Best Australian Racing Stories

by Jim Haynes

  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.

&
nbsp; 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.

  The Hawk raced until he was 13 years old and successfully ‘raided’ the lucrative Australian carnivals as a five- and six-year-old, winning the Hill Stakes, All-Aged Stakes, Futurity Stakes, Lloyd Stakes, Caulfield Stakes, Challenge Stakes and Rawson Stakes, and the St George and Essendon Stakes twice each.

  It was in a memorable clash with The Hawk, aged six, in the Ormonde Gold Cup over a mile at Hastings in May 1925, that Gloaming ended his career at the age of nine. The only two other acceptors were scratched, so the two champions were involved in a match race at equal weights, both carrying 9 st 10 lb (62.5 kg).

  The Hawk led to the halfway mark and then the two raced head to head until Gloaming pulled away to win by a length. It was his eighth win in succession as a nine-year-old.

  Gloaming lived out his days on his owner’s property near Canterbury and was buried there—at a place now called Gloaming’s Hill—when he died in 1932. In one of those ‘spooky coincidences’ his trainer Dick Mason died the following week, and his owner, George Greenwood, several weeks later.

  Eurythmic (foaled 1916)

  While Desert Gold and Gloaming had ‘attacked’ the rich racing carnivals of Sydney and Melbourne from the east, the great champion Eurythmic made his attack from the west. Many old-timers still believe he is the best horse to ever be trained and owned in Western Australia, although Fred Kearsley, trainer of the great Northerly, would probably disagree.

  Eurythmic was bred at the Camyr Allyn Stud at Scone in New South Wales, and purchased as a yearling by Mr Lee-Steere, chairman of the West Australian Turf Club. His sire was the imported stallion Eudorus, a great-grandson of St Simon, and his dam was the Australian-bred mare Bob Cherry. Bob Cherry was a daughter of Bobadil, the champion three-year-old of his day and a grandson of St Simon. The mare was also a grand-daughter of Wallace on her dam side, and had Musket on both sides of her pedigree.

  No doubt the presence of St Simon, Musket and Carbine in Eurythmic’s pedigree was a big factor in Mr Lee-Steere’s decision not only to purchase the horse to race in Western Australia, but also to leave him ungelded. Eurythmic was to prove a remarkable champion, winning 31 of his 47 starts and being placed a further ten times. He also became the first horse to pass the stake-winning record set by his great-great-grandfather, Carbine.

  Sadly, Eurythmic failed to pass on his ability or that of his ancestors when retired to stud. On the racetrack, however, he was a champion of the highest order, being unplaced only six times, two of which were in the Melbourne Cup when he finished a gallant fourth at his first attempt and broke down at his second.

  In an odd way Mr Lee-Steere’s plan backfired. He purchased the colt to race in his home state of Western Australia. Eurythmic was so good, however, that he ran out of competition in the west and had to be brought back east to fulfil his potential.

  Trained by John Kelly, Eurythmic won ten of his 14 starts in Western Australia, including the WATC Derby, St Leger, Perth Cup and Osborne Stakes. He was then sent back east, to be trained by Jack Holt in Melbourne.

  Little attention was paid to the horse at first by Melbourne racing men, who considered Western Australian racing well below par. Eurythmic slipped under the radar and won the Memsie Stakes at 20 to 1. By the time he had easily won the October Stakes and Caulfield Stakes, however, it was a different matter and he was sent out, as the shortest-priced favourite ever, at 6 to 4, to win the Caulfield Cup. He then won the Melbourne Stakes before finishing fourth in the Melbourne Cup, behind Poitrel.

  He then won eight races in a row, starting with the CB Fisher Plate, in which he defeated Melbourne Cup winner Poitrel. His wins in Sydney included the Autumn Stakes, Cumberland Stakes and Sydney Cup, carrying a massive 9 st 8 lb (61 kg), and his champion status was confirmed when the VRC handicapper gave him 10 st 5 lb (66.5 kg) for the 1921 Melbourne Cup. This was the same weight carried to victory in 1890 by his illustrious forebear, the mighty Carbine.

  Eurythmic’s victories since coming east had been so emphatic and impressive that he was sent out as 5 to 1 favourite for the Cup, despite having to equal a weight-carrying record to win the big race.

  In racing there are days when your luck simply runs out, and it is doubly unfortunate if that day happens to be Melbourne Cup Day, as it was for the horse many called ‘the best from the West’.

  Eurythmic’s troubles began at the start when a strand of wire from the starting barrier caught his mouth, causing him to miss the start. Even so, he was galloping well and cruising into the race at the half-mile mark when he suffered severe interference, causing him to pull a muscle in his pastern. The champion limped home in last place as the three-year-old filly, Sister Olive, whose only other win had been as a two-year-old, led the field home to become only the fourth of her sex to win the mighty race in its 60-year history.

  Eurythmic’s jockey, W. McLachlan, always swore the horse would have won that day. When the interference occured McLachlan said that Eurythmic was ‘only cantering, and could have gone to the f
ront at any time’.

  While this claim can be dismissed as mere speculation, there is no doubting Eurythmic’s ability to carry weight and to stay. His win in the Sydney Cup is regarded as his greatest ever achievement, and he returned to racing in the autumn of 1922 and carried a massive 10 st 7 lb (67 kg) to victory in the Futurity Stakes. So who is to say that he might not have equalled Carbine’s record that day, had his luck not run out?

  Eurythmic’s record speaks for itself. He won quality races against great horses, including the Caulfield Stakes three years in a row, before retiring to stud aged six. He was, indeed, ‘the best from the West’.

  Heroic (foaled 1921)

  The mid-1920s was an age of great stayers. There were champions like Gloaming, Windbag, Spearfelt, The Hawk and Manfred racing over distance, as well as good horses like Lilypond, Pilliewinkle, Purser and the tough old stayer David.

  These last two horses were part of the supporting cast in the curtain raiser to this great era. It began at the Sydney Autumn Carnival, Easter 1923, the day that David won the Sydney Cup.

  The final race that day was the Highweight Handicap and one of the runners was the Melbourne horse Purser. The well-named gelding, by Sea Prince out of Paper Money, had won the Moonee Valley Cup and the Warrnambool Cup and had twice been placed in the Caulfield Cup. His chances at Randwick that day, however, seemed rather forlorn. In a field of 29 runners he had to carry the huge top weight of 11 st 3 lb (71 kg), his best days appeared to be behind him and he had not won a race for over six months.