a half 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 which saw him start favourite.

Lonhro returned to racing 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.'

Lonhro 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 17 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 he ever started on at which he never won a race. His two starts there were perhaps among the worst three or four performances of his career—although a sixth and third in the Cox Plate are not bad for ‘worst ever' performances.

He carried 57.5 kg top weight 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 Melbourne Cups.

Those who question the horse's bravery and stamina, who doubt that he inherited his father's bulldog determination, should have been at 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 very 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.

Jorrocks the ‘Iron Gelding', our first popular champion racehorse. (Courtesy of Dianna Corcoran/AJC)