“Even if I could, I would not change my chosen career for anything.” Frank McGrath Townsville Bulletin, 2 November 1932
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Trainer Harry Telford entered centre stage from racing's wilderness as an honest battler with a once in a lifetime horse. Even before Amounis set foot onto Caulfield racecourse in October 1930, trainer Frank McGrath had enjoyed three decades of universal respect as a leading light in Australasian racing. Born in the small New South Wales town of Boorowa* in 1865, Frank McGrath had an upbringing not too dissimilar to fellow trainer Lou Robertson in as much as both their fathers were blacksmiths and part-time horse trainers. Both trainers benefited greatly from their father’s extensive farrier work and were seen as experts when it came to shoeing, the general welfare of their horse’s hooves and bandaging of pasterns. Also like Lou Robertson and most of the trainers of this era before motorcars, Frank McGrath was on a horse before he could walk. Preparing Amounis for another crack at the Caulfield Cup must have brought back memories for the old trainer. The same race almost killed him 45 years earlier.
* 230 Kilometres south-west of Sydney, south of Cowra
Frank McGrath, like many trainers, started his racing life as an apprenticed jockey. McGrath rode his first winner, Killarney, at Gullen and became a very serviceable jockey. First joining John Allsop’s Randwick stable in 1882, then shifting to Teddy Keyes and on to the prominent Hunter Valley owner-trainer Jack Mayo. After coal and cattle, around the start of the 20th century, many people were employed in the area's burgeoning horse industry. Mayo owned 1903 Melbourne Cup and 1904 Sydney Cup winner, Lord Cardigan. Mayo brought his team of horses down to Melbourne in 1885 for the spring carnival with young Frank McGrath, his stable elect.
Racing has witnessed many terrifying and tragic accidents but few compare with the mayhem to unfold in 1885 Caulfield Cup. The ensuing carnage was in large part due to 41 horses starting on such a narrow course. Frank McGrath walked Prince Imperial out on the track and around to the starting line. Jack Mayo backed Prince Imperial heavily for the Melbourne Cup with no intention of running him at Caulfield. In stepped one of the most powerful bookies in Australia, Joe Thompson, affectionately referred to as, “The King of the Ring”. On this particular day, this king was facing financial ruin from his exposure to the Caulfield Cup. Desperate, Thompson landed on the idea of offering Jack Mayo £20,000 to £500 incentive on Prince Imperial to run.* Mayo accepted. Waiting for the starter, Frank McGrath looked apprehensively up and down the line. This was by far the biggest field he ever started in and on a notoriously tight, often slippery Caulfield track, it was never going to be easy for any rider or horse to navigate.** Trackside, spectators could feel the growing vibrations rise up through the ground as the huge field thundered past them into the Caulfield straight. Then it happened. The scene suddenly transformed before their eyes into a slow motion train wreck.
* Huge backing emerged for Lord Wilton and the New Zealand colt Winchester with Tom Brown, St. Lawrence and Welcome Jack all making Thompson just as apprehensive. -Casino and Kyogle Courier and North Coast Advertiser, 1 October1921
* It was the second largest field ever to start in Australia up to that point – Traralgon Record 23 October 1885
After, the VATC was quick to point out their course was in perfect condition and this horrible accident was unavoidable. Stating the first horse fell from tangling its legs, therefore this dreadful moment would have occurred even if the field were half the size. Those witnessing this sickening pileup of twisted and injured horses and jockeys playing out in front of them were not quite so sure. Especially when noted, after 16 horses came down on a track narrower and tighter than Flemington, the field was still larger than a modern day Melbourne Cup. Too Too went to the front, Claptrap to her left on the rails and the stallion Sardius on her right. Horses began crowding the rails when those three horses fell, causing a chain reaction. Behind them, Lord Exeter veered wildly losing his rider but not his feet. Although the horse escaped serious injury, sadly his jockey Don Nicholson would not be so fortunate.* A spectator managed to drag Nicholson’s near lifeless body out from beneath an injured horse but he died while being carried to the jockey’s room for medical attention. In all, 16 horses were caught and countless jockeys injured from crushed chests, broken noses, legs and arms. Young McGrath lay near death in the hospital for a few days, senseless with a fractured skull, and miraculously recovered. Amazingly, and mercifully, very few horses were killed or badly injured. Unfortunately McGrath's mount, Prince Imperial died shortly after the accident.
* The Argus 19 October 1885
** Smith Weekly 19 July 1919
It took Frank McGrath another six months before resuming his career and won the 1886 AJC Epsom on Zeno.* When later questioned by the press about what had happened at Caulfield that day, McGrath never spoke about the incident again. Partly because he couldn’t remember anything but mainly from the pain it caused both physically and emotionally for the remainder of his life. So many friends injured, but particularly the tragic death of Lord Exeter’s jockey Donald Nicholson from internal injuries.**
* Zeno comes down the line of one of Eclipse’s lesser known sire lines of Joe Andrews-Dick Andrews and then the two Doncaster Cup winners, Tramp (1814) and his son Lottery (1825) to Sheet Anchor – Weatherbit to Kelpie imported into Victoria in 1859. It proved a handy sire producing Kingfisher (1877 Sydney Cup), Metropolitan Stakes winners Secundus (1879) and The Gem (1883) and relevant to this bloodline Fireworks, winner of the 1867 VRC and AJC Derby, Champagne Stakes and 1868 VRC St Leger. Fireworks sired 1874 St Leger and 1875 Metropolitan winner Goldsborough which sired Zeno.
** Smith Weekly 19 July 1919
McGrath found a patron in James Wilson from the famed St. Albans Stud on the Bellarine, out from Geelong, heading towards the lovely bayside town of Indented Head. Later, his patrons would include fractious Newcastle coal baron, the odious John Brown. Should there ever be a prize for the least likeable racehorse owner, the field would of course be more crowded than the 1885 Caulfield Cup field. Yet even in that hotly contested field of wealth and entitlement, Mr. John Brown could still attract short odds among his cavalcade of discarded trainers and jockeys, to being voted the most detestable prick of all. There is hardly a positive word said of him and many a story signposts his unsavoury character and just how unforgiving he was to either train or ride for.
*He ran his horses under the nom de course "J.Baron"
Despite having to deal with John Brown’s volatile idiosyncrasies, Frank McGrath believed he had control of the situation training Prince Foote to victory in both the 1909 AJC and VRC Derbies. McGrath realised he probably had one of the best three year olds in Australian turf history and was as confident as a trainer could be of him winning the Melbourne Cup. He proceeded to do what any trainer would have done at this point and loaded up the bets for himself and his friends. He was set to make a killing when the non-betting John Brown came into the stables with all the welcoming presence of Darth Vader. As the temperature plummeted, Brown took a quick look at his prized colt and told McGrath not to run him in the Melbourne Cup. Frank McGrath could feel the blood drain from his body. Resisting an overwhelming urge to scream, he calmly attempted talking his patron out of his sudden, mercurial change of heart. After the trainer's third attempt persuading someone with a personality pitched between Scrooge and the Grim Reaper to let the horse run, by miracle John Brown relented. Prince Foote ran and won the 1909 Melbourne Cup.* McGrath and his friends made a fortune and it put him on the road to training glory. He would eventually win two more Cups with Peter Pan in 1932 and again in 1934.
* Referee 15 November 1934
This Melbourne Cup with Prince Foote displays a couple of Frank McGrath hallmarks. An ability to sway his owners and the respect they obviously held for his opinion, even some crusty old megalomaniac like John Brown. Also, his skill to set a horse and willingness to plunge huge amounts behind a horse he favoured. McGrath would repeat this time and again and remained one of the canniest punters among his trainer fraternity. When Billy Pearson chose Frank McGrath, he had known him for some considerable time and trusted him. McGrath ended up doing most of the business and many of the betting transactions for Billy Pearson. The trio of Pearson, McGrath and Amounis would turn out to be a very lucrative partnership.
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