Best Australian Racing Stories (5 page)

Sol Green was born into a poor Jewish family in London and was apprenticed to the royal upholsterer as a lad. When he discovered how little his master made, he decided there had to be more to aim for in life and he set off for Australia at 15, travelling fourth class to Melbourne with sixpence in his pocket. He slept in old boilers on the docks and bought and sold anything he could get his hands on. Eventually he became the biggest bookmaker in Victoria and one of Australia's wealthiest men, with massive real estate holdings in Melbourne and rural areas.

Sol Green never forgot his humble origins. He gave enormous amounts of money to charities, established a housing estate for ex-servicemen and a children's playground in South Melbourne, and constantly donated large sums to Melbourne's public hospitals.

Green's popularity was one reason for the public support of his imported champion, Comedy King. The handsome black galloper won the Caulfield Futurity as a three-year-old before going on to win six times from 12 starts at four, including the AJC Spring Stakes and Autumn Stakes in Sydney and the St George Stakes, Essendon Stakes, All-Aged Stakes and Melbourne Cup in his home town. He returned at five to win the Eclipse Stakes before finishing a gallant fifth in his second Melbourne Cup, lumping a massive 9 st 7 lb (60.5 kg).

At stud Comedy King continued to make his mark in Australian racing history. He sired two Melbourne Cup winners, King Ingoda and Artilleryman, and many other useful stayers, like the immortal Shadow King who started in six Melbourne Cups for two seconds, two thirds, a fourth and a sixth. His grand-daughter Witty Maid was the mother of Comic Court, who won the Melbourne Cup for Jim Cummings in 1950, and his son Artilleryman was perhaps the best racehorse ever foaled in Australia.

Artilleryman (foaled 1916)

Bred by legendary bookmaker Sol Green at Shipley Stud in Victoria, Artilleryman was purchased for 1000 guineas at the stud dispersal sale by well-known grazier and businessman Sir Samuel Horden.

His dam was the well-bred New Zealand mare Cross Battery, who had Carbine's sire Musket and the great imported sire Fisherman on her sire's side and was a great-grand-daughter of the unbeaten Melbourne Cup winner Grand Flaneur on her dam side.

Reputed to be the best-looking horse ever to race in Australia, the headstrong brown colt's wins at three years old included the 1919 AJC Derby, Caulfield Guineas, Memsie Stakes, CB Fisher Stakes and Melbourne Cup. He dead-heated in the AJC Derby with Richmond Main, a son of his sire's contemporary Prince Foote, and ran second to that colt in the VRC Derby after pulling fiercely throughout the race. In the Melbourne Cup, however, Artilleryman settled the matter of who was the superior racehorse by defeating Richmond Main by 6 lengths at equal weights. He then completed his three-year-old season by taking out the 1920 St George Stakes, Governors' Stakes, King's Plate and St Leger Stakes in Melbourne and the Rawson Stakes in Sydney.

While being spelled, Artilleryman developed a growth on a hind leg and thickening of his veins, but he was still sent out as a 12 to 1 on favourite for the St Leger in Sydney. In a boil-over he ran second to Millieme and then failed in the Sydney Cup and the All-Aged Stakes. It was obvious to vets that the horse had an enormous growth or cancer internally, and this proved to be true when he suddenly haemorrhaged and died in January 1921.

Poitrel (foaled 1914)

The year after Artilleryman's Melbourne Cup win the great race was won by another popular champion in Poitrel, carrying 10 st (63.5 kg), which places him behind Carbine and Archer as the third-greatest Cup-winning weight carrier. Poitrel was bred and owned by the Moses brothers of Arrowfield Stud, who had sold Poseidon to Sir Hugh Denison. Luckily for the brothers Poitrel failed to reach his reserve at the 1916 Easter Sales and the brothers reluctantly decided to race him themselves. He went on to win 17 of 37 starts, although his career was blighted by brittle hooves.

Poitrel was sired by St Alwyne, a son of the English champion performer and sire, St Frusquin, who was by St Simon. St Alwyne was imported by the Moses brothers and brought more of the wonderful St Simon blood into Australia.

Poitrel failed in three races as a two-year-old but managed three wins from just five starts at three. It was as a four- and five-year-old that he claimed a unique record in Australasian racing history—when he beat the great New Zealand mare Desert Gold in record time in the Spring Stakes and, in winning the same race again at five, he defeated Gloaming, who jointly held the Australasian record of 19 consecutive wins with Desert Gold. Poitrel also won the Cumberland Stakes and AJC Plate at four, real staying races.

Poitrel then won a string of weight-for-age races and ran a close second to Kennaquhair in the Sydney Cup with 9 st 9 lb (61 kg) in an Australasian record time for 2 miles of 3 minutes 22.75 seconds. The two horses dead-heated in the AJC Spring Stakes that year, giving Poitrel his third win in that race, and he also won the AJC Plate again before heading for Melbourne for the first time, as a six-year-old, to take on the great Western Australian champion Eurythmic in the Melbourne Stakes and Melbourne Cup.

Eurythmic had arrived in Melbourne from Western Australia and won the Memsie Stakes, October Stakes, Caulfield Stakes and Caulfield Cup, all in a row! He made it five in a row in Victoria, and nine straight wins, in the Melbourne Stakes, with Poitrel finishing third behind Greenstead. Poitrel also finished behind Eurythmic again later, running second to him in the CB Fisher Plate. Between the two defeats, however, Poitrel won the one that mattered, outstaying Erasmus, Comedy Queen and Eurythmic to win the Melbourne Cup with 10 st (63.5 kg).

Poitrel's last start was another dead heat for first, this time with John Brown's good stayer Richmond Main, in the Rawson Stakes at Rosehill. At stud Poitrel was a moderate success, the best of his sons being Belgamba, who won three St Legers.

Apart from his great record as a dour stayer, Poitrel is remembered as being the conqueror of three absolute champions of his era— Desert Gold, Gloaming and Eurythmic.

The Melbourne and Sydney spring and autumn racing carnivals had been attracting ‘raiders' from New Zealand, as well as the neighbouring colonies or states of Tasmania and Queensland, for decades.

In the 1880s the amazingly versatile Malua had arrived from Tasmania to win not only the Melbourne Cup at 2 miles, but also the Newmarket Handicap at 6 furlongs and the Grand National Hurdle over 3 miles! The great Queenslander Le Grand, winner of 13 races from 21 starts, raced successfully in Sydney and Melbourne, winning the AJC Derby in 1883 and the VRC Champion Stakes in 1884.

New Zealand horses had been making the trip across the Tasman for many decades, and prizemoney was much better in Australia. New Zealand's rich limestone soil and cooler climate produced great horses, notably stayers. We need look no further than the two greatest of all time, Carbine and Phar Lap, to prove the point. But one of the first Kiwi raiders to storm our shores was a flying filly who won hearts wherever she went.

Desert Gold (foaled 1912)

Desert Gold, the first horse to string together a remarkable 19 victories in Australasia, was New Zealand bred, owned and trained.

At two she won at her first four, starts in the Great Northern Foal Stakes, Royal Stakes, Manawatu Sires Produce Stakes and the North Island Challenge Stakes, but ran second in the Great Northern Champagne Stakes.

It was her last start as a two-year-old, the Hawke's Bay Stakes of May 1915, which began her amazing sequence of 19 successive wins. As a three-year-old, Desert Gold won 14 races and she remained unbeaten until age four, when she came up against a two-year-old named Kilflinn in the North Island Challenge Stakes of April 1917. At three she won the Hawke's Bay Guineas, New Zealand Derby and Oaks, Great Northern Derby, Oaks and St Leger.

When she came to Australia at five she defeated the best Australian horses at weight for age. She suffered her first defeat in Australia at the hands of Poitrel in the Spring Stakes over a mile and a half. She won the All-Aged Stakes in Sydney and the St George Stakes in Melbourne and carried top weight of 9 st 6 lb (60 kg) in the 1918 Melbourne Cup, finishing eighth behind Wakeful's son Night Watch, carrying 6 st 9 lb (42 kg).

Back in New Zealand, when she was a six-year-old, she defeated the three-year-old Gloaming—who was later to equal her record of 19 straight wins—when he missed the start in the Taranaki Stakes in 1919. However, the two later met four times and each time Gloaming won.

Desert Gold retired to the Okawa Stud, where she had been bred, and her daughters and grand-daughters produced many winners, among them the brilliant Gold Rod
,
a champion sprinter-miler in New Zealand in the 1930s, who also won the Epsom and Don-caster Miles at Randwick in Sydney.

Desert Gold raced through the dark days of World War I and brought some joy into the gloomy war years for New Zealanders and Australians. Her amazing sequence of wins was followed eagerly in the press by two nations for whom anything but war news was a blessed relief.

With an overall record of 36 wins, 13 seconds and four thirds from 59 starts, Desert Gold's win rate stands at 61 per cent, and her amazing place rate at 90 per cent. Both of these strike rates are very close to those of another legendary New Zealand mare of a later era, Sunline.

While Desert Gold was New Zealand bred, her sire, All Black, was imported from Britain, and her dam, Aurarius, was Australian bred, being a daughter of the great sire Maltster and a granddaughter of Wallace. This meant that Desert Gold had both Carbine and St Simon on her dam side and Galopin on both sides of her pedigree.

In the case of Gloaming, who took over her mantle as New Zealand's favourite horse, Australia can claim the honour of having at least bred the champion. He was owned and trained in New Zealand, however, and returned to plunder the rich races in the land of his birth.

Gloaming (foaled 1915)

Gloaming was bred at the Melton Stud in Victoria but his bloodlines were all British—both sire, The Welkin, and dam, Light, were imported. His pedigree is interesting as he was inbred, to the great Galopin, on his sire side, and to no less than three good horses— Sterling, Rosebery and Bend Or—on the dam side.

He was purchased for a mere 230 guineas by New Zealander George Greenwood and shipped over to New Zealand to be trained by Dick Mason. He became shin sore at two, so he was gelded and turned out. At three he showed enough promise to be shipped back across the Tasman to begin his racing career in the Chelmsford Stakes in Sydney. He won the race by 8 lengths in record time and then won the AJC Derby at his second start.

In a truly remarkable career, Gloaming raced from age three until he was nine—even today that would be outstanding but in the 1920s it was unheard of. He started 67 times, won 57 times and ran second nine times. His only unplaced result came in the North Island Challenge Stakes at three, when he managed to get his head tangled in the starting wires and fell, taking no part in the race. So, it is true to say that Gloaming ran first or second in every race he ever contested.

The accident probably occurred in an attempt to anticipate the rise of the barrier wires. The horse had done the same thing several starts previously in the Taranaki Stakes over 6 furlongs, but had untangled himself and chased down the field to run second. Unfortunately for Gloaming's connections two factors stopped him winning a remarkable victory that day. Firstly the race was over the short sprint distance of 6 furlongs, giving Gloaming little time to catch the field, and secondly he was racing against the great mare Desert Gold, in the twilight of her career, and she held on to win by a neck. Gloaming defeated the great mare on four subsequent occasions.

Gloaming returned to Sydney every year (he reputedly crossed the Tasman 15 times!) but bled as a five-year-old, became too sick to train at six, and suffered a minor injury in training at eight, so he only raced in Australia at three, four, seven and nine. His record on this side of the Tasman was 14 starts for nine wins and five seconds, and it took great horses like Poitrel, Heroic and Beauford to deny him more victories. On the occasions when he was fit enough to race in Sydney, he not only won the AJC Derby, Chelmsford Stakes and Hill Stakes, he also won the Craven Stakes three times, defeating his old rival Beauford on the last occasion. He started once only in his birthplace state of Victoria, winning the 1924 Melbourne Stakes, at the age of nine, at his last start in Australia, but he did an exhibition gallop before the Cox Plate and was paraded before the 1924 Melbourne Cup.

The gallant bay gelding began his amazing run of 19 straight victories with the first of his three Craven Stakes wins in Sydney at age four; the other 18 wins were all in New Zealand, and the sequence ended when he ran second at his attempt to win a fourth successive Islington Plate at age six. Gloaming was defeated that day by the good young miler Thespian, who broke the race record in winning and was beaten out of a place behind Gloaming at his next start. The 19 wins were over distances ranging from 4 furlongs to 12 furlongs. Distance didn't mean a lot to Gloaming: he was as effective over a mile and a half as he was over half a mile.

In what would be considered a completely ‘upside down' racing career today, he had begun racing at three by winning over 9 furlongs and then at a mile and a half, and then won twice over 4 furlongs at age five!

It is easy to disparage Gloaming's record by saying that New Zealand racing provided easy pickings for the talented galloper. Perhaps the depth of racing was not great on the Shaky Isles during his career, but the truth is that he had to race against two of the greatest New Zealand gallopers of all time in Desert Gold and The Hawk, as well as good younger horses like Thespian, and great Australian champions like Poitrel and Eurythmic, in what was a golden age of racing.

The Hawk, another legendary New Zealand galloper, started 136 times for a record of 32 wins, 18 seconds and 20 thirds. He was by the locally bred New Zealand sire Martian from an imported mare, Sparrow Hawk. Ironically, however, Martian carried all English bloodlines while Sparrow Hawk was a great-grand-daughter of New Zealand bred Carbine, as well as the great St Simon.