“As a conditioner of thoroughbreds, Lou Robertson is without peer, his skill in handling them something to be admired. He is the greatest horsemaster I have encountered in 55 years of turf life.” Trainer D.J. Price 1939
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From a distance, people could always pick out Lou Robertson at the racecourse. A wiry six footer, he was often spotted with hands almost resting behind his hips, while looking down, addressing his diminutive young jockeys and strappers. Among his friends, he was quick to laugh, incredibly perceptive and knew as much about a horse as anyone in Australia. Among bookies and particularly the press, he was referred to as, “The Oyster” for his silence. The press hated him, bookies feared him. Not only was Hall of Fame inductee, Lou Robertson one of Australia’s greatest ever trainers, he was also one of racing’s most feared gamblers. His orchestrating of betting plunges legendary and invariably deadly. Apart from his own considerable skills, Robertson went through racing with two secret weapons. One being his close friendship with Eric Connolly. The other, his older brother Andrew, with whom he created a formidable combination. Nearly every winning horse trained by Lou Robertson was in some way connected to Andrew having imported, chosen or helped breed.
Born in Brightwater, south of Nelson, New Zealand, Lou Robertson began driving trotters competitively when only eleven years old. Winning his first race at 12, he later moved to Palmerston North at 18, setting up his training facilities in nearby Feilding. Before emerging as one of Australia’s greatest ever thoroughbred trainers, few realised he had previously carved out a successful 30 year career in harness racing. By the time he switched codes completely in 1915, many considered Robertson one of Australasia’s best trainer/drivers of standardbreds. Winning three driver premierships in Victoria, a New Zealand Cup and by the time he commenced training thoroughbreds full time, still held the three mile harness racing world record that he achieved in 1903.*
* Robertson broke it with Almont in 1903 at John Wren’s Ascot.
His father James, a Scottish born blacksmith taught all his sons the trade, especially how to be a skilled farrier. This knowledge proved invaluable. Lou Robertson became known for his very individual training and selective feeding of his horses. It has been often stated that he ran possibly the cleanest and most beautiful purpose built stables in Australia. He also ran one of the smallest yet most powerful betting stables. Individually training each horse, Robertson was a master at placing his horses into the correct race. He also spoke incessantly to his horses, as did Jack Holt and Frank McGrath. If Doctor Doolittle trained horses he could well be Lou Robertson for he was known for his extraordinary ability to connect with horses by his constant chatter. His horses were treated almost like pets. In stark contrast, the press was treated like leprosy and most other members of the human race could hardly prise a syllable out of him.
“The Oyster” enjoyed training on a private racecourse, allowing him to organise terrifyingly large plunges away from the prying eyes of the press and bookies and usually in close consultation with Eric Connolly. Lou Robertson first met Connolly soon after taking over the management of Allendale Stock Farm, Mentone in 1902, for furniture kings Allen and George Tye. By this stage, Robertson was already a seasoned gambler. First gambling to save his own family when his father lost their Marlborough farm in the 1890’s Depression and was, in Lou’s words, “Left without a match.”* In organising betting plunges, Lou had a growing reputation for inconsistent running.
* Sporting Globe 1954
While Lou Robertson and Eric Connolly became close friends, he was an even closer and longer friend with horseman Dave Price. Possibly one of his few equals when it came to both trotting and thoroughbred training. In 1908, Eric Connolly and Dave Price were assisting Robertson at Allendale. All three men were greatly influenced in their bloodstock selections by Andrew Robertson. Lou Robertson influenced Connolly with regards swimming their horses, training methods and giving him a greater understanding of shoeing and bandaging horses. He was also a master chemist and Connolly lent heavily on his friend’s knowledge when it came to assisting with magic potions and elixirs. Most importantly to this story, both Eric Connolly and Dave Price were central in convincing Lou Robertson to shift his focus away from trotters to thoroughbreds for greater gambling opportunities and more lucrative betting plunges. At that stage, Robertson was dominating Melbourne harness racing.
Lou Robertson first applied to the Victoria Racing Club for a full training licence in early 1908 and needed some thoroughbreds to train. For the next five years Robertson, like Dave Price, started dividing his time between training standardbreds with an increasing number of thoroughbreds entering his stable. His growing involvement with Eric Connolly, and subsequent size of their betting plunges were becoming very distinct from an Allendale betting fund, which helped with day to day expenses of running the farm. Soon Robertson’s betting from 1910 onwards with Connolly, grew to a point where few had little comprehension as to the scope of their gambling. In their relatively short acquaintance, Robertson and Eric Connolly began wreaking havoc among bookies in both harness and thoroughbred racing. While Lou Robertson became more expert in the art of the betting plunge, by this stage Connolly was already Michelangelo.
Early in 1909, skilled as Lou Robertson was as a trainer of standardbreds, his innate knowledge of horses, diet, physiology, conditioning and general training, he still required assistance from both Dave Price and particularly Eric Connolly to successfully transition to thoroughbreds. After Connolly won the 1904 Grand National Steeplechase with The General, the horse became unsound. Connolly had written his horse off. Robertson felt this may have been a little premature. He nursed him back into training by adopting the novel approach of putting The General in harness. Slowly conditioning him while driving him around Mentone as a buggy horse. Once decided The General could stand another preparation, Connolly and Robertson began secretly training him.
Robertson worked The General for the next ten months in complete privacy before racing him in a steeplechase at Williamstown in August of 1910. By then, The General was all but forgotten by the press, public and particularly the bookies. Having won the 1904 Grand National Steeplechase as a five year old, he was now eleven. Starting 20-1, the pair’s money began pouring in and very soon those odds shortened considerably, as it transpired, not as dramatically as they should have. Even as the plunge became more obvious, bookies remained unconcerned. The General was now a little long in the tooth to be going two and a quarter miles over jumps. Also, he was being looked after by a trotting trainer; albeit a very successful one. When the barrier went up The General was showing 6-1 behind the 3-1 favourite Edward Manifold’s The Squirm. The General cantered home by eight lengths (nearly 25 metres) and the pair picked up a bundle. Lou and Eric Connolly were to repeat this for the next thirty years.
The Referee noted in 1912, “…that smart trainer E.A. Connolly is Robertson’s guide, philosopher and friend.”* Through his country connections, Connolly helped persuade his friend to purchase Wingarara from Victoria and Southern Riverina Pastoralist Associations President, John Campbell for 95 guineas. They then replicated what Connolly did with The General in 1904 and Dave Price successfully achieved with Bribery in 1907; Lou Robertson and Eric Connolly would turn the five year old stayer Wingarara into a hurdler. Or in this case, a gold mine.**
* Referee 10 July 1912
** Bred at Dungalear Station at Walgett in the wilds of Northern New South Wales, this gelding hid a brilliant bloodline. Wingarara was sired by hurdler Moravian, which in turn comes from 1891 Melbourne Cup winner Malvolio. The real ace in the bloodline was Malvolio’s sire, 1884 Melbourne Cup winner, Malua. Considered one of the best and most versatile race horses in all of racing history, Malua won from as little as five furlongs to over three miles. But most important, he also won a Grand National Hurdle in 1889.
All the while Robertson trained Wingarara, the two men planned their assault. When the 1912 Grand National Hurdle was approaching, Wingarara was flying extremely low under the radar of bookies, handicappers, press and public alike. Another Lou Robertson ploy, to be used time and again would see his promoting a more fancied stablemate. In this case, Merry Monarch, to increase the odds while deflecting focus away from the plunge. In the meantime, Wingarara’s form before the Grand National was nothing short of abysmal.
Only a month before the Grand National he came a poor second at Mentone and looked as if he would struggle to even finish the race. This of course threw his odds out to the horizon where the conniving pair happily fetched as many wagers as they could. Wingarara started one of the lightest weights in the race's history. His price hovered around a very tantalising 10 to one in the ring despite Connolly and Robertson doing their level best to lower those odds still further. The race started at a cracking pace and continued that way for the next two miles until the field gave the impression they were wading through a bog. One top weight horse after another almost ran to a standstill, which made Wingarara’s victory in record time all the more amazing. Running neck and neck over the last jump with Lion and Uxbridge, only to cruise home when the others ran out of puff in the mud.* Needless to say the vocal crowd was less than pleased with this result. Apart from the considerable amount of money Lou Robertson and Eric Connolly collected, the average punter had all but ignored the horse.
* The Grand National Hurdle is now over 4,300 metres (about a 1,100 metres longer than the Melbourne Cup) although in 1912, it was a real test of endurance at three miles long or nearly 5,000 metres. Whatever the distance, there is a one certainty, your horse is going to have to be made of metal to compete.
This win remains a fork in the road in Robertson’s professional life as it marks the beginning of his career as most racing historians would know it. It also represents the first huge betting win these two constructed together. This victory proved Lou Robertson could be a successful trainer of thoroughbreds. However, the gratification of the win paled next to the financial windfall. In 1912 the average worker in Victoria was being paid approximately three pounds a week. You could buy a good house for less than £400. How much Wingarara propelled Lou Robertson’s fortunes was revealed through a newspaper article a few years later when Robertson was pinged by the Taxation Department for under declaring his income.*
* A good part of a Robertson’s income came from betting. Nearly all the trainers of this era bet to survive with only a few thriving and even then it was a fluctuating and often precarious income. Robertson substantially under declared his personal income on his 1916, 1917 and 1918 returns. In the proceedings, the subject of Wingarara’s popped up to demonstrate just how much Lou was making from his betting as opposed to his “taxable” income.
Lou Robertson picked up £3,000 in prize money, £1,000 from a Tattersalls win and £6,000 from bets. Eric Connolly won even more from backing Wingarara as stated in the press, “according to all accounts the Caulfield trainer E.A. Connolly was the principal winner that day.” * To put that into some perspective, in today’s currency it equates to approximately a $5,000,000 payday...at least. Considering these bets were just his licenced bookies, the added SP wins makes the payday huge. Lou Robertson made £10,000, as did Eric Connolly.
* South Australian Register 8th July 1912
One of the common elements Lou Robertson, Eric Connolly, Frank McGrath and Maude Vandenberg all shared was their coolness when arranging such huge gambles. For most humans, it would be a terrifying prospect and very difficult not to show any emotion when you have millions riding on the result. Andrew Robertson penned an interesting letter to the American “Breeder and Sportsman” racing journal when describing the trotting scene in Melbourne in 1914. He talks obliquely about betting and the comments of Frank McGrath.
“At the Derby trotting meeting held on the Richmond race track in this city, a few weeks ago, I was astounded to see the large number of running horse owners, trainers and jockeys in attendance; and what is more, they were betting, and betting big, on the results of the races. During the race for the Trotting Derby £1000, I was standing alongside of Frank McGrath, one of the leading trainers of running horses in this country. Say, he just hollered with excitement! As you know, this event was only won by a head, and the third horse only a length away. I remarked to McGrath that he appeared to warm right up over the trotting races and asked if he had a big bet at stake. He replied “No," and that he only had a fiver (£5) on the winner, and continued by saying he couldn't get so stirred up over a running race if he were standing to win thousands.”
Lou Robertson and Eric Connolly had ice running through their veins. Triumph or Disaster, as penned by English author Rudyard Kipling in his poem "If", they were "...treating each imposter the same." In such gambling circumstances, money takes on a surreal value. The very close friendship of Connolly-Robertson-Price remained close until both Price and Connolly passed away in 1944.
Andrew Robertson originally imported two fantastic horses, Sea Prince sired by Persimmon and Piquet sired by Cyllene, for his brother to train. Sea Prince in particular looked every bit as good as his sire and grandsire St. Simon when he was in full flight. Eric Connolly almost begged Andrew and George Tye to buy the horse even though Lou was warning his friend, Sea Prince was “wayward and stubborn as a mule.”* On the other hand, so was Connolly. He remained insistent until a deal was eventually struck with Andrew for both Piquet and Sea Prince. In hindsight, he should have listened to his friend, for Sea Prince proved to be more than a handful.
* Eric Connolly’s Turf Adventures “Sea Prince was Too Temperamental” Townsville Daily Bulletin 25 November 1949
Sea Prince almost killed Connolly’s apprentice, five stone (32 kilograms) Peter McGrath. Apart from snorting like a wild bull, stopping abruptly at the side of the track, pawing at the ground, digging a hole a foot deep and snapping at the young boy’s legs, Sea Prince would try and savage Connolly’s other horses in his Caulfield stable. One can only imagine how it brightened Lou and Andrew Robertson’s day on hearing their friend riding the fiery Sea Prince in training when the horse decided to dump Connolly into the racecourse lake. On one of those rare occasions, Sea Prince decided to be a racehorse, he roared home to grab the 1913 Williamstown Cup. Unfortunately for Connolly, these moments were rare. Sea Prince demonstrates the very close bonds the Connolly brothers enjoyed with the Robertsons.
The more Lou Robertson developed as a thoroughbred trainer, the greater the plunges constructed by Robertson and Connolly. This included scoring large betting windfalls with American imports Hamburg Belle (Adelaide Cup) and Lempriere (Australian Cup). The pair planned a huge double on Lavendo winning the 1915 Caulfield and Melbourne Cups. Had Lavendo succeeded in the Melbourne Cup, it would have netted over £200,000. A week after Lavendo won the Caulfield Cup, in the middle of preparing for the Melbourne Cup, Lou Robertson was tearing around Richmond track in front of a cheering crowd trying to push Wilkes Child to victory in the 1915 Richmond Thousand.
Lou Robertson the consummate horseman and trainer were well reported. Dave Price and others of his era were in no doubt as to his brilliance. The might of Allendale certainly assisted his dominance of harness racing but his skill went way beyond that privileged position. For many, he was the equal of tragic Hall of Famer Gus Millsom, Will Whitburn, Manny and Bert Edwards and even Dave Price. Price went as far as to state Robertson was unequivocally the best driver he had ever seen anywhere which included New Zealand and America. His ability to time a finish, his tactics along with his courage all amounted to him being one of the most popular drivers in Victoria. Leaving the sport left many fans still pondering his feats many years later. Stated separately, both Dave Price and Eric Connolly considered Lou Robertson, the greatest conditioner of horses they had known. Price also stated in his memoirs, “My nod for the most knowledgeable turf man in the land goes to Connolly.”*
* Sporting Globe 27 December 1939, Townsville Daily Bulletin 9 November 1939 and Sporting Globe 21 October 1939
It may seem a paradox yet Lou Robertson, Dave Price and Eric Connolly all enjoyed an honest reputation within the ranks of those they dealt with. Honesty and integrity may not be something you immediately place alongside horse racing but in reality, it is usually very high, just as it is essential. That is not to say there have not been some dubious characters in racing. But when it comes to those having to deal with each other on a daily basis, trust is a very essential element. Each of these men could be better described as some of the more honest thieves in Babylon. All three displayed moments in their gambling lives where given an opportunity, could be as bent as dog’s hind leg. When planets began aligning, an opportunity was created in the 1930 Caulfield Cup. When you consider the outcome of this double, the long friendship of Dave Price, Eric Connolly and Lou Robertson start becoming the foundation on which this double is firmly based.
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