The Trainers

 

Frank McGrath

 

“It is a game in which one can always go on learning. There are no rules which one can apply arbitrarily to all horses and leave it at that. Exacting, worrying and upsetting as horse training frequently is, all the same it more than has its compensations when one follows to completion a programme outlined, perhaps some months before.” Frank McGrath 1932

 

It is self-evident why Frank McGrath holds the mantle as being one of Australian racing’s great trainers. Spanning over a forty-year career, McGrath consistently showed himself to be exceptional. After the continuing brilliance of Amounis, his champion’s ephemeral stake earnings record fell the next season to Phar Lap’s astonishing success.  It made Amounis no less brilliant rather Phar Lap even more amazing. What was also amazing, it took McGrath only a few seasons before he had another champion in his stable. Race goers who had seen both Strephon and Phar Lap in action immediately recognised Australian racing would be blessed with yet another extraordinary stayer inside a four-year period: Peter Pan.  

 

A tall horse with chestnut colouring, blonde mane and tail, Peter Pan was an unbelievably striking horse before even setting foot on a race track.[i] He won his first Melbourne Cup in 1932 as a three-year-old colt. Peter Pan did not run the following year due to a near fatal virus only to win the 1934 Cup slogging nine stone ten pounds (nearly 62 kilos) two miles around Flemington on a saturated track. At the time, watching the top weight Peter Pan with champion hoop Darby Munro on board against a good field, slosh their way to a four length victory down the long Flemington straight, very few race goers could recall a more magnificent performance.  In doing so, Peter Pan became only the second horse, 72 years after Archer, to win a second Melbourne Cup.[ii]

 

The following year, Peter Pan broke Winooka and Closing Time’s Australasian mile record in the AJC All Aged Stakes. A four horse race with Jim Pike in the saddle against Keith Voitre on Hall Mark. Frank McGrath always maintained Peter Pan to be a better horse than Phar Lap. Jim Pike who had the fortune of riding Peter Pan, Phar Lap and Strephon most of the time gave the nod to Phar Lap. McGrath famously stated, “Peter Pan would have beaten Phar Lap from six furlongs to six miles. I studied Phar Lap, I trained Peter Pan.” [iii] Whatever the result, most race goers agree such a match would have been one of the greatest races of all time. 

 

Frank McGrath handed in his training licence in 1947 and passed away soon after at the age of 82. He trained the winner of 121 feature races and was inducted in 2003 to the Hall of Fame. Beyond his three Melbourne Cups and two Caulfield Cups, Randwick based McGrath ended up with three Epsoms, two Metropolitans, two Cantala Stakes, two AJC and two VRC Derbies, four Cox Plates, two Tattersall Cups, three Anniversary Handicaps, a Williamstown Cup, Doncaster Handicap.[iv]  One of the main reasons for McGrath’s respect and popularity among his fellow trainers and jockeys were his ongoing care and genuine contribution for the overall betterment of their lot. He helped found the Owners and Trainers Association in 1904 and remained active up until the time he retired from racing after World War Two. By any measure, Frank McGrath boasted an amazing career. He also boasted a good bank account, being one of Australia’s most successful punters.

Lou Robertson (1875 – 1955)

 

Lou Robertson started his career in New Zealand driving and training trotters. With the pacer Almont, Robertson broke the existing Australian mile record, Australasian two-mile record and smashed the existing three-mile world record in 1903 within a space of three weeks.[v] He trained the second winner of the New Zealand Cup, Birchmark, driven by his friend Dave Price. Robertson came to Australia in 1902 and won three Victorian driving premierships. At one stage he was training both standardbreds and thoroughbreds to equal success. A week after winning the 1915 Caulfield Cup with Lavendo, Lou Robertson was driving his pacers to victory at Richmond. He won a trainer’s premiership in 1928-29 when training champion Gothic and Strephon for Sol Green. Robertson won further premierships in the 1940’s.

 

In the 1935 Melbourne spring racing carnival, Lou Robertson achieved something truly extraordinary. After coming third in the Caulfield Cup with Marabou, he went on to train the winners of the Cox Plate (Garrio), VRC Derby (Feldspar), Melbourne Cup (Marabou), Oaks (Nalda) and Williamstown Cup – now the Zipping Classic (Garrio). It took until 2005 for any trainer to repeat this feat with Lee Freedman when Makybe Diva won her third Cup. 

 

Robertson was the first to admit, had he not gambled he probably would have died a wealthy man. His victories during the 1940’s and early 1950’s made him one of Australia’s best trainers, and one of racing’s most followed stables. Because it was known as the largest betting stable in Australasia, thousands around the nation followed Lou Robertson’s lead. His wins after 1930 include another VRC Derby (San Martin), Oaks and Newmarket (Three Wheeler), four VRC St Legers, five more Williamstown Cups, three more Futurity Stakes, three Sire Produce Stakes, two Caulfield Guineas, three more Caulfield Stakes and another Caulfield Cup with Lincoln in 1949. However, it was not all beer and skittles. Lou Robertson also endured the misfortune of having Lawrence go into the Melbourne Cup favourite three time and never start once. Every trainer’s worst nightmare, he had his Derby winner San Martin break a leg in the 1944 Melbourne Cup, Morse Code come third in 1950, crash in the home straight while winning in 1951 and there remained for months unanswered questions over Ron Hutchinson’s Morse Code’s ride in 1952.

 

Starting favourite, Morse Code was being backed for £750,000. After winning the Hotham Handicap before the Melbourne Cup, a Williamstown Cup and Eclipse Stake directly after the Cup, Hutchinson plodded Morse Code into fourth last. Just ahead of two 100/1 and a 200/1 horse.  Despite the Press and public screaming for an inquiry, it never eventuated.  Ron Hutchinson went on to become one of Australia’s greatest domestic and international jockeys. Unfortunately, this dubious 1952 ride of Morse Code, which prompted so much vitriol from the public and questions from the Press, was not one of his career high points.  

 

After five seconds and three thirds in the Melbourne Cup, with an ounce of luck Robertson could well have been one of Melbourne Cup’s most successful trainers. Scobie Breasley believed Lou Robertson to be a trainer on par with Vincent O’Brien.[vi] Robertson remained friends with Harry Telford throughout their lives. He often took care of Telford when the situation for his beleaguered friend was at its most desperate. When Robertson finally handed in his training licence in 1954, the VRC committee voted at their next meeting to award him the rare accolade of an honorary licence for his years of service to racing. Lou Robertson remained one of the most secretive, respected and gifted of trainers. He also remains one of the largest punters ever in Australian racing history having won and lost millions, in modern day value, over a very long career.  He died in 1955 and inducted into the Australian Hall of Fame 2004.   

 

Dave Price

 

Dave Price passed away on 6^th March 1944 at his son Bert’s residence after a long and debilitating illness. Racing lost one of its greatest horsemen and both Harry Telford and Lou Robertson one of their lifelong mates.

 

Dave Price’s second wife Elizabeth died in 1922. Their children moved to England some years earlier. Price retreated quietly from racing. Short of money, not being an unusual occurrence among old trainers, Dave Price sold his colourful memoirs to the “Sporting Globe” in 1939 who syndicated his stories to papers around the country. The death of Price highlights an aspect of training. D.J. Price was as good a horseman and trainer as Lou with both standardbreds and thoroughbreds. This fact is continually recognised by the racing community of the day with any reference to Price usually prefixed by, “…one of Australasia’s greatest horsemen.” But Dave Price demonstrates better than anyone just how fortunate Lou or many of the top flight trainers were to work with a constant run of great horses. Price certainly discovered how very tough training horses can be without those full resources behind you. Trainer of 1926 Melbourne Cup winner Spearfelt, and fellow New Zealander Vin O’Neill, like Lou Robertson and Harry Telford, knew just how exceptional Dave Price really was.

“Ask George Price, Stan Reid. Ron Cameron, George Jones, or any other racing man from the Dominion what he thinks of Dave Price? Like me, they will tell that he is the greatest man who ever saddled a horse. For his knowledge of a horse, how to get them fit, and how to place them, he has no superior. While for energy he can outstrip most men who are 20 years junior to him. And with all his wisdom, he has had long and irritating spells of bad luck, simply because the horses in his stable have not been good enough for the opposition.”[vii]

 

Despite Price training thoroughbred champions Machine Gun (held a five furlong record for years) and champion jumper Bribery,[viii] it will be his standardbred trio of Princess, Norice and the mighty Ribbonwood which he can be most proud. Whatever modern bias most Halls of Fame tend to favour, horsemen of the calibre of Dave Price cannot be discounted or worst still completely forgotten. The very purpose of these sporting institutions is to remember the likes of Dave Price. It is impossible to read about Dave Price and not understand just how revered he was among his peers.   

 

Pat Quinlan

 

Pat Quinlan was a remarkable athlete. A brilliant runner and cyclist, through his love of horses and gambling he gravitated to the racecourse. He was not an easy man to work with. The same disciplines that saw him so successful cycling or running were employed on his horses. They were also employed on his staff. But there is no doubting his dedication and his skill. Make no mistake, Pat Quinlan was a very good trainer. Here is another of these wonderful trainers that beg the question, why are they not in the Hall of Fame?

Tommy Woodcock

 

Woodcock was forced to return to Australia, along with Billy Elliott, when US Immigration did not allow them to be employed in the US on their visiting visa. Granted a training licence from the VRC in 1934, Woodcock had little success and started managing a farm out at the Melbourne eastern suburb of Ringwood. He resumed training after the war, winning the Australian Cup with the mare Knockarlow for the widow of the late George Bramall.[ix] Melbourne’s raincoat king. The horse wore Phar Lap’s bridal from the Agua Caliente victory. Knockarlow’s victory managed to attract some wealthy patrons for Woodcock, including Ansett Airline honcho Reg Ansett.  

 

 

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[i] Racing Hall of Fame bio

[ii] It would take another 35 years before Rain Lover repeated the feat. Amazingly, despite this being only the third horse to achieve this Melbourne Cup double, Rain Lover was not inducted into the Australian Hall of Fame until 13 years after its inception. Think Big achieved the double in 1975 and the amazing mare Makybe Diva becoming the only triple winner of the Cup in 2005. 

[iii] Racing Hall of Fame

[iv] Morning Bulletin 30 October 1947, page 7

[v] Oyster & the Wizard dp robertson

[vi] Voted best ever trainer by Racing Post in 2003. Breasley won the 1958 Eclipse Stakes on Ballymoss

[vii] The Mail, 1 May 1937, page 8

[viii] Winner of the 1907 Grand National Hurdle, Bribery won over £70,000 in bets (millions in today’s money) for bookie Barney Allen and good friend of Dave Price, thousands for Price himself, Eric Connolly and very likely Lou Robertson. Bribery was a huge horse and an unbelievably strong animal – Sporting Globe 20 November 1937, page 6

 

Winner 1907 Grand National Hurdle Bribery with rider Billy Williams, trained by Dave Price – The Leader

 

[ix] Melbourne’s raincoat king George Bramall died November 1945 – The Argus 21 November 1945 page 10