Newcastle and Hunter Racing Hall of Fame Inductees

ASSOCIATE

In 1979 Messara purchased the outstanding mare Scomeld and set off on what has become something of an obsession – to breed the very best thoroughbreds.

The result is that he has few peers as a thoroughbred breeder and racing administrator.

As the owner of Arrowfield Stud, in the Hunter Valley, in 1989 he selected and secured a majority interest in the recently retired stallion Danehill. Jointly owned with Ireland’s Coolmore Stud, Danehill reshaped the thoroughbred world, proving the viability of shuttle stallions while stunning with the quality of his offspring.

Moving between Ireland and Australia, plus one season in Japan, Danehill influenced all facets of the industry. He was the sire of 2,485 foals, of which 347 were black-type winners.

After relocating in 1996 to the stud’s present location near Scone, Arrowfield enjoyed success with the leading sire Snippets and launched the careers of three champion sire sons of Danehill.

Messara also led Australian racing through a dynamic period of major reform as Chairman of Racing NSW (2011-16) and Racing Australia (2013-16) and contributed at an international level as Vice-Chairman of the Asian Racing Federation (2014-16) and author of the review of the New Zealand Racing Industry (2018). In May 2021, he became first independent Chairman of Racing Australia, before relinquishing that role in March 2022.

Arrowfield, which Messara is immensely proud of having established entirely by himself, now employs upwards of 120 people. It’s a huge business so it’s worth asking just what it is that gives him the buzz about working so hard on so many things.

“I get a huge buzz breeding good horses,” he replies simply.

A record-breaking tenure of 35 years spent as a committeeman on the Newcastle Jockey Club, the last decade as Chairman, the efforts of ‘Chairman Roy’ resulted in much more than just attendance to the Newcastle racing industry.

In 1975, as Chairman of a club verging on insolvency, Mahony got to work. Employing all his renown human skills to engender a positive feeling about the club he turned his eye to gaining influence with the TAB, a major power player at the time in NSW racing.

Realising that punters could go to any TAB outlet in Newcastle and bet on Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane race, he fought off criticism from a number of quarters and ensured a fully computerised intercity totalisator was installed at Broadmeadow in 1979 – the first time outside a metropolitan area.

With that came a marked increase in financial return to the NJC from on-course tote operations, enabling the course to be updated and prizemoney increased.

Increased profitability led to better prizemoney, which led to a better quality of horses, especially for the club’s two two-day carnivals.

Under his leadership the club purchased Cessnock Racecourse and grew it from a club with 6 non TAB meetings per year to a 20 mid-week TAB meetings per year club.

Midweek racing also returned to Broadmeadow, with the club winning a battle with Sydney clubs and gaining two stand-alone Wednesday meeting and, eventually, 15 midweek events to provide more revenue streams.

In November 1988 he passed away and the tributes flowed for a remarkable man.

Jim Bell, the Chairman of the AJC, said Mahony “did as much as anyone and a great deal more than most to help country and provincial racing . . . even those who may not have seen eye to eye with him admired his integrity and ability to solve seemingly insolvable problems.”

TRAINER

Conners was born in Newcastle, growing up in the family home in Lambton. As did many men at that time, his father, also named Clarry, worked, and trained a couple of horses at Broadmeadow in his spare time.

After learning the art of training from his father Clarry moved to Sydney and took out his own licence, training for a short time at Rosehill before moving to Warwick Farm, where he really established his reputation.

After seeing a filly by Imperial Prince out of the Boucher mare Outing passed in at auction, Conners convinced the breeder to lease the horse to him and a syndicate of owners.

The filly, named Research became one of the all-time greats of the Australian turf with 32 starts for 9 wins, 5 seconds and 2 thirds, for earnings of $1,346,622.

Conners fourth Slipper win with Belle Du Jour was a win for the ages where she powered through the field to record an extraordinary, last stride win. As she crossed the finishing line racecaller Ian Craig summed things up perfectly. “Freakish win, Belle Du Jour nearly fell and she wins the Golden Slipper . . . what a sensational race.

In all Conners has recorded 37 Group 1 wins, with Oaks winners like Dear Demi, Rose Archway, Zagalia, Allow and Arborea.

Racing was well and truly in the blood; Grandfather Jack Reynolds was a trainer who prepared the great Newcastle mare Tibbie, and his two uncles were both successful jockeys, Eric and Percy Reynolds.

Racing was talked about at the dinner table and at school, around the streets and on the track in the pre-dawn light. It was all around for Begg to absorb. He always rode horses and aged 11 or 12 he started riding work for legendary Broadmeadow trainer Ray Cashman.

Begg spent one Christmas holidays working in prominent trainer Maurice McCarten’s Randwick stables. He had a handful of rides as an apprentice before problems with weight put paid to that dream, but stayed with McCarten for 22 years before setting up his own stables at Randwick in 1967.

Success came quickly to the man contemporaries called the hardest working trainer in Australia. In all, Begg is credited with winning 139 stakes races including 39 Group 1 events, many partnered by champion jockey Ron Quinton.

The best of Begg’s outstanding winners was the grey champion, 1984 Australian Horse of the Year Emancipation, her 19 wins included six at Group 1.

In 1990 at the age of 60, Begg left Randwick for a successful training stint in Hong Kong, passing the baton at Baramul Lodge to his Group 1-winning son Grahame. He returned to Australia to retire from training in 1996.

JOCKEY

In 1912 and 1913 the Newcastle jockey twice won Australia’s greatest race, the Melbourne Cup, the first on the Newcastle-owned Piastre and the second aboard Posinatus, was owned and trained by Morpeth’s James Chambers.

The two Cup victories were undoubtedly Shanahan’s career highlights, but he twice won the Summer Cup at Randwick on Baw Bee in 1912 and on Allured in 1913. In 1914 he made the long trip to Perth and won the Karrakatta Plate on Welkin Queen and the Breeders’ Plate aboard Irish Profit. In 1916 he won the VRC Oaks on Thana.

After riding around 1000 winners, Shanahan retired at 47 and took out a trainer’s licence, establishing a small stable from which he prepared a modest number of winners.

A quietly spoken man who shunned the limelight, he died suddenly at his home at Beaumont St in February 1949. He was 63 and - such was the fame of a two-time Melbourne Cup winner – his death was reported in papers throughout the country.

Born at The Junction in 1892 into a non-racing family Pike was small and wayward, and loved being around horses, often playing truant from school to catch and ride the horses and pit ponies that were then plentiful throughout the district’s fields and paddocks.

At 12 he joined trainer Ernie Connors’ stables and had his first race ride soon afterwards. He rode his first winner – Victoria Cross - at Maitland but not before being banned from race riding because he was both too young and too small.

By February 1908 he had ridden around 40 winners.

Best known for his nation-cheering association with the peerless Phar Lap during the height of the Great Depression, Pike first rode the champion when winning the 1929 AJC Derby in record time and went on to record 27 wins from 30 races on the champion.

On Saturday, November 1, the pair took out the Melbourne Stakes (10f); on Tuesday, November 4, they won the Melbourne Cup (2 miles).

A gentle rider who hated to use the whip, Pike was a wonderful judge of pace, and it was said he could secure a “tremendous effort from a horse through his masterly control and rare balance”.

RACEHORSE

Back in mid-2011, the then five-year-old mare Ortensia was heading for the quiet life – retirement in the lush paddocks at Scone and a career as a broodmare.

Five months later, she headed off to conquer the world.

Her retirement came through a loss of form, not a lack of ability, because Ortensia had reached the top echelon of Australian sprinters during her three seasons of racing.

Owners Alistair Fraser, Emma Ridley and Anne Fraser had purchased her at the 2007 Inglis Premier Yearling sales for $50,000 and sent her to Mornington trainer Tony Noonan.

Winning her only two starts as a two-year-old, she went on to gain her first Black Type win in the Spring at Caulfield. The following Autumn she took carnival wins at Caulfield, Randwick and Doomben before taking out the Group 2 at Eagle Farm and went on to finish with another Group 2 victory in Perth.

After running tenth in the Group 1 Goodwood Handicap in Adelaide the following year, the decision was made to retire her to Alistair Fraser’s Scone property and life as a broodmare.

With a six month wait for a stallion assignment, Fraser asked Scone trainer Paul Messara to see if he could keep the mare ticking over. After a good long spell she started to show form on the training track and Messara travelled her to Melbourne for the G H Mumm Stakes (1100m) at Flemington.

The six-year-old “bolted in” and went on to win the Winterbottom Stakes, which by then had been raised to Group 1 status. On invitation, Ortensia went on to the Group 1 1000m Al Quoz Sprint at Meydan, in Dubai and won, earning the mare’s biggest career paycheque of US$600,000.

She travelled to England for the British summer carnival but ran a disappointing ninth in the King’s Stand Stakes after being spooked by the surroundings.

Messara was confident that the mare was getting back to her best when she ran fourth in the July Cup, and she then went to Goodwood and took out the Group 2 King George Stakes (5f), following that by taking the Group 1 Nunthorpe Stakes (5f) at York. It was her third Group 1, on three continents, in just nine months – an extraordinary effort that may never be matched.

Kris Lees was only four years into what has turned out to be a brilliant career as a trainer when he sat alongside owner Ron Crogan at the 2007 William Inglis Easter Yearling Sales.

Crogan went on to bid $1.5m for the filly by Redoute’s Choice out of the Zabeel mare Milliyet, and the soon-to-be Samantha Miss began her journey to stardom.

In August 2007 Equine Influenza was discovered in a group of horses in Sydney and made its way to through many of the Hunter’s racing and breeding establishments. Movement of horses was restricted, and racing programs were curtailed.

Two-year-old Samantha Miss, the most expensive horse ever to enter Lees’ stables, contracted the virus, necessitating the abandonment of her early training. After six months the industry was declared free of Equine Influenza, and as racing returned to normal Lees prepared to see whether his high opinion of the filly was backed by reality.

“We always thought she was good, but you never really know until they show it at the races.”

In 2008 she won her debut over 1150m at the Kensington track, which turned out to be the only time she competed in anything other than a Group 1, 2 or 3 race.

Samantha Miss followed that victory with a third in the Group 3 Sweet Embrace Stakes (1200m), fourth in the Group 2 Magic Night Stakes (1200m), second in the Group 1 AJC Sires Produce (1400m) and an outstanding victory in the Group 1 Champagne Stakes 1600m.

Resuming as a three-year-old, she became only the second filly in history to take out all four legs of Sydney’s Autumn Princess Series and finished her extraordinary Spring campaign with a win in the Group 1 VRC Oaks (2500m) – described in the media as “a performance of power and complete dominance”.

A serious injury forced her retirement  in 2009. It had been just 11 months of racing for three Group 1 victories and an overall record of 12 starts, for seven wins, two seconds and two thirds and earnings of $1,750,760.

Crogan sold the filly as a broodmare for a record $3.85 million.

ASSOCIATE

A Veterinarian, having co-formed a practice which is now called Scone Equine Hospital and is one of the most significant of its type in the thoroughbred world.

A Racing Administrator, serving as President of the Scone Race Club and being pivotal in establishing the Scone Racecourse in its current location.

An Educator, working in equine science with TAFE, the University of Sydney and the Hunter Valley Equine Research Centre.

An Author of such publications as the “The History of Thoroughbred Breeding in the Upper Hunter Valley.”

As well as a Community Leader, serving on the Scone Council.

In 1867, Yorkshireman John Thompson established Widden Stud in the Upper Hunter Valley.

At the time of induction and some seven generations later, the stud is in the safe hands of Antony Thompson.

The stud’s influence on Australian breeding and racing was no more evident than in the 2014/15 racing season, when ten percent of Group 1 Races run in Australia were won by horses bred and raised at Widden.

Prior to that season, outstanding sires such as Vain, Bletchingly, and Todman contributed to the durability of the stud, and Widden’s status continues to be enhanced with regular additions to the stallion roster.

TRAINER

Trainer – Broadmeadow

In taking over Lees Racing from his father in 2003, Kris Lees quickly established himself as a trainer of the future when, in his first full season of training he won more than $2m in prizemoney and trained his first Group 1 success in 2004.

At the time of induction, the tally had grown to 15 Group 1 winners, with over 1700 winners in total from 15 seasons of training. He sits comfortably in the top ten of Australian Trainers Premierships.

With the 2018/19 season yet to conclude, the stable has already amassed over $11.5m in prizemoney.

Contributing to that success have been high stakes earners in Samantha Miss, Lucia Valentina and Le Romain.

Trainer – Broadmeadow

After riding 600 winners as a jockey, Roy Hinton commenced training in 1960 from his Newcastle base.

He went on to win eight Newcastle Trainers Premierships, seven of those in succession.

During that time, he trained such top-class gallopers as Jackdaw, Windsor Park, Brother Smoke, Lady Manina, Swiftly Ann, Bandu Bay, War Chariot and Ontonic.

His career highlight was winning the 1976 Group 1 Stradbroke Handicap with Manawapoi.

He retired in 1986 and continued his racing interests, one of those being as an owner, with his biggest success the Spring Champion Stakes and the George Main Stakes in 1992 with Coronation Day.

JOCKEY

Jockey – Broadmeadow

In 1946 Bill Wade rode his first winner and to appreciate his talent, it was only two years later he won the Newcastle Apprentice Premiership and the Newcastle Jockeys Premiership.

By the time he was forced into retirement from a race fall in 1972, he had ridden 1723 winners; won 13 Newcastle Premierships and 42 Cup Races.

In one 18 day period during that time he rode 18 winners; four at Muswellbrook, two trebles at Newcastle, and doubles at Wyong (twice), Denman and Canterbury.

His biggest win was the Group 1 Doomben 10,000 in 1954 on Nagpuni, at the time Australia’s richest sprint race.

Jockey – Broadmeadow

Commenced his indentures in 1965 at the age of 15 and rode Coronation Cadet in the 1967 Melbourne Cup after riding 68 winners.

By the time his apprenticeship finished at 21, he had ridden 291 winners and won five Newcastle Apprentice Premierships. He went on to win six Newcastle Jockeys Premierships.

Riding at the top level he won 66 Provincial and Country Cups; the 1976 Villiers: the 1981 Ramornie Handicap: and the 1983 and 84 Challenge Stakes. His association with Triple Crown winner Luskin Star cemented his place in history.

Had outstanding riding statistics of 1144 winners from 4463 rides.

RACEHORSE

Chestnut Stallion, foaled 1999

In the 2003 Choisir became the first Australian trained horse to win in Britain.

Choisir won the Group 2 King’s Stand and the Group 1 Golden Jubilee Stakes at the Ascot Carnival.

Choisir as a two-year-old won the Listed AJC Breeders Plate; the Group 3 Skyline Stakes: the Inglis 2YO Classic and a third in the Group 1 Golden Slipper.

As a three-year-old Choisir won Group 1’s in the VRC Lightning Stakes and Linlithgow Stakes.

His record stands at 23 starts for 6 wins which has now been matched by an outstanding stud career siring over 90 individual Group winners, including more than 10 individual Group 1 winners.

Brown Gelding, foaled 1916

Foaled in 1916 and trained on the Newcastle Racecourse, Beauford quickly announced himself as a champion in the making with victories from 1200m to 2400m including the Epsom Handicap, Tramway Handicap, Hill Stakes, Craven Plate, Rawson Stakes, All-Aged Stakes, Chelmsford Stakes and the Cameron Handicap.

However, it was Beauford’s clashes with Gloaming a winner of 42 of his 48 starts at the time they first met, that captured the public’s imagination. The special four-race series finished level at two wins each, with the final race attracting a crowd of 60,000 to a midweek race meeting at Randwick.

The champion retired with 17 victories from 37 starts.

ASSOCIATE

In 1950 ALF Ellison imported Star Kingdom to stand at his Baramul Stud in the Hunter Valley.

Star Kingdom became the most dominant influence in the history of Australian thoroughbred breeding.

Star Kingdom sired 65 individual stakes winners across a broad range of classic races

At the time of Star Kingdom’s death in 1978 he had at least 42 sons standing at studs in Australia and New Zealand.

The voice that instantly said to the radio world that horses were racing at Newcastle.

From 1937 to 1980 he broadcast every race meeting at Newcastle Racecourse, both oncourse and through radio stations including 2HD, 2NX, 2NM and 2KY.

When he hung up his binoculars in 1980 he had called the winners of 44 successive Newcastle Cups.

TRAINER

Trainer – Broadmeadow

Commenced horse training in 1971 at Broadmeadow and over a career stretching some 30 years won more than 3000 races.

In addition to numerous Newcastle Trainers Premierships he also finished second in the Sydney Trainers Premiership on two occasions, the only occasion the feat had been achieved by a non-metropolitan trainer.

The trainer of many outstanding thoroughbreds, but none better than his champion Luskin Star.

Trainer – Broadmeadow

Newcastle premiership winning trainer who had considerable success in feature New south Wales races including the Golden Slipper, over a lengthy career.

In the 1980’s he successfully commenced targeting feature races during the Melbourne Spring Carnival, which was a trail blazing approach for a Newcastle trainer.

He was the first Australian trainer to achieve the feat of winning feature races at Royal Ascot with his outstanding horse Choisir in 2003.

JOCKEY

Jockey – Muswellbrook

So successful as an apprentice jockey, riding an Australian record of 558 winners, he lost his riding allowance at 18 and completed the final two years as an apprentice on equal terms with senior riders.

He was the first apprentice to win the Golden Slipper as an apprentice jockey on Century Miss in 1979.

Although riding with significant success in Europe and Asia, the pinnacle moment in his career was winning the 1994 Melbourne Cup on Jeune.

Retiring in 1998 he was described as both a jockey and a horseman who had great affinity with the horse.

Jockey – Cessnock

At the time of his induction had ridden 4265 winners, 499 of those as an apprentice jockey.

Those winners also included seven Group 1 victories over four decades.

In 2015 he was inducted into the Australian Racing Hall of Fame and also awarded an AM for significant services to the thoroughbred industry.

Throughout his career which commenced in 1973, trainers utilising his services were attracted to his exceptional patience, his judgement of pace and sheer horsemanship.

RACEHORSE

Chestnut gelding foaled 1927

The “Coalfields Champion” was famed as one of the most versatile gallopers, winning races from 4.5 furlongs to 2 miles after entering the Everton St Hamilton stables of trainer Les Haigh in 1930.

Throughout his career his most notable wins were the Caulfield Cup, Sydney Cup and W S Cox Plate. He went on to beat Peter Pan in the Rawson Stakes, Chelmsford Stakes and the AJC Spring Stakes.

On other occasions he ran second to Chatham in the Epsom Handicap, second to Peter Pan in the Melbourne Cup and second in the Metropolitan Handicap.

Rogilla was lauded for his tremendous will to win.

Chestnut colt, foaled 1974

The Max Lees trained colt shot to champion status in the 1977 Golden Slipper, destroying his opposition in race record time, which was followed by completing the two-year-old Triple Crown.

The next season the colt rewarded his many admirers with a hometown victory over Romantic Dream in the Cameron Handicap.

After being sold and transferring to the Bart Cummings stable, Luskin Star went on to win the Expressway Stakes, Phar Lap Stakes and the Galaxy.

Luskin Star then headed to a successful stud career, all of which was recognised by induction into the Australian Racing Hall of Fame in 2016.