The Roar’s list of the best thoroughbreds to have raced in Australia is nearing its conclusion, and as it does so, the list of horses likely to miss a mention grows longer.
Who are the new additions to The Roar’s list? Find out the thoughts of Andrew Hawkins, Justin Cinque and Sheek here:
40. Andrew Hawkins – Northerly (b. 1996) 37/19/7/2 (51%)
Western Australia’s favourite son “The Fighting Tiger” made quite the impression in Perth, winning four of his first six starts including the Railway Stakes.
But he earned a spot in the list with his achievements on the other side of the country, which included two Cox Plates, a Caulfield Cup, two Underwood Stakes and an Australian Cup.
He also won an electric Feehan Stakes when he looked no chance at the 600m, somehow picking up again to grab Sunline near the line.
40. Justin Cinque – Redcraze (b. 1950) 85/32/11/9 (37%)
Redcraze was a grand late-bloomer who built an impressive record in the major handicaps when carrying big weights. He started off in New Zealand where his feature victory was an Awapuni Gold Cup. At the end of his five-year old campaign he was transferred to Tommy Smith’s Randwick stables where he blossomed.
He won the Brisbane Cup and Metropolitan Handicap before taking the Caulfield Cup with 63kgs. 17 days later in the Melbourne Cup Redcraze was a fast-finishing second with a mammoth 65kgs – to run that well with that sort of weight is an indication of the greatness of Redcraze.
He came back the following season to win the Cox Plate, thereby securing his place among the great champions of Australian racing.
40. Sheek – Surround (b. 1973) 28/17/2/2 (61%)
It was a toss-up between two great females for no.40 – Surround or Flight. Flight’s record is mightily impressive, but she will have to wait for the next installment.
Surround’s achievement as the greatest filly in Australian thoroughbred history deserves recognition at this point. During the season of 1976/77 she annexed the Caulfield Cup, Cox Plate and trifecta of Eastern state Oaks – VRC, AJC and QTC. But that wasn’t all, in addition she won the Orr, Blamey and Grand Prix Stakes.
Quite evidently, there has never been a filly as good as Surround. It’s a shame injury caused her early retirement. We can only speculate at what else she might have achieved.
39. Andrew Hawkins – Better Loosen Up
Better Loosen Up achieved a lot in his career, but the crowning glory of his career was his victory in the 1990 Japan Cup – the first and only Australian horse to win the race, a year after Kiwi mare Horlicks also won the race.
He was a fairly average three year old, with his best performance a second in the 1989 Canterbury Guineas. But it was later that year that we got a glimpse of the horse he was to become when he won the Honda (now the Emirates) Stakes, the Winfield Classic (now the Kingston Town Classic) and the Railway Stakes.
In the spring of 1990, he won the Feehan Stakes, Turnbull Stakes, Cox Plate and Mackinnon Stakes before his successful Japanese raid, while he came back to win the Blamey Stakes and Australian Cup.
He wasn’t the same horse after the 1991 autumn, although many argue he should have won the greatest edition of the Cox Plate in the modern era in 1992.
39. Justin Cinque – Octagonal (b. 1992) 28/14/7/1 (50%)
I still believe Octagonal is the most popular horse to have raced in my lifetime. He didn’t always win like Black Caviar but we loved Occy was because he never gave up!
‘The Big O’ was toughness equinified (yes, a new word!) – I don’t think any of his 14 victories came with a winning margin of more than a length.
As a two-year old Octagonal won the AJC Sires and the Todman as well as finishing a flying second in the Golden Slipper and Champagne. As a three-year old, he won the Cox Plate, the Triple Crown (one of only five to do so in history) and the BMW.
Octagonal’s Rosehill Guineas and AJC Derby are two of the most famous victories in the history of Sydney racing – not only did the wins come against the likes of Saintly and Nothin’ Leica Dane but they were great races.
The barrel-chested horse lost his way in his four-year old spring campaign but regained form in the autumn to get the send-off he deserved by winning a second BMW – this time by a nose.
39. Sheek – Crisp (b.1963) 40/17/4/0 (43%)
I feel obliged to step in line here with Justin and Andrew and recognise our greatest ever jumper.
Like a number of other horses mentioned here, perhaps Crisp’s greatest achievement was in defeat. During the famous 1973 Grand National at Aintree, Crisp conceded 10 kgs to the legendary Red Rum, but was only run down by that champion in the shadow of the post. It was a truly phenomenal performance. Crisp went to England when his extraordinary career in Australia saw him weighted out of races.
But he was equally respected in England and in that 1973 Grand National was asked to carry 76 kgs compared to Red Rum’s 66 kgs.
38. Andrew Hawkins – Amounis
He’s probably best remembered for his Caulfield Cup win under 61kg in 1930, when he was coupled in enough doubles with Phar Lap in the Melbourne Cup to send a number of bookmakers broke.
However, his career was a lot grander than just that Caulfield Cup success. He beat Phar Lap on two of the five occasions they clashed, and he won two Epsom Handicaps, a Cox Plate and a Caulfield Stakes.
His time at the top stretched a number of years, a longevity that is rarely seen these days.
38. Justin Cinque – Wenona Girl (b. 1957) 68/27/19/7 (40%)
Wenona Girl is one of the few mares to get a run in the top 50 and as a winner of 13 modern-day Group 1s, from 1000-2000m, she certainly deserves her place.
Through the early parts of her career, Wenona Girl had an impressive record against the great colt Sky High (who was ranked highly by both Sheek and myself in this exercise).
Wenona Girl was second to Sky High in the Golden Slipper but she eventually beat Sky High seven times including in the AJC Sires Produce, Hobartville, Canterbury Guineas, Rosehill Guineas and Lightning Stakes.
Wenona Girl was regarded as a champion filly but she continued to win at the highest level until her retirement at six. She won two Lightnings at 1000m and two Ranvets at 2000m. At the mile she won the George Main, George Adams (Emirates) and Linlithgow (Patinack) as a mare.
Wenona Girl was incredibly consistent and can be considered unlucky to not be named higher than 38th.
38. Sheek – Dulcify (b. 1975) 21/10/3/2 (48%)
Any horse that streets a good Cox Plate field by seven lengths must be pretty special. But that’s all we are left with, a tease of how good Dulcify might have been.
As Justin suggested, Dulcify might have been a ‘top 10’ horse given a normal career, but sadly he was denied such a thing. He broke his pelvis when galloped on by eventual winner Hyperno in the 1979 Melbourne Cup and was subsequently destroyed.
It was a terribly sad moment for horse racing.
Apart from the Cox Plate, Dulcify’s wins included the VRC Derby, Australian Cup, Craiglee Stakes, Turnbull Stakes and Mackinnon Stakes. Dulcify could have been “anything”, but he didn’t get the opportunity.
37. Andrew Hawkins – Surround
A lot is made of the bonny grey mare of the early 1980s in Emancipation. However, I think many historians forget the deeds of the terrific grey filly Surround, who dazzled punters in a spring to remember in 1976.
That season, she put together a rather magnificent streak of 10 victories, starting with the Ascot Vale Stakes in September 1976 and stretching well into 1977. After the Ascot Vale, she went on to win the Moonee Valley Stakes (now the Bill Stutt Stakes), Caulfield Guineas, Cox Plate, VRC Oaks, Orr Stakes, Blamey Stakes, Alister Clark Stakes, AJC Oaks, Queensland Oaks and Grand Prix Stakes.
To date, she is the only three year old filly to win the Cox Plate, despite high class fillies like Miss Finland and Samantha Miss attempting the feat in recent years.
37. Justin Cinque – Vo Rogue (b. 1983) 83/26/14/9 (31%)
‘The Rogue’ was a thoroughbred warrior and a legendary front-runner. Watching his great victories on Youtube (surprisingly they haven’t been deleted) you can see Vo Rogue lifting whenever a horse came up to challenge him near the finish.
He absolutely destroyed Super Impose (ranked as high as 17th by Andrew Hawkins) on multiple occasions and even had some great victories over the likes of Better Loosen Up and Bonecrusher.
Showcasing all his great qualities, Vo Rogue won a William Reid at 1200. He won three Orr Stakes (1400m), two Australian Cups (2000m), two Turnbulls (2000m), two Blameys (1600m), two St Georges (1800m), a Kingston Town (1800m) in Perth and a George Main (1600m) in Sydney.
Sadly, at 29 years of age Vo Rogue died last May. It was a day before Northerly’s demise and Northerly was a modern-day version of the great Vo Rogue.
37. Sheek – Saintly (b. 1992) 23/10/8/2 (44%)
They called him the “horse from heaven”, and it certainly seemed that way when in the spring of 1996 he annexed the double of the Cox Plate and Melbourne Cup. For trainer Bart Cummings, Galilee and So You think might have been better horses, but Saintly, whom he bred himself, was very close to his heart.
Additionally, Saintly won the Australian Cup and Orr Stakes. However, some critical losses have prevented him from being ranked higher.
Saintly was special for me too, because he remains one of my few winning bets in the ‘big one’ over the past 20 years!
36. Andrew Hawkins – Tranquil Star (b. 1937) 111/23/20/12 (21%)
I doubt many more popular horses have graced the Australian turf than Tranquil Star. Perhaps it was because she was a constant during the tumultuous years of World War II, even though she was hardly the model of consistency – she was a beaten favourite on 18 occasions!
A veteran of a whopping 111 starts, she didn’t show much as a juvenile but came into her own at three, winning over a variety of distances. Her form tapered as a four year old, but she bounce back again at five, winning the Caulfield Stakes, Caulfield Cup, Cox Plate and Mackinnon Stakes.
The following year she suffered a serious injury in the form of a broken jaw, and she almost had to be put down. But she was slowly nursed back to health, and incredibly she made it back to win another Cox Plate.
36. Justin Cinque – Galilee (b. 1963) 36/18/6/4 (50%)
I’ve got Galilee only behind So You Think as the best horse trained by Bart Cummings. As Sheek reminded me in the comments of Part 7 of the Top 50, Galilee is the only horse to have won the Caulfield Cup – Melbourne Cup – Sydney Cup handicap treble in the same season.
Galilee’s victory in the Sydney Cup was by a decisive margin of six lengths under the impost of 60kgs. In the Melbourne Cup he beat stablemate and popular mare Light Fingers with authority. Galilee also had a handsome victory over the highly regarded Tobin Bronze (who features high-up in the top 50) over 2400m in the CB Fisher Plate.
In Galilee’s era, Australian racing was geared towards the feature handicaps and as a winner of four of them (Melbourne Cup, Caulfield Cup, Sydney Cup and Toorak Handicap), Galilee has earned his place inside the top 40 of all-time.
36. Sheek – Octagonal (b. 1992) 28/14/7/1 (50%)
His son Lohnro might have the better win/loss record, but the father Octagonal won some better collection of races. Octagonal was mighty at three but less consistent at four.
I read somewhere many years ago that his oversexed balls got in the way at four as he couldn’t wait to start servicing mares! Go Octagonal!
Among his roll call of victories were the unofficial weight-for-age triple crown trifecta of Cox Plate, Australian Cup and Tancred Stakes (BMW).
He also won the Underwood Stakes, the Rosehill and Canterbury (now Randwick) Guineas and the AJC Sires Produce Stakes at two.
Travis Noonan
Roar Rookie
Love seeing that Vo Rogue made the list . One of my personal favourites
paulywalnuts
Guest
Dye's ride was in the Chipping Norton. From memory (happy to be corrected) Filante was fave, they were dawdling and Dye caught them napping. It was his best win as an older horse imo- that Autumn he won an very weak Aus Cup (Gold City second) when second fave Doriemus bled, and then beat Arkady a nosrtril in the BMW. Saintly had gone amiss and from memory Filante struggled that prep (again happy to be corrected). As a Spring 4yo he won an Underwood but was unplaced in six other starts. One of the best 3yos I've seen, but his record as an older horse was decidedly more mixed. Immensely popular as you say, but I certainly wouldn't have him as high on the list as some.
Old Hand
Guest
Did Wiggle win the Stradbroke as a 2 year old and, if so, is she the only one to do so?
The Barry
Roar Guru
The hype around Octagonal has been unmatched until Black Caviar. He was the horse that got me hooked on racing. Justin's right he was so brave and somehow managed to get his nose in front as they passed the line...a trait he passed on to Lonhro and Pierro. From memory Octagonals struggles as a 4 year od coincided with Beadman getting off and Gauci getting the ride. I have a vague recollection of a race in Sydney where Shane Dye rode him for the first time (I think) and set him loose from about the 600 and he got out to a 12 length lead and managed to hold everyone off. It was notable because it was such a change tactics for the Big O. Can anyone fill in the gaps on this...?
johnny nevin is a legend
Guest
Yes this is true but generally the best rated horses run consistent to their best ratings, there are exceptions of course so it's not always a perfect reflection of a horses ability. Also timeform give ratings after every race so you can gauge a more fairer reflection of a horse.
sheek
Roar Guru
Ausi, Yes, we all put greater emphasis on horses who carried big weights to victory in handicaps, won at a variety of distances & put their reputation on the line for 4-6 seasons. That's what I grew up with & that's what I value over the sprinter/miler who might only be seen for a few seasons. Personally, I didn't take much note of timeform, since that rates a horses best individual performance, not necessarily high consistency.
ausi
Guest
Gents - you all have a problem in your ratings and this is understandable. You rate horses with longevity above horses with a shorter career. I tend to think the other way - when thinking about true greatness - what was a horse like at its VER BEST against the durability factor. Longevity promotes the old timers and horses like Manikato - fully understandable. You then have the problem of a filly like SURROUND - unbelievable over a 1 season run - if you saw her you were staggered - remember this was in a season that had the best crop of same age horses of all time in Australia. Vain is another that is under rated purely because of his short career. Many quote Timeform - which tends to quote peak ratings - This should be the same - or is this a discussion for another time?
Jayden
Roar Rookie
Will Efficient be featuring on anyone's list? :)
sheek
Roar Guru
Hi Robbo, There's always one horse that "blindsides" us & perhaps Flight it is. For me, it was the Caulfield Cup win that swung it TS's way. I have Flight at # 41 & Super Impose at # 42 (both next installment). I wish I had them both higher, but at whose expense? Even after we've selected our eventual composite 50, there will easily be another 25-30 deserving horses who missed the cut.
Geoff Parkes
Expert
It's hard to comprehend Surround winning those 10 races consecutively, one of them a Cox Plate. Phenomenal.
Robbo
Guest
I'm surprised that Tranquil Star has had votes from each of you and that Flight has not yet received a vote. No doubt TS was a champion mare, but I dont think many around at the time would have considered her to be Flight's superior and this is one of those comparisons where we do have the benefit of the horses being contemporaries. Both mares won two Cox Plates, but Flight had a much better strike rate (24/65 as against 23/111), bested TS' stakes winning record for a mare, was a champion in both Sydney and Melbourne (whereas TS was only a Melbourne champion) and, although I don't have the head to head record at hand, I do believe that they met a number of times with F beating TS more often than not (and on TS' home turf). There is a reason why Flight was generally considered the second best mare in the history of Australian racing until Sunline came along. Some who saw her even rated her superior to Wakeful! I think this is a really obvious clanger in a generally great list. Happy to hear the reasoning otherwise.
sheek
Roar Guru
I should add that Chatham has in fact recorded three votes now, his final score being 73, placing him at #26 above Crisp.
Cameron Rose
Expert
A great collection of champs in this edition, which tells you the quality of those ranked above them. Excellent work by Sheek with the rankings too.
sheek
Roar Guru
I should add neither Justin, Andrew or I have nominated Desert Gold, the "first lady of the NZ turf" (until Sunline came along). Her career mostly coincided with WW1 & she shared the southern hemisphere record of 19 consecutive wins with Gloaming, until that record was beaten by Black Caviar. However, while other Kiwi horses like Gloaming & Sunline were often seen racing in Australia, Desert Gold from memory, only had about half a dozen starts in Australia, which made it difficult for us to nominate her.
sheek
Roar Guru
Modern generation attention span challenged?! ;-)
sheek
Roar Guru
Hello everyone, So far 32 many horses have received votes from each of Justin, Andrew & myself. Here is their composite score (50 points for first, down to one for 50th). 1. Carbine 150 (max. score available) 2. Tulloch 146 3. Phar Lap 145 4. Kingston Town 141 5. Wakeful 134 6. Bernborough 132 7. Black Caviar 127 8. Ajax 126 9. Manikato 123 10. Makybe Diva 122 11. Vain 120 12. Rising Fast 113 13. Peter Pan 111 14. Malua 103 15. Sunline 102 16. Todman 101 17. Might And Power 94 18. Tobin Bronze 93 19. Gloaming 87 20. Poseidon 86 21. So you Think 85 22. Galilee 84 22. Gunsynd 84 24. Shannon 82 25. Sky High 76 26. Crisp 71 27. The Barb 67 28. Redcraze 58 29. Tranquil Star 56 30. Dulcify 55 31. Northerly 54 32. Octagonal 51 So far, Eurythmic (62), Grand Flaneur (62), Chatham (55) & Super Impose (51) have received 2/3 votes & their composite score is at least equal to, or above some of the horses who have received votes from all three of us. For the moment, their final score is considered incomplete. Other horses to receive 2/3 votes to date are Amounis (34), Saintly (31), Better Loosen Up (30) & Surround (25). The following horses have attracted one vote from either Justin, Andrew or myself to date & they are Heroic (19), Dalray (18), Delta (17), Comic Court (16), Strawberry Road (16), Vo Rogue (14) & Wenona Girl (11). So far, 47 different horses have received a vote. Incredibly the fine miler Flight has attracted no interest to date, although she is in my final installment of 10.
Tlux
Guest
This series is going on a bit to long... Part 8!! Come on -- Comment left via The Roar's iPhone app. Download it now [http://itunes.apple.com/au/app/the-roar/id327174726?mt=8].