HARPO ’ s MARKS
Reading one of the daily rags and noticed a mention of Gary Moore , the son of the late , great George Moore , who was saddling up a runner or two at the next day ’ s Wyong meeting . That ’ s Gary , not George ! Gary certainly inherited his old man ’ s skills in the saddle winning major races in England and France before turning to training where he was equally successful , winning seven premierships in Macau .
He ’ s now back in Sydney , training out of Rosehill , partnering his brother John , who for 40 years dominated putting the polish on racehorses in Hong Kong .
The writer mentioned Gary ’ s biggest win as a jockey in the 1981 Prix de l ’ Arc de Triomphe , the world ’ s greatest distance race on turf .
FROSTY ROCKS was never out of second gear when 2nd to the speedy Written Beauty over 900m at Rosehill on July 16 . Wet tracks abounding in Sydney this time of year suit her perfectly . And she also has a fine first-up record !
REMARQUE ’ S trial form was excellent before her debut , close-up 5th in the Todman Stakes last March before being turned out . She showed speed and bounded away to win effortlessly over 900m at Rosehill on July 16 .
OMNI MAN is an unraced colt out of the Waterhouse-Bolt yard . The I Am Invincible colt blew them away with blinding acceleration over the final 200m in a 900m trial win at Rosehill on July 16 .
COLETTE and GEIST were both given an easy time of it throughout
The “ Arc ”, first run in 1920 at Longchamps , has been won by many of the world ’ s greatest racehorses including Ribot ( 1955-56 ), Ballymoss ( 1958 ), Mill Reef ( 1971 ), Alleged ( 1977-78 ), Dylan Thomas ( 2007 ), Sea The Stars ( 2009 ) and Enable ( 2017-2018 ).
Two owners won the race on a record six occasions – Marcel Boussac and Khalid Abdullah who owned the sensational mare , Alleged .
A host of famous owners have led in the winners including A . Kingsley Macomber , Ogden Mills , Baron Edouard de Rothschild ( twice ), Jacques Wertheimer , Robert Sangster ( thrice ), Canadian ice hockey great Wayne Gretzky , Sheikh Mohammed , John Magnier and the Aga Khan IV .
Barrier Rise with
TONY BRASSEL
but ran on strongly concluding stages when unplaced in 800m trial at H ’ bury on July 19 . James Cummings ’ duo looking set for successful spring campaigns .
EMANATE and CRIADERAS were both motoring home to finish hard on the heels of the placegetters in a 800m hit-out at H ’ bury on July 19 . Another Cummings ’ pair set for fruitful spring campaigns .
NAPLES is yet another Cummings ’ youngster who should make a successful return to the track going on the Street Boss filly ’ s very impressive 800m trial win at H ’ bury on July 19 . Never given her head at any stage to run fast time .
TRIFACCIA ran 3rd in last autumn ’ s
Reisling Slipper Trial and indicated she is ready to rock ‘ n ’ roll with a resounding finish in winding up 2nd in a slick 800m trial at H ’ bury on July 19 . Crikey , it was a bottler of a trial !
HAVE MERCY ran the fastest 800m of the session at H ’ bury on July 19 . The unraced American Pharoah filly showed speed and then put paid to them easily over the concluding stages . Don ’ t miss her !
Which brings me to what I reminisced about when I read the piece on Gary Moore .
‘ twas 1981 and as I was travelling OK in the hip pocket at the time , I accompanied my great mate , John Scott and his lovely wife , Coralie , on a jaunt to Sunny Lonny and then onto Gay Paree where the highlight of the trip was getting to Longchamps for the Arc .
Scotty , who sadly passed away after a gallant battle with cancer in June 2019 , at the time was the National Promotions Manager for Rothmans and he arranged Members Stand tickets for us .
Two stories come out of our day at the races .
The first , and this brings us back to Gary Moore , was deciding who to throw my $ US50 on in the Arc .
Just for a bet in the race , I was tossing up between throwing it on the New Zealand Derby winner and AJC Derby runner-up , Ring the Bell or Moore who was legged aboard a real roughie , the Alec Head-trained mare , Gold River .
Ring the Bell was a bit shorter in the market and I decided to go with the Kiwi who had been campaigning in Europe since the middle of the year .
His regular rider , Nigel Tiley , was aboard Ring the Bell who jumped out of a wide barrier and I reckon never got closer to the fence than seven or eight wide .
Naturally he had nothing in the tank down the straight and rightly weakened to finish 21st of the 24 runners .
Gold River on the other hand was ridden a treat by Gary who had her positioned just behind the leaders as they turned the corner for the long run home .
He switched the mare three wide at the 200m mark and collared Bikala and April Run in the shadows of the pace to claim a meritorious victory .
After several glasses of bubbly – top notch stuff on Rothmans ’ expense account – Scotty and I headed out to the parade ring which is behind the Members Stand to run our eagle eyes over the runners in the following race .
I spied two of the world ’ s most famous faces chatting inside the ring – both had starters in the race .
I gave my camera to Scotty and asked him to “ snap me when I ’ m in position ”.
So I wandered over and positioned myself in between the bewildered Omar Sharif and the Aga Khan and Scotty duly captured the momentous moment .
I proudly showed off the photo for many years but sadly it went missing about 15 years ago .
And while on Omar Sharif , over the next few years in visits back to France , Scotty met and hob-nobbed with the great Egyptian actor , bridge player , linguist and ardent racehorse owner .
He loved telling the following story as much as I did whilst showing off that photo .
“ I was at Longchamps to back Strawberry Road in 1984 and tipped him to Omar who , in turn , told me about a local who had been been working the place down in secret gallops in the woods ,” Scotty said .
“ I had $ US2000 on him and it won at 33-1 . The tote couldn ’ t pay .”
Strawberry Road , part owned by John Singleton , was a champion , winning the AJC and Queensland derbies and the 1983 W . S . Cox Plate before commencing an international campaign .
He ran a terrific race in the ‘ 84 Arc , finishing a gallant fifth against the best stayers in the world .
Scotty told me Omar “ didn ’ t mind a bet ” and would have done his dosh on Singo ’ s neddie .
I asked Scotty if he had mentioned to Omar my slipping in between he and the Aga Khan in 1981 and he laughingly replied : “ How many pests do you reckon try that caper with him when he ’ s out in public ?”
LOW MARKS : The Tokyo Games should have been cancelled . Crikey every sport on the planet now has a yearly world championships . Surely all of ‘ em can wait another 12 months to see who is the best on the planet !
SAD MARKS : Missing my old mate , John Scott . He was a character Damon Runyon would have loved to have known and written about . And all of the mindboggling chapters of his remarkable life would have been true .
www . bcfc . com . au YOUR TOWN , YOUR TEAM .
Est . 1953
32 ISSUE 135 // AUGUST 2021 theindependentmagazine . com . au THE HAWKESBURY INDEPENDENT