October
FebruaryThe Gauch got me in
In 1980 I fell in love with the game because of a black horse who is the greatest I’ve seen, Kingston Town.
When he retired along came a young kid in ’83 that just took the sport to another level, bringing people into the sport who never knew it existed.
He had a fan club who would wear t-shirts with his name and line the mounting-yard fence just to get a look at this whiz kid, who in 11 months went from riding his first winner at Bairnsdale to taking the Group 1 VRC Oaks on Taj Eclipse.
Days earlier he’d won the Pure-Pak Stakes on the brilliant sprinter River Rough. He had a treble that derby day — as an apprentice.
He now has over 2500 winners, 35 of them Group 1s (50-plus if we update his races to today’s ratings).
He rode for all the great trainers, even though in the last 10 years they failed to give him a go.
Just some wonderful horses he won on were Chagemar, Sports, Flavour, Miss Kournikova, Desert Sky, Yell, Confederate Lady, Boardwalk Angel, Rancho Ruler, Bluetigeroo, Shame, Inaflury, Riverina Charm, Over, Crawl and Lonhro, with the best two being Shaftesbury Avenue and Super Impose. His last win at the highest level was on El Segundo.
He finished a nose second in the Caulfield Cup on Congressman, in the Cox Plate a nose second on El Segundo. He finished second in the Melbourne Cup three times, on Chagemar, Super Impose and On a Jeune.
He rode Kingston Rule, Rogan Josh and Fields of Omagh just once each for a win, so if he’d been able to stick with them that’s two Melbourne Cups and two Cox Plates.
If you look at the sliding doors, his record could be so much greater.
He is the reason I’ve loved the game since 1980. The horses came and went in one or two seasons, with the exception of the grand old geldings. The one champion I was able to see and celebrate the whole time was the greatest apprentice of all time (506 wins), my hero, my idol, the man simply known as The Gauch.
Cranbourne (Vic)