Weekend Wisdom 5th June 2016

One Man’s Journey Through the Form

November 7th, 1972. Melbourne Cup day.

The racing industry had been enlisted as spearhead for the wider adoption of the metric system, and duly switched at season’s beginning on August 1st, making the ’72 edition the first over 3200m.

Australia was in the midst of the seminal “It’s Time” federal election campaign, while I was experiencing a seminal racing moment.

Sister Magdalen’s 2nd Class had conducted the sweep in the classroom. I drew Gunsynd, which by osmosis, I knew to be good horse. I was engaged!

Our class was ushered into the kindergarten extension to crowd around the AV equipment (the telly) to watch the 2.40 race with the rest of the infant’s school.

Gunsynd laboured heroically into 3rd place behind Piping Lane. The seeds of my intrigue with the thoroughbred racing game were sown.

Gala Supreme’s ’73 Cup win was something of a blur. I had tested the sweet Miss Neill’s patience all year with undone homework, and may have been ducking for cover.

A marvellous mare appeared in 1974 to capture the nation’s attention. Leilani, set to be immortalised as her trainer’s stable brand, brought a quartet of wins in the Turnbull, Toorak, Caulfield Cup and Mackinnon to her Melbourne Cup quest, only to be thwarted by her stablemate.

Finally, my burgeoning interest was piqued in 1975, days before “The Dismissal”. I figured on the Cummings-trained Holiday Waggon as the likely cup winner, only to be vexingly reassured by his second placing behind the same stablemate that had bested Leilani. Think Big.

J B Cummings consecutive quinellas were etched on my brain, while I also made note of my selection’s rider; J Duggan.

Some of my peers had been bragging of their tipping prowess. I thought it timely to investigate this sporting pursuit.

So, on a cricketless summer holiday Saturday, I fished out the racing liftout from my Dad’s newspaper, and sat at my desk to decode the form.

The Sydney races were to be conducted at Rosehill (no sign of any gardens).

I had a jockey (Duggan) and a trainer (Cummings), so the initial task was to identify my jockey’s mounts and my trainer’s runners. Clearly my interest would need to expand to motivate me to comprehend the other hieroglyphics the formguide seemed to contain.

Duggan had rides in races 1,2,3 and 5 and later 2 pickups in 7 and 8 when P. Cuddihy became indisposed

Cummings was without a starter on the card, I was unaware that he was considered an Adelaide trainer with a strong presence in Melbourne, just recently relocated to Sydney.

He was also runnerless at Sandown, but his stable jockey R. Higgins had two mounts. I was not tempted to follow H. White, despite his association with Cummings, given his alliance with the nemesis, Think Big.

At Eagle Farm, I determined to follow jockey G. Cook and trainer J. Griffiths.

I had picked my teams. I was ten years old.

I settled in to listen to the day’s proceedings on ABC local radio. Sport coverage was interspersed with Geoff Mahoney’s calls from Rosehill, Joe Brown from Sandown, and Larry Pratt from Eagle Farm.

Imagine my excitement when J Duggan rode the first three winners at Rosehill. Win dividends of $4.30, $1.50, and $2.15 seem paltry by today’s reckoning, but the 25 cent unit translated into odds of 16/1, 5/1 and 15/2.

I needed no further encouragement. I may not have backed these winners, but they were selections via my first rudimentary system.

My new found allegiances informed my racing involvement for most of 1976, my final year of primary school. Bear in mind that all encounters were conducted in newsprint and wireless broadcast. I had no visual understanding of my thoroughbred experience.

I followed the carnival action to Melbourne, particularly intrigued by Leilani’s comeback with Higgins onboard, and tortured by Duggan steering the enigmatic Taras Bulba to victories over her.

And bawling my eyes out when Geoff Mahoney described her break-down in the Tancred.

I was wowed by Desirable winning the Lightning as a 2yo, then going down to her stablemate, Out Of Danger, in the Blue Diamond.

By now I had a strong sense that T J Smith and C S Hayes were major adversaries of my chosen protagonist, J B Cummings.

Borne out when the “Shows” crossed the line together in the Newmarket; T.J.’s Toy nosing out J.B.’s Leica. And sweet revenge on the following Monday in the Australian Cup when Lord Dudley (J.B.) put paid to Ready O Ready (T.J.), who, despite being Leilani’s brother, resided in the enemy stable.

Then my first Slipper, featuring my favoured combo with Vivarchi, up against C. S. Hayes Desirable (6/4). I’m chaperoning my younger sister in the first game of her netball career, and forced to eavesdrop the description of Vivarchi making all, mentally delivering the 1976 version of the fist pump.

Interestingly, Warwick Farm’s Liverpool City Cup Day then interposed between the Rosehill and Randwick Carnivals. Moreover, the timely return to form in the Chipping Norton (then 2100m) of Leica Lover (J.B.), and the dominant performance of kiwi Oopik in a Sydney Cup leadup (Chairmans equivalent) clearly stimulated my nocturnal thoughts.

I dreamt the upcoming Easter features were taken out by Leica Lover (Doncaster) and Oopik (Sydney Cup). It is perhaps a testament to the depth of media coverage of racing that I considered unremarkable my familiarity with the carnival schedule despite my rookie status.

I persuaded my Dad to take a 25 cent Feature Double on the subjects of my reveries.

Leica Lover provided my earliest lesson that 2nd placing means you’re in the game. Of course Oopik’s leg was never in doubt.

My short introduction to the Turf had me proclaiming the depth of that Doncaster to be supremely elite. Misty eyes perhaps but nonetheless a memorable cohort.

More importantly, my predicted double spurred my first declaration. Just Ideal (Cummings/Duggan) was third-up into a 3-y-o race on Cup Day (Easter Monday), off a pair of Canterbury victories, and he looked the goods to my greenhorn eyes.

I importuned my dear Dad to head off to the local TAB, much to Mum’s abhorrence.

God bless you Just Ideal, your decisiveness made my day and my life.

$0.95 win, $0.40 place.

To be continued…

@justideal