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In recent weeks we’ve seen The Roar’s top fifty Australian racehorses of all time, and we must applaud Justin Cinque, Andrew Hawkins and Sheek for their collaboration.
For myself, as no sort of racing historian, it was a valuable learning experience, and an enjoyable one to boot.
But today, I’d like to honour the horses who don’t always capture the attention of the public at large.
Every racing lover has their own personal favourites outside the Group 1 champions, the ones who touch something within us, usually fattening our wallets in the process!
My favourite horse of all time is Makybe Diva, and her exploits need no further explanation here.
Equal with her on my list though, is a Brian Mayfield-Smith trained gelding by the name of Orange County.
I can still remember the first time I ever backed him.
I was at Flemington with a mate on Australia Cup day 2006, and there was an early three year old race where the favourite was simply going to win at prohibitive odds.
Being seasoned punters however, we needed to have a bet, so we decided to pick one each for the place, and whoever’s horse finished lower owed the other a round.
The favourite, a horse called Byway, won by four lengths, and Orange County ran second as a $13 chance. My mate’s ran third as it turned out, which wasn’t close enough to shirk the responsibilities of buying me a cold one.
I really liked how Orange County found the line from the tail of the field in a slowly run race, relishing the Flemington straight.
Every now and then you can just tell that a horse has a touch of class, and he certainly caught my eye.
A month or so later, the same mate and I were at Randwick on Easter Saturday for the Doncaster, having followed Apache Cat up after consistently backing him pre-post for the big race.
Sadly, and not for the first time, the weight of our money was more than the poor horse could carry as he laboured into last after leading into the straight and being the first one beaten.
However, Orange County was having his next start down at Caulfield, one that I’d be keenly waiting for.
$6 was a luxury based on what I’d seen at Flemington, and so it proved as he weaved a chequered passage to find the winning post ahead of all rivals. The bond was growing stronger.
It was my birthday a fortnight after that, and he was at Caulfield again.
I was on the way to play footy, but made the stop at a local Tab, and had something on him at the $3. Checking results after the game, and you little beauty.
Nice to have some cash to buy birthday drinks that night!
So I continued to follow the horse, and after our Easter success, my mate did too. We watched every run, most often trackside, and got to know him intimately.
Two years after that campaign, he ran second in the Aurie’s Star, and followed up with a gritty win on Australia Cup day in another Listed race. Now was the time for his crack at Group 1 glory, and we almost felt like part owners at this point, that’s how much we wanted the chance.
He was butchered by Mark Zahra in the Rupert Clarke, and again didn’t quite get his chance in the Toorak under Dwayne Dunn. He was flying in our opinion, without getting the results, and the Crystal Mile at Moonee Valley was his for the taking, especially with a track record that read 4: 2-2-0.
Dunn was on board again, to our dismay, but we hunted down $9 and went hard with the biggest single bet to that stage of my life. It was a triple figure amount the win, and double that the place.
From barrier six in a field of twelve, Dunn had him trapped on the inside as they turned, just in front of the last pair! Somehow, Orange County bustled his way out of the pocket and defied the riding of the idiot on top to grab second in the shadows of the post, beating fourth by 0.3 of a length.
By this stage, we knew the horse just as well as the trainer I reckon. Whenever we’d go to watch him race, we’d visit the stalls, and the strapper got to know us by name.
The beauty of following a horse so closely is that you know when they’re ready to win, but what we most loved about “The O.C” as we’d started calling him, was that he was so incredibly honest, almost never running a bad race.
He won again on Australia Cup day in 2008, and by this stage a few mates were backing him when I told them too as well.
Not many complained about the $8 price on that day, and I daresay that was the fastest I’d ever seen him run. 10th of 14 at the 400m, I can still see him sizzling past us as the widest runner.
Our celebrations were raucous on the lawn, and jockey Brad Rawiller was the recipient of our hearty congratulations. He threw his goggles from the ride to me, a memento which I’ve still got to this day.
We had high hopes that Orange County would crack his Group 1 in the Spring of 2008, for the simple fact that he’d improved in every campaign, so why couldn’t he again as a six-year-old.
He’d actually won two races in each of his first four racing years, from the ages of two to five, a feat of rare consistency.
His return in the McEwen was promising over the unsuitable five furlongs, and he put the writing on the wall with a close up third in the Bobbie Lewis, beaten less than half a length.
He was $11 that day, and if Sam Hyland had gone left instead of right at a crucial stage, he would have won that race without any doubt in my mind, and possibly been weighted out of his next start. In hindsight, I’m glad he didn’t.
The 2008 Rupert Clarke was almost five years ago, but I can remember it like it was yesterday.
In all that time since, I have never been as certain of a result as I was that day, at least in regards to a horse running at almost double figure odds, and I wasn’t shy in talking him up to anyone who’d listen.
Barrier 15 wasn’t a worry in a field of eighteen, because I was confident of a hot tempo, and I knew he possessed the turn of foot to gobble up the entire field.
Damian Oliver was on board by this time, and he rode the race to perfection, exactly as I’d anticipated.
Orange County bolted in by two and a half lengths, and it could have been more such was the dominance of the victory.
I can tell you, the celebrations went on long into the night, to such an extent that I may have forgotten to tell my wife what I was up to or where I ended up.
To be fair to me, with the state I was in, I didn’t really know myself!
The reception was frosty when I arrived home the next morning having not been heard from in something like 18 hours, but let me tell you, it was quickly alleviated by the exchanging of a few hundred dollar notes and accompanying instructions to go shopping for whatever she liked!
That race win turned out to be his last.
Weighted out of winnable handicaps, but not quite good enough to handle the jump to WFA, nevertheless he never stopped trying his heart out. He’d always had soundness issues throughout his career, and he was finally retired after three out-of-character failures.
It was amazing to have a relationship with a horse like that over a period of years, and I still get emotional when thinking about all the great times we had following him, whether he won or not.