The Roar
The Roar

Advertisement

Australia has lost a bit of itself with Bart's passing

Bart Cummings
Expert
30th August, 2015
2

Bart Cummings takes me back to the days of black and white photographs, afternoon newspapers and listening to the races on the radio as the only means of finding out who won if you weren’t actually at the track.

The younger generation today wouldn’t understand any of that – and that’s fine. The world changes.

But the world can’t change history, and Bart is woven into the fabric of this country by virtue of the Melbourne Cup.

It’s the race that stops a nation, so who didn’t know Bart with the amazing hold he had on the race? Like Bradman, there is no need to recite his full name.

But it was much more than the fact Bart could train a horse to win a big two-miler, later 3200 metres. (There’s the world changing again). It was the imposing figure and intriguing personality of the man himself.

The solid, square build, the thick, wavy mane of hair that eventually went grey and then white, those amazing arched eyebrows.

That half-smile, a sort of mischievous grin that said: “I know a lot, but I’m not going to tell you much. You’re going to have to find out for yourself.”

And then he spoke. And we were blessed with the witty one-liners and the answers that weren’t quite answers because that would be to give too much away, but which were nevertheless entertaining.

Advertisement

And occasionally – just very occasionally – he would open up and give a bit of an insight into the man, which was fascinating.

That was enough. No need to lower the curtain any further. The mystery was an integral part of Bart’s appeal.

Australia has produced scores of important figures in many different walks of life, but we love our sport and we connect better to our revered sports people than anyone else.

It’s just the nature of Australians and it’s why, when Bart was at the top of the tree, the once-a-year punters would always want to know what he had in the cup, because if there was one thing they knew about the race it was that to leave Bart’s horse out of your picks might be a big mistake.

I remember, as a kid, my aunty started putting a yearly bet on the cup for me and at my first go at picking a horse it was Red Handed, which Bart trained to win in 1967.

I remember sitting in the school-room when we stopped for the race – back when the cup was run before school got out, as opposed to after the bell had rung, which is the case now – and listened to Think Big win the first of his two cups, in 1974. Again, trained by Bart.

Myself and my great mate, the late former racing writer Ian Manning, started running a book on the race at school. I should have stuck to the bookmaking, rather than the punting side of it.

Advertisement

I was at Flemington when Viewed won Bart’s 12th Melbourne Cup, in 2008. What a finish. What a day.

But while Bart was best-known for the cup, he was, of course, a great trainer of all types of horses. Stayers, sprinters, colts, fillies, two-year-olds, older horses . . .

The last great horse Bart trained was So You Think. I thought it was the best of all his great champions and it must have rocked him when the horse was removed from his care following its sale and did the rest of its racing in the UK under Aidan O’Brien.

Bart always looked full of life in his prime, but he was only human. He disappeared from view for a while due to ill health and when he reappeared he had lost considerable weight and was gaunt. It was a startling reminder that, one day – probably pretty soon – he would no longer be with us.

That day came on Sunday, but it was still something of a shock when it did. And very sad. It’s like Australia has lost a bit of itself.

If you’re old enough to have appreciated a bit of the Bart magic, we’ve lost a little bit of ourselves, too.

close