May 31, 1980

Most of the crowd of about 14,000 at Moonee Valley took a place in the stands to watch the $8000 Victorian Steeplechase, but no one was aware of the impact the winning trainer was to have on the future of jumps racing. 

After running a number of placings the seven-year-old gelding Rochelles Aloe won his first jumping race, becoming the first winner for former equestrian Eric Musgrove, who had been licensed for about a year. 

Musgrove was based at the Victorian Equestrian Centre in Beaconsfield North, where he had a good business teaching the showjumping community. 

Former equestrian rider Greg Eurell said, “Musgrove was a tough and gifted rider, who got the best out of his horses.”

Musgrove had reached the pinnacle in the equestrian world, had made the Australian Olympic squad, and competed successfully at such prestigious international events as the famous Dublin Show. 

But he longed to try the racing game, and acquired two horses that on form looked unlikely to perform at metropolitan level. 

Musgrove said, “I was on the showjumping road in Rockhampton, and bought Rochelles Aloe for $400. He had finished as a racehorse, I liked him as a type, and thought that he might have a career in the showjumping field.

“He was such a good sort for a steeplechaser, I decided to try him out for the job, and he came on in leaps and bounds.”

After placings in three steeplechases, Musgrove took the horse to Moonee Valley, and Kevin Wynne again took the ride. 

He recalled “In his previous runs he made a few jumping mistakes, but this day he travelled and jumped well. He was always going to win.

“It was a huge thrill to win my first race at Moonee Valley.”

(Two days before that race at Moonee Valley, a wiry mare from Wonthaggi in Victoria's south east won a 3400-metre hurdle at Moe. The mare, Venite, would later go on to win three feature steeplechases.)

With interests still in the equestrian area, Musgrove kept his racing team to just Donrewen and Rochelles Aloe. 

Less than two years later, the pair quinellaed the prestigious Great Eastern Steeplechase with Donrewen beating his stablemate. 

From there on, Musgrove knew that there was much more money in the professional racing game, and he set his sights on building a big team. 

By the mid 1980s, Musgrove was running horses in virtually every jumps race in Victoria, as well as at Deniliquin and Canberra and the metropolitan races in Adelaide. 

He soon became the leading jumps trainer, but his operation was abruptly stopped in 1989 when he copped a 12-month disqualification over a runner in a sprint race at Flemington. 

Upon resuming he again got a big team together, in an era when there were up to 215 jumps races a year in Victoria, and soon the records began to fall. 

He trained his 400th winner when he made a clean sweep of the four jumping races on a Hamilton card in 2002, and has won every big race on the calendar except the Grand National Hurdle. 

Few people would know how many horses Eric has carried, just to make up fields. It’s debatable whether the sport would be in existence now without his contribution.  

Musgrove’s best flat horse was I’m In Heaven, who won the Heatherlie Handicap, ran second in the Canberra Cup and the Metropolitan and ran third in the Sydney Cup.