Almanac Horseracing: A fork in the road – The Caulfield Guineas 1972

 

A FORK IN THE ROAD – THE CAULFIELD GUINEAS OF 1972

As we get deeper into the Melbourne Spring Carnival, it’s sometimes fun, sometimes tragic, but always instructive, to look back on great editions of time-honoured races such as The Caulfield Guineas. The Guineas has many new-fangled imitators, but it remains one of very few true ‘stallion-making’ races. I was a 15yo under-age punter in 1972, but I’ll never forget the anticipation and excitement of seeing two new tyros of the turf clash over the testing Caulfield 1600m. The pre-race hype was entirely predictable, but what couldn’t have been predicted was the disparity between their respective paths following that race: their futures couldn’t have been more different.

The Guineas is usually the target for last season’s precocious two-year-olds whose connections think they can stretch out to a mile; and it’s also a target for the slower-maturing potential staying types whose connections think they might just have enough zip to challenge the speedier types over a mile.

Century was the ‘precocious two-year-old’ of this story. A colt by the Irish sire, Better Boy, out of the Rego mare, Royal Suite, legend has it that the owners submitted so many prospective names (which were all rejected), that the hundredth name submitted was ‘Century’. Purchased for a modest $6,750, in his two-year-old season, the brown colt with the roach back was a close second to John’s Hope in the Blue Diamond, but followed up with a win in the 1400m Sires Produce in a time of 1.23.07 – only 0.01 of a second behind that of the champion 1969 winner, Vain. As an early three-year-old, wins in the Moonee Valley Stakes and the Ascot Vale Stakes cemented him as a crowd favourite.

Sobar was the ‘slower-maturing potential staying type’ of this story. By the NZ sire Sobig, out a Le Filou mare, Miss Filou, Sobar’s best was always going to be over more ground than the 1200m scampers for two-year-olds. As an early three-year-old, he was a certainty beaten in the Craiglee Stakes over 1600m. His next assignment was against older horses under the WFA scale in the Underwood Stakes. His authoritative win over the 1800m of the Underwood set tongues wagging that this was indeed a serious racehorse.

With these very different lead-ups, both sets of connections eyed off the 1600m of the prestigious Guineas. Bart Cummings-trained horses were always popular with the punters even though – and it’s hard to believe – Bart was still learning his craft back in 1972. Three Melbourne Cup winners and a host of big race victories in the 60s and early 70s gave Bart a level of dependability which was part of the reason that Century was installed as a very short-priced favourite for the race. Ken Hilton, on the other hand, was a trainer whose stable might these days be called a ’boutique stable’. He had shown with his champion racehorse of the early 60s, Lord, that he was a master horseman, and now he had another one in Sobar, considered to be a potential A-grader.

From memory, I think Century started about Evens, with Sobar at about 5/2, and you could write your own ticket about the rest. Century was to be ridden by ‘the Professor’, Roy Higgins, with the ever-popular Harry White* on Sobar. And so, the two best horses ridden by the two best jockeys and trained by two master trainers were ready to put their reputations on the line.

Much has been said and written about the actual race, but it was to be one of White’s most brilliant tactical rides. Trailing Century by about a length at the 1000m, White let Sobar stride up to Century and sit outside him, keeping him in a pocket, right at the time when Higgins wanted to get out and build some momentum. White kept Century in the pocket until he was ready to release the brakes on Sobar, and stride ahead with about 600m to go. Century, now released from the tomb-like pocket, started to gather pace slowly whereas Sobar was off and gone. A gap of about six lengths on the turn was eventually reduced to four lengths on the line, with Bill Collins suggesting we had just seen the Caulfield Cup favourite.

White was rightly lauded for his strategic ride, Sobar was drawing comparisons with some of the greats, and bookies became very nervous about the potential payouts on a Sobar Caulfield/Melbourne Cup double.

This is where we reach the fork in the road.

Sobar’s next start was a scintillating win in the Caulfield Cup and he was now being openly compared with the immortal Tulloch. After beating the best staying horses in Australia, the VRC Derby was the next stop. Sobar was considered such a certainty back in three-year-old company that bookies installed him at 4/11 favourite. Only bank tellers can back horses at those odds.

*Did I earlier refer to Harry White as ‘ever-popular’? It’s a known fact that popularity is fleeting in racing, and even more so if you’re a jockey. The Derby was a train wreck for both White and Sobar. From the time Sobar left the barrier, it was either a case of Sobar ‘pulling his head off’ and fighting against the rider, or White trying to restrain Sobar so that he would have something in reserve at the end of 2500m. Whichever version you believe, it doesn’t affect the result. Sobar was eventually given his head in the last 200m and hit the front late, but having used all that energy struggling the whole time against the jockey, the Bart Cummings-trained Dayana claimed Sobar right on the line to produce a huge boilover.

The recriminations over White’s ride were swift, with the loudest protestations coming from Sobar’s owner, Keith Southwick, who demanded to know what Harry thought he was doing. White’s integrity was also widely questioned, leading him to eventually issue a mea culpa of sorts, acknowledging that it was a bad ride. But there was worse to come…

On cooling down after the race, Sobar was found to have bowed a tendon: one of the worst injuries a racehorse can suffer. This led to Sobar being sensationally scratched from The Melbourne Cup. While, of course, we’ll never know what might’ve happened in the Cup, a Tasmanian battler having his first start at Flemington won at 40/1, beating many horses that Sobar had already beaten in the Caulfield Cup. Hilton and Southwick were left to ponder “what if…?”

After a long spell, and a change of trainer (Arch McClements had a reputation for being able to patch up ‘broken’ horses), Sobar managed only two more victories in the 1974 Blamey Stakes and the 1800m St George Stakes, but he was never the same horse again. In fact, his last three starts were just awful to watch, culminating in his last race where he finished last in the Toorak Handicap at 100/1. Ironically, the comparisons with Tulloch were highly accurate: they both suffered injuries which hastened their retirements and robbed racing fans of some rich highlights.

So, what about Century, the horse which was vanquished by Sobar in the Guineas? In the 1973 and ‘74 seasons, Century went on to win the Lightning Stakes, the Craven ‘A’ Stakes and the Newmarket Hcp (in race record time). He was placed in the Doncaster Hcp (carrying 57kgs as a three-year-old), the All-Aged Stakes, the Memsie Stakes, the Oakleigh Plate, the Toorak Hcp and was placed twice in the Linlithgow Stakes. Due to the horse’s chronic arthritis, Cummings had to space Century’s races sparingly, and it was this debilitating condition which ultimately led to Century being retired to stud.

Despite his impressive race record, Century was anything but a hit at stud, attracting only a modicum of interest in his first season. In that first season, however, he sired the winner of the Sydney Cup, Double Century. In his second season, he sired a Golden Slipper winner, Century Miss. Subsequently, he sired a Cox Plate winner, Rubiton. So, that makes a Group 1 stayer, a Group 1 sprinting two-year-old and a Group 1 WFA middle distance winner. The doyen of Australian racing writers, (the late) Les Carlyon, is on record as saying that horses by the sire Bletchingly “can sprint, stay and even throw the javelin”, but Century’s progeny must be right up there for versatility too. Century had a long career at stud siring a host of winners and his value as a commercial sire is incalculable.

While Sobar’s brief but brilliant career was like a supernova, Century’s career was more like a slow burn. We’ll never know what Sobar could’ve achieved – another Tulloch, maybe better? We do know what Century achieved, and with an ounce of luck, some of those near misses in Group 1 races could’ve been glorious victories, adding to an already impressive CV.

Back on that day in 1972 when they fought out a thrilling Caulfield Guineas, we had no way of knowing we were witnessing greatness, the stuff of legends and a tragic fork in the road for one of the contenders. Racing’s glorious uncertainty strikes again.

 

More from Ian Lewis can be read Here.

 

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