“Had Top Gallant been a clean winded horse, all our records would have been shattered to ribbons.” Ken Bracken, 1936*
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Suffering from chronic asthma and rheumatism most of his adult life, this would be Andrew Robertson's 27th ocean voyage. Gasping for air, he slowly made his way up the gangway at Melbourne’s docks. He was surrounded by families hugging, crying and waving goodbye to loved ones as trails of bright streamers hung from their departing ship. Docks and ships held as much appeal for him as modern commercial travellers have for airports and planes. For the next month, Robertson relaxed, read and studied thoroughbred bloodlines and wondered where Paddy Wade’s diamond might be hiding in England. Percy Miller and Sol Green also had commissions for Andrew to find horses for "Kia-Ora" and "Underbank". The ocean voyages gave him an opportunity to write letters to his many friends and contacts scattered around the globe. There were articles for papers and racing journals in Australia, England and America to be written along with auction catalogues to be studied. Looking through dozens of horses, he kept returning to one sire, and found himself circling his name, “SWYNFORD”.
On arrival in England, Robertson coughed and wheezed, labouring for breath as he always did on damp English days. Flipping through his magic black book of racing contacts gathered over years of visiting stables and sale yards, few men were more valuable to him than Clarence Hailey, director of Hailey’s Bloodstock Agency. Beyond his journalism and bloodstock brilliance, Hailey is recognised as an elite photographer and expert painter of thoroughbreds. Besides Top Gallant, Hailey would also assist Robertson in importing Verbius, Robespierre, Gothic, Manitoba, Alpine Rose, and Marconigram. On top of these were a slew of champions for other Australian breeders including Midstream for Percy Miller and Emborough for Andy Maguire.** After many fruitless weeks visiting his favourite studs, Robertson heard Top Gallant could be available. If this were true, he may have found Paddy Wade his horse.
*Sporting Globe, 1 January 1936
**Truth 1 August 1948 Midstream sired Shannon and Emborough sired Bernborough.
This stunning chestnut son of Swynford held a sprinting world record as a three-year-old. Top Gallant lost form as a four-year-old under trainer Harry Sadler but remained remarkably fleet of foot - or hoof. His loss of form caused in part by him being slightly broken-winded. Flying like an arrow some days and, similar to Andrew Robertson with his chronic asthma, could hardly draw a breath on others. Robertson contacted Hailey to assist in negotiations with Lord Penrhyn in September 1924 for a week’s option. By coincidence, Archie Douglas-Pennant, former owner of Night Raid, was the uncle of Edward Douglas-Pennant, 3rd Baron Penrhyn, owner of Top Gallant. This allowed Robertson time to have the horse checked over by a vet and to be certain Top Gallant would be suitable for Paddy Wade. Especially as he was about to spend 7,000 guineas of the grazier’s money. He also conferred with another of his friends, Australia’s first truly international jockey, Frank Bullock. Performing riding duties in England, Bullock was quick to tell Robertson what he already suspected - by any measure, Top Gallant was an incredibly impressive horse. Like most bloodstock agents, Robertson’s decisions were being based on Top Gallant’s bloodlines more than past performance. Wade made it very clear he was seeking to improve his stud, not his trophy cabinet. Purchased for 7,000 guineas, Robertson immediately insured Top Gallant for 10,000 guineas.*
*Private letter from Andrew to his son Wallace
Breeding rather than racing may have been Paddy Wade’s initial thinking but this quickly changed on Top Gallant’s arrival at Borambola Park. Again, on Andrew Robertson’s recommendation, A.P. Wade sent Top Gallant down to Melbourne for Lou Robertson to train. While selling the idea to Wade as a good opportunity to display Top Gallant’s potential magnificence on the track, Andrew always held his younger brother’s best interest before anyone. Having Top Gallant in his brother's stable was definitely in Lou Robertson's best interest. Top Gallant remains one of the fastest horses Andrew Robertson ever brought to Australia's shores and was very likely, when he hit form, one of the fastest horses in the world. The Robertson brothers were not alone in their assessment of Top Gallant. In 1934, even after seeing Gothic, Peter Pan and Phar Lap, Mollison and Greenline all in action, Hall of Fame jockey Bobby Lewis stated without hesitation,
“The fastest horse I ever saw racing in Australia was Top Gallant in a six furlong trial before he won the Futurity Stakes at Caulfield in 1926. He carried flat shoes and he had big feet.* At Aspendale Park racecourse he ran the distance in 1.13, a wonderful trial. He won the Futurity easier than any horse I have ever seen in a flat race. He was trained by Lou Robertson. He’s the neatest man with horses I have ever ridden for. He is a hard worker and doesn’t train his horses in the yard - the lazy style. When his horses go to the races, they are a great credit to him and his staff, I’ve never seen horses turned out like them.”**
*Top Gallant’s champion sire, Swynford, according to his trainer George Lambton also noted that Swynford had big feet. “Men and Horses I Have Known” George Lambton
**The Daily News 5 January 1934
It is the same opinion shared by Lou Robertson to the day he died and by jockey Ken Bracken who remained adamant nothing could come near Top Gallant for pace, even Gothic.
“Broken winded Top Gallant was the fastest horse I have seen and possibly the fastest ever foaled. He could run a furlong in nothing and was at his top in a stride. The mighty Woorak that streak of lightening, Valicare and the dashing importation, The Night Patrol were not in the same street as the mighty son of Swynford. In my 25 years as a jockey I have ridden some of the outstanding sprinters of the commonwealth, while I have been passed and beaten by great gallopers, and I feel competent to make the sweeping claim that Top Gallant could lead out of the barrier any horse we have known. Had Top Gallant been a clean winded horse, all our records would have been shattered to ribbons"*
*“Broken-winded Horse that beat everything for Pace” Sporting Globe, 26 December 1935
Most agreed, no one could recollect a horse galloping as quickly. However, the faster Top Gallant galloped, the more his tongue protruded, and the closer Top Gallant’s head would lean towards the ground. Lou decided to use the controversial method of suppressing the horse’s tongue with a special devise he invented when working a decade earlier at Allendale Stock Farm. Paddy Wade was not impressed. He insisted his trainer not resort to that. It was here Paddy Wade discovered Lou Robertson to be a very different individual to his brother Andrew. Despite Lou training during this period almost exclusively for bookie, turned pastoralist Sol Green, he was still officially a public trainer. Lou barely tolerated Green interfering with his training or instructing jockeys on race day. What is more, Lou Robertson knew Sol Green far better and worked more closely with him than he did Paddy Wade. He was not about to cop it from Wade, who soon found himself effectively banned from Lou Robertson’s Mordialloc stables.
Sweet natured like his sire Swynford and easy to train,* Top Gallant still required much of Lou Robertson’s attention and skill to be fit for the upcoming weight for age VATC Futurity Stakes. Despite it being a short season, Top Gallant had in effect gone from the boat to stud to the track in just over a month. The VATC handicapper penalized Top Gallant a crippling 10 stone two pounds (64.4 kilograms). No horse ever won a Futurity with a weight greater than 10 stone up to this point.** Despite these concerns, it transpired, the handicapper could have penalized Top Gallant eleven stone two and not made too much of a difference in the result. In preparing Top Gallant, Lou Robertson displayed why his peers referred to him as possibly the greatest conditioner of racehorses by transforming Top Gallant in a matter of weeks into something remarkable.*** As Top Gallant thundered by Lou at his private Aspendale training track, the trainer kept staring incredulously at his stopwatch, wondering if it was working properly. Each training run quicker than the last until Robertson declared to his jockey Ken Bracken, “Only be a matter of going to the post to collect the prize. This is the biggest certainty I have ever turned out.”**** When he said, “collect the prize”, he meant it. A brilliant trainer, Robertson was also one of Australia’s principal gamblers.
*“Men and Horses I Have Known” George Lambton
**Ajax won in 1939 carrying 10.6 and Eurythmic in 1922 carried a whopping 10.7. Bernborough carried the same weight as Top Gallant in 1946 and Phar Lap carried an even heavier ten stone three pounds to victory in 1931. Suavito, 2015 winner carried 57 kg or nine stone (126 pounds).
*** Eric Connolly, Dave Price, Bobby Lewis among a host of other are all on record.
**** Sporting Globe, 26 December 1935
Manfred, practicing his AJC Derby start with Billy Duncan
(The Victoria Derby, Marc Fiddian)
The Caulfield Futurity Stakes in 1926 developed into a star-studded affair in which the chestnut Top Gallant eventually emerged favourite. Lining up next to Top Gallant was the cream of Australasian racing. Valais sired Manfred had won both the AJC and VRC Derby, MVRC W.S. Cox Plate and just lost by a rat's whisker the thrilling 1925 Melbourne Cup to Windbag. Manfred would go on to win a Caulfield Cup later in 1926. Also sired by Valais, Heroic fronted up in the 1926 Futurity Stakes, he had to his credit an AJC Derby, Caulfield Guineas, Champagne, Ascot Vale and Chelmsford Stakes. Later, he would become a brilliant sire in his own right.
If this 1926 Futurity Stakes only saw Heroic, Manfred and Top Gallant, it would still be considered a classic for the ages. What separates this race from most other years is the inclusion of other superstars of the turf. Martian sired The Hawk, Futurity winner in 1924, also wins in two Hill Stakes and two C.M. Lloyd Stakes. The field included another swift son of Valais, Fujisan.
Early favouritism lent towards lightly weighted brothers Heroic and Manfred. In the public’s mind, besides having to haul his heavy handicap, there were genuine concerns over Top Gallant not yet having acclimatised to Australian conditions. Coupled with his short season at stud,* all helped the punters decide the sons of Valais to be a more profitable bet. All the while a devastating betting plunge orchestrated by Lou Robertson and his close friend, Australia’s most notorious punter, Eric Connolly began steamrolling the bookies. As the pair's betting intensified right up to race day, thanks in the main to Manfred’s popularity, it avoided the book being closed on Top Gallant.
*Top Gallant served more than 20 mares. Sporting Globe, 24 February 1926
Trainer Lou Robertson, known by many as “The Oyster” for giving almost nothing away to the press, was equally adept doling out scraps of misinformation. After being on the receiving end of decades of plunges, hardboiled bookies usually viewed any utterance by Robertson with outright scepticism. Concerns over Top Gallant’s readiness for Caulfield began circulating, even though all the rumours appeared to be originating from Lou’s stable. Despite Robertson openly stating everything was fine and dandy with Top Gallant, these rumours persisted. Top Gallant was off his feed, not training well, thrown a shoe, near lame, recovering, relapsing, worried if he will start, not sure if he will be fit enough, just come from a season at stud and a bit of a worry over his weight. All the while Connolly, Robertson, and late to the party ex-bookie and owner of "Underbank Stud" Sol Green with extra wads of cash for their commissioned agents, kept hitting the bookies even harder. If one listened to the rumours, by the time race day arrived, no one would have been surprised to see Top Gallant taken around to the start on a stretcher.
Being overconfident in a horse can often lead to tears but after Top Gallant flew over two furlongs like Pegasus in under 22 seconds at his Aspendale training the day before, Lou Robertson knew his money was safe. He gave his jockey precise instructions on how he wanted Top Gallant ridden, “…a donkey’s gallop, short and sweet. Jump him out and hang onto him until you get to the top of the hill and then let him go. He’ll do the rest.”* What transpired at Caulfield that afternoon, for supposedly one of the most underprepared and heaviest weighted horses in the race’s history, Top Gallant’s performance ended up being one of the most convincing and glorious runs of all time.** Two decades later, the press still considered what Top Gallant donkey walloped as being one of the greatest Futurity fields ever assembled, making his run even more astonishing. Then there is the little known fact, Ken Bracken’s ride could have set a record to last decades.
* Sporting Globe, 26 December 1935
**Along with Bernborough in 1946
***The Australasian 20 February 1943
Bracken walked his laconic champion around to the starting barrier like an old riding school pony wandering along a forest trail. While Heroic, The Hawk, Manfred and Fujisan were on high alert waiting for the start, for a moment Ken Bracken become concerned Top Gallant may have nodded off standing so quiet and still for the starter. Fearing he may be left flatfooted when the rope went up, to Bracken’s utter amazement it was if a switch had been thrown. Top Gallant almost left his jockey sitting in mid-air like a Road Runner cartoon, as if zapped in the rump by a cattle prod. Starting second from the outside Top Gallant flew to the front in a couple of long strides, turning into the straight lengths ahead of the field. Following his trainer’s instructions, it was not until the sixth furlong of this seven furlong classic did Top Gallant fully show his class. When he did, he shot even further away from Heroic, Manfred and Fujisan with such consummate ease as to make it look like Black Caviar in a picnic race. The Caulfield crowd watched in stunned silence by the speed displayed by Top Gallant, scoring the easiest of victories, by four lengths in a record 1:26.5 while being eased a long way from the post.* Putting this run into perspective. The Caulfield track record for seven furlongs, or just over 1400 metres, is 1.21.20 held by the brilliant Danehill sired stallion, Exceed and Excel, set in 2003 while carrying 52 kg in the Dubai Racing Club Cup. In other words, only five seconds faster than Top Gallant cruising in from halfway down the Caulfield straight, while carrying 12 kg more weight than Exceed and Excel over 80 years earlier.
*Daily Advertiser 22 February 1926
**MRC web site. A top flight sprinter can travel around 100 meters in five to six seconds seconds
What was really unnerving for competing owners and trainers, Top Gallant appeared not to have shifted out of second gear. Before the race, Paddy Wade was offered 10,000 guineas for his horse. After, this was upped to 12,000. Both offers were refused.* Wade, was of course happy with the result but nonetheless miffed with Bracken for having slowed Top Gallant so soon before the post. He would have much preferred to see his horse win by the length of the Caulfield straight against Heroic and especially Manfred, as an advertisement to all breeders and owners in Australia. As it was, most owners and fellow breeders hardly required any more convincing after such a dominant display of brilliance to send their mares to Borambola Park. Clarence Hailey, who so ably assisted Andrew Robertson in prising Lord Penrhyn’s grip loose on Top Gallant, was at Caulfield. The press crowded around him for a comment. His frank reply being as candid an appraisal and as blunt an answer as his English manners would allow. There is almost a subtext of Hailey feeling guilty of having just betrayed his own country by helping Robertson procure Top Gallant for Wade and the antipodes.
“If Top Gallant had registered in England such a performance as he did in the Futurity Stakes, he never would have been allowed to leave the country.”**
*Sporting Globe, 24 February 1926
**Evening Post, 13 March 1926 & The Daily News 3 March 1926
Top Gallant entered the Newmarket Handicap the following Saturday an unbackable favourite for the famous sprint. To everyone’s shock, and disappointment to thousands who lost their money backing him, he failed dismally. Paddy Wade immediately returned him to Borambola Park to resume stud duties. Part of this decision may have been caused by Wade interfering with Lou Robertson’s training and racing decisions. During the Futurity, Top Gallant ran with a tongue suppressor. Despite the ease in which Top Gallant won, Wade ordered his trainer not to use it again in the Newmarket. Whether it was due to this or what sometimes happens with imported horses not fully acclimatised, Top Gallant finished near last. Next time Paddy Wade wanted Lou Robertson as his trainer, it would be made plain, there was to be no interference from the grazier.
Paddy Wade had every reason to be optimistic of Top Gallant transforming Borambola Park’s stud fortunes into something glorious. By the time he came into possession of Top Gallant, other Swynford progeny, Bettina, Ferry, Keysoe, Tranquil and Sansovino had already won a clutch of 1,000 Guineas, St. Legers, Oaks and an Epsom Derby back in England.* Then there was Blandford.** Andrew Robertson was not to have known when he purchased Swynford sons Top Gallant for Wade and Verbius*** for Sol Green, another son of Swynford, Blandford would go on to become Britain’s sire of the year three times. This included siring four Epsom Derby winners.**** As for seeing Night Raid off to New Zealand, in 1926, Paddy Wade could not have been more pleased with his decision, and that of his bloodstock agent, to purchase Top Gallant.
* Swynford also sired St. German and Challenger II – both leading sires in the US. St. German sired Twenty Grand that would have been Phar Lap’s main East Coast challenger had he lived.
**Blandford was a remarkable sire having produced four Epsom Derby winners - Bahram won the UK Triple Crown for the Aga Khan in 1935 and went on to sire over 1100 winners in the UK and US. Blandford also sired Blenheim, winner of the Derby in 1930 and leading sire in the US including 1941 US Triple Crown winner Whirlaway. Trigo won the Epsom in 1929 along with the St. Leger. Another son of Blandford, Windsor Lad won the Epsom Derby and St. Leger in 1936. Just as relevant to Australian breeding, Blandford is also the sire of Midstream. Imported into Australia by Kia-Oro Stud owner Percy Miller, Midstream is the sire of Hall of Famer Shannon. Blandford sired winners of over 300 races, many of them Group 1 wins and generated over £300,000 in stakes. Blandford also sired one of France's greatest horses - Brantome.
*** Had Verbius not broken down, it was predicted he could well have won any race he was prepared for and was considered by Sol Green and Lou Robertson, potentially an even greater horse than Gothic which both men rated as their best ever horse.
**** Trigo (1929), Blenheim (1930), Winsor Lad (1934) Bahram (1935)
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