The Skipton Handicap, run at Flemington yesterday, won by Boom Time brought back memories of the horse the race was named after.

Skipton was the last three year old to win the Derby and three days later the Melbourne Cup, the last horse to complete that double.

He went into the Derby with winning form, the Laluma Handicap at Moonee Valley and the Moonee Valley Stakes, then the Berwick Stakes at Mentone; he immediately was installed favourite for the Derby.

After winning the AJC Derby two weeks earlier, Roy McLead’s colt, Laureate, went to the barrier an 11/8 favourite, just shading out Skipton in the market.

Norman Creighton, who rode the Derby winner for his father in law, Jack Fryer, who trained Skipton for an easy win in the Classic.

After the Derby, on Sunday morning, the horse hadn’t turned a hair, he was bucking his brand off, Fryer declared him a runner in the Cup, while Creighton could not make the weight the ride was given to Billy Cook, it was the first of his two winning Cup rides.

Two years later the Caulfield Cup was run in two divisions, Skipton won one division ridden by Scobie Breasley, and the other, Saint Warden, ridden by Harry White senior.

Oscietra, the first foal of Black Caviar, appeared in a public jump out at Flemington on Friday morning, much to the delight of her wide group of owners.

That was basically the first step in her much awaited first race start at Flemington, on New Year’s Day, over 1000 metres.

However, another jump out has been pencilled in for Friday, December 23, to confirm her first start.

Ironically she is likely to race much earlier than her mother did, who didn’t appear until April, with much less anticipation and expectation than her daughter will receive.

Friday’s jump out was over 800 metres, was timed at 49.45 seconds, just a tick under even time, nothing to get excited about.

There is a perception that the progeny of our best race mares, those that win the Group races, that their foals will inherit the ability of their mothers.

Sadly it doesn’t happen that way, it is purely a fallacy, it doesn’t work out that way, the very best race mares of their era rarely produce stakes winning foals, that is just a fact of life.

We will always look back towards Wakeful, whilst there is nobody about that remembers her she was an icon of the turf,. The Victoria Racing Club honours her on Derby Day, and I trust they always will.    

Wakeful won the Oakleigh Plate, Newmarket Hcp., Doncaster Hcp., numerous weight for age races, she finished second in the Melbourne Cup with 65.5 kg, the winner, Lord Cardigan, carried 41 25 kgs, he won by three quarters of a length.

She surely qualifies after producing Night Watch in 1912 to win the Melbourne Cup, with the same weight, 41.25, the same weight as carried when Lord Cardigan defeated Wakeful.

Catlita was a great staying mare in the time of the Great War, she was a stakes winner on several occasions, but never produced a stakes winner.

The most interesting fact concerns Sister Olive, she won the Maribyrnong Trial Stakes over 900 metres as a two year old, and never won another race until her win in the Melbourne Cup the following year.

At stud she produced Manolive, he won the Perth Cup, Williamstown Cup and the Eclipse Stakes.

Referring them to dual winning mares Chicquita was a good example, she won an Oaks, plus several other Stakes races, she produced Eskimo Prince, he won the 1964 Golden Slipper Stakes.

Dual Cups winner, Let’s Elope, left two Stakes winners in Ustinov and Outback Joe, and two Stakes placed, Court Courting and Yes I Will.

Golden Chariot was a success at the highest level; she left Wenona Girl, who in turn was the dam of Special Girl.

Rose of Kingston won the AJC Derby and was later sent to the United States to be mated with Secretariat, she produced the 1990 Melbourne Cup winner, Kingston Rule

Without doubt French Gem, by Beau Fils, has the most imposing record; she won the Oaks in 1938, soon after spending t her entire breeding life at Warlaby Stud and was only covered by the sires that stood there, Dhoti and Helios.

She was an outstanding mare, leaving five stakes winners Royal Gem, Beau Gem, Crown Gem, Regal Gem and Solar Gem.

Surround, Tranquil Star, Flight, and Makybe Diva have all been dismal flops, a lot of dreams have been shattered, none of those mares that were houses hold names, have hardly left a decent off spring between them.

It is no fluke, they have all had a number of foals during their life span, the only conclusion that can be offered is the hard tough righteous competitive racing that has taken its toll, and that has to be accepted until another explanation can be found.

Black Caviar

Blinkers could be the key to unlocking the full potential of Falco in the Highway Handicap at Rosehill tomorrow.

The five year old gelding,trained at Wagga by Matthew Dale, he was a little disappointed at his last outing on his home track.

He came from a long way back in the Riverina Signmakers Class 2 Plate, “but we won’t see the full effect until he runs under race conditions,” said Matthew Dale.

Falco looks ideally suited under the conditions of the race and should appreciate the extra distance of the race.

The gelding is top weight with 61 kg, but will benefit from apprentice jockey, Nick Heywood, claim of 3 kg.

“We know he can handle the weight and Nick won on him earlier in the year at Kembla Grange, he has drawn nicely in barrier four,” said Dale.

Dale’s promising three year old filly, Beckless, will also line up in the race with weight on her side, she is sure to be there at the end.

She’s remains unbeaten after one start, having easily won 1200 metres fillies and mares handicap at Wagga recently.

Beckless has come in well at the weights, she will carry 51 kg after an apprentice allowance for James Innes.

Gary Moore trained his first Group 1 when he won the Winterbottom Stakes when Takedown got up in the proverbial last stride to snatch victory from Sheidel, who had led for most of the race.

Naturally the judge called for the photo; however, Gary was already in party mood long before the result was made official.

H e treated the crowd to more antics they hadn’t seen previously, and would not have missed it for quids.

You could imagine George looking down from up above muttering, “what the beck is he up to this time.”

When Gary told his parents he wanted to be a jockey after one ride, his father, George, was quick and to the point, he never wasted words saying, “You can’t ride, you better get back to school,” he said, his wife Iris relied, “he is no good at school either,” she added.

Finally Gary had the last word, he was not going to be a great scholar but some of the wizardy of his father might rub off on him when he decided to become a jockey.

George would be a hard act to follow, he was an outstanding jockey, he topped the Sydney jockey’s premiership 10 times and rode 15 winners over the four days of the Sydney Autumn Carnival in 1969.

Finally Gary packed his case and was off to Tommy Hill at Randwick to become an apprentice, the same Tommy Hill that was involved in the infamous Sydney Derby of 1961, when Mel Schumacher was disqualified for 10 years.

Hill was a fantastic master; he made a successful transition from race riding to training, preparing Rajah Sahib to win the Cox Plate, and Cyron, for Bill Stanley, the biro king.

Gary didn’t out ride his apprentice allowance, maybe he was the victim of a highly successful father, too much might have been expected of him at such a young age.

When riding in Sydney, a lot of people were comparing him with his father George, which was hardly fair.

However, he claims he was not a good rider, as an apprentice he didn’t fully mature until he reached 20.

The turning point in his career was when he went to Europe to rider in France,, he was assured of better opportunities and is was a fresh beginning.

His father George thought it was a good idea to take out a contract for 5,000 U S dollars riding for Daniel Wildenstin, among the leading owners in France.

There he was riding along side of Bill Pyers, Neville Sellwood came over much later, he was riding well when he lost his life in a fall from Lucky Seven at Maisons-Laffitte, built on the banks of the River Seine, with the longest straight in France.

His win on Bering in the French Derby was a great success story, and the hotly contested duel with England super colt, Dancing Brave, in the Arc,, Bering finished second.

Dancing Brave just caught Bering in the shadows of the winning post, coming from well back on the final turn.

Khalid Abdullah, who raced Dancing Brave, and some years later the unbeaten Frankel, had a weakness for Dancing Brave, possibly as it was his first Group 1 success on the turf.

Another major win for Gary was the English 1000 Guineas on Ravinella, she was the best filly of her year in Europe, winning eight races, three of which were at Group 1 level.

He ultimately captured the major prize on the French racing calendar when he won the Prix De L’Arc De Triomphe on Gold River.

Racing has been a great career for him, he has around 2,000 winners, seen the world and been paid for it, has ridden against the best jockeys in the world, Lester Piggott, Steve Cauthen and Yves Saint Martin.

Gary is quite a character with a great sense of humour, a successful international jockey unique in one respect, having ridden several Group 1 winners as a jockey and has now trained a Group1 winner when Takedown won the Winterbottom Stakes at Ascot.

He is training out of Rosehill in Sydney, with 30 boxes at his disposal and a full team currently in work.

Gary Moore

Jenny McAlpine, a popular and well known international racing and thoroughbred figure, is about to embark on her regular assignment to the December Broodmare Sales at Newmarket, in England.  

This will be her twenty first trip to what is the largest and most exclusive thoroughbred breeding auction in the world.

In her role as the Australian Representative for Tattersalls, the largest auction house in Europe is to take a group of Australian buyers over each year to Newmarket.

With the purpose of purchasing mares with suitable bloodlines that will nick with our sires here in Australia.

The sale is well attended by a number of Australian buyers in search of the best bloodlines in the world; money seems secondary now that syndication has become popular as a source of investment.

Jenny spends her five days at the December Sales, generally a dozen up to 20 mares are purchased by Australian breeders, some are flown out to various farms here, while in some cases others are agisted and remain in England.

The mares that remain in England, or Europe, and purchased by Australians will be covered to southern hemisphere time, once the foals are weaned from their mothers they are well handled ready to fly out to Australia, the mares generally remain to be covered again in England or Ireland.

It is an exciting time for Jenny, she loves it and does it so well, she is a highly respected person and trustworthy, there is no quick sell with her.

Tattersalls have already had a very successful yearling sale in October, with a filly selling for 2.6 million guineas, the highest priced to be sold in Europe, she was by Dubawi to the bid of John Ferguson, acting for Sheikh Mohammed.

The guinea is the old traditional horse selling currency of 21 shillings, the auction house receives the odd shilling, with time there have been numerous changes, however, the guinea and Tattersalls are a tradition that is not likely to change.

Jenny was raised on a stud farm Eureka, at Cambooya in Queensland, not far from where Bernborough was bred, and where The Buzzard held court on the rich Darling Downs all those years ago.

She has been among horses almost from an infant, she is no stranger to mucking out horse boxes, or preparing yearlings at sale time, she was never far away from her late father Colin, when you saw him, Jenny was generally following on from behind.

Eureka Stud was founded in 1925 by Andrew McAlpine, he was the pioneer, the Darling Downs is renowned as a great slice of horse country, however, breeding racehorses was not as lucrative as it is in the present era.

The late Colin McAlpine took Eureka over from his father, he soon became a popular and well known figure breeding horses, he made sure Queensland was fully recognised as a successful breeding state, he was a driving force within the breeding industry that at times can be frustrating.

Eureka has stood a number of successful sires over a long period, Lumley Road, by Grey Sovereign, was always prominent on the sire’s list, Colin was quite successful in more recent years with Semipalatinsk and Red Dazzler, they sired numerous winners.

Eureka has always been a family operated stud, it has survived over three generations which is quite rare, the centenary is just nine years away.

Scott McAlpine has since taken over Eureka from his late father and grandfather; he is now busy preparing the first draft of yearlings, by Spirit Of Boom, for the Magic Millions Sales in early January.

Spirit Of Boom has an excellent draft of young horses to represent him in the sale ring, he lacked nothing in ability as a racehorse, he was a brilliant sprinter earning $2.412 million in prize money.

If his progeny have inherited the same speed and toughness of their sire, there is a great future ahead of him.

He is by the brilliant Sequalo, a formidable sire of winners in Queensland.

While Jenny is employed as a public relations consultant for David Hayes, she still has her finger on the pulse at Eureka, she doesn’t miss a beat.

Jenny McAlpine with Oscietra - Black Caviars first foal