I recently had the pleasure of spending several hours with one of the true legends of the Australian equestrian industry, Neale Lavis.
Lavis won gold at the 1960 Rome Olympics as a member of the Australian three-day event team and also took out silver in the individual competition.
The team was the first equestrian team to win Olympic gold for Australia.
Lavis represented Australia again in 1964, at the Tokyo Olympics, but that time a medal eluded the team.
Asked how he became involved with horses, Lavis replied: “I must have been three or four, when a family friend pulled me up behind him on his horse and took me for a ride. That was it for me. I just wanted to be around horses.”
He attributes a horse called Currabeen with having taught him to ride, there being no pony clubs in those days.
“We’d round up cattle, jump logs and ride over all sorts of terrain. He taught me a lot.”
After the 1964 Olympics, Lavis’s equestrian career effectively came to an end when he and his wife Velma purchased a 2000-acre (810Ha)property at Braidwood.
“When you’ve got a mortgage and a young family, something has to go,” he said.
In 1969, Lavis took out a thoroughbred owner-trainer’s licence. It wasn’t long before his services were in demand and he upgraded to a full licence.
As a trainer, Lavis enjoyed success not only on the country and provincial circuits, but also on metropolitan tracks. He rates Supreme Max and Butterfly Blue, both Sydney winners, as the best horses he has trained.
In the mid 1970s, Lavis began to dabble in breeding. His first stallion was Kid Wilkes.
“His stud fee was $250 and there was just no mney in it,” he recalled. “You needed a stallion that could command $600 to $1000.”
He would soon get such a horse.
“I had a phone call from Bridget Woodford-Smith (of Huntworth Stud). Les Young, a very knowledgeable horseman and bloodstock agent, had called her from Ireland to tell her he’d found a stallion that he considered to be very good value.
“The price was $20,000 — plus, of course, the cost of bringing him to Australia. I agreed to go in with Bridget and a syndicate was formed which included my brothers, Keith and Garth. The stallion was Whiskey Road.
“Initially, his service fee was $2500. Bridget sent me two mares, one for each stallion.
“I got them mixed up and put the wrong mare to Whiskey Road. The foal turned out to be the 1981 Melbourne Cup winner, Just a Dash. Not a bad mistake, eh?” he chuckled.
Just a Dash wasn’t destined to be the best of Whiskey Road’s progeny. That honour belongs to dual derby winner, Cox Plate winner and Australian champion racehorse of 1982/83, Strawberry Road.
Asked if there was anything he would like to have done with horses but hadn’t, Lavis replied: “I’d have loved to have trained hurdlers, but you just can’t do that from NSW.
“I also would have liked to have ridden in steeplechases while I was in England,” he added, recalling that his 1960 equestrian teammates Bill Roycroft and Laurie Morgan had both done so, as amateurs.
At 85, Lavis has reverted to an owner-trainer’s licence and has a couple of horses “out in the paddock”, which he hopes might prove to be useful types.
Lucky escape
Last Friday’s Mudgee Cup was marred by a horrific fall which left five jockeys hospitalised, one horse put down and the last race of the day abandoned.
“It was probably the worst fall we’ve seen in racing since the Ipswich Cup back in the late ’90s,” said chief steward Ray Murrihy.
Miraculously, none of the jockeys sustained life-threatening injuries.
The cup was won by Fox Solid, trained by Garry McCarney and ridden by Andrew Banks. He paid $84 the win on the NSW TAB.
Forgive Innocent
Saturday’s TAB Highway Handicap, run over 1100 metres at Randwick, also produced a shock result as 30/1 outsider Star Shaft, trained by Tim McIntosh and ridden by Paul King, defeated the well fancied Matthew Dale-trained Northern Fury.
Race favourite Clearly Innocent, trained by Greg Bennett, had no luck in running sixth and is sure to make amends in the near future.
— countryracingnsw.com.au