Victorian Amateur Turf Club (VATC), which conducted the race meetings at Caulfield and Sandown. (He would later become a life member, a committee member and vice president.) Seccull had continued his father’s successful construction business, JR & E Seccull (which was involved in the development of Melbourne landmarks such as Treasury Place and Westgarth Theatre), through the late 1950s, 60s and 70s. By the mid-1970s, Seccull began to scale back the construction business, moving into smaller developments and property management. His racing hobby became more of a focus and financing it was well within his means.
Now this hobby was beginning to pay for itself. Tumerah had only had a brief racetrack career but she’d been a winner, and Salyut—who had won more than twenty races—was another successful horse to come from the Hoysted-Seccull partnership. Additionally, Seccull had shared ownership of Tavel, a more-than-handy stayer trained by Bart Cummings.
Seccull preferred not to own too many horses at any one time, and with Tumerah and Salyut both in the Hoysted stables when the Manihi colt arrived, it wasn’t the easy sell that some had assumed. Initially, Seccull was reluctant—the hobby budget would need to be stretched back into the red if this purchase proceeded. Hoysted needed to persuade Seccull with reminders of Tumerah’s promise and Ed McKeon’s impressions from the recent sales.
For Seccull, the timing was lousy as he felt he had enough horses already. One solution to help de-risk the situation was to bring in a partner to go halves. This was entertained, calls were made but the responses were unfavourable.
While the matter of ownership was being resolved, the colt was broken-in by Ross McDonald, with time divided between the Mordialloc stables and another property a little further south-east of Melbourne. Throughout this form of pre-training the colt excelled, accepting the handling and gear, having somebody sit on his back, some barrier education, as well as some short bursts of running. His behaviour did waver occasionally into that of a cheeky juvenile, as he attempted to bully other horses. He may have been young, but he already understood that he was bigger and more powerful than the others.
McDonald felt he was a natural and a gifted runner. Not many eased through a horse-breaker’s hands in such a manner. McDonald was quick to report that the colt had all the attributes of his sister. Plus, he seemed to have the body to absorb and harness the power—a quality Tumerah lacked, hence why she was prone to injury.
Now well into his fifties, Bon Hoysted had heard great things from horse-breakers before. For various reasons, such glowing reports don’t automatically equate to glorious racetrack success. Nevertheless, it was the news he was hoping for and McDonald was a trusted and vital part of the training operation. McDonald’s high praise was taken at face value. The Manihi colt was being earmarked for the early two-year-old races, which were only a few short months away. There was no time to waste.
It was almost mid-year before the question of ownership was finally settled. After various co-ownership schemes fell through, Seccull decided to take on sole ownership. The glowing pre-training report and Hoysted’s promise that the horse would be at the races sooner rather than later, ultimately convinced Seccull to part with more of his hard-earned cash.
The young horse was immediately sent up to Yarra Park, Seccull’s 650-acre property at Gruyere, right at the foothills of the Yarra Ranges to Melbourne’s north-east. There the colt was promptly gelded. He had already become so big, heavy and strong that the decision was an easy one to make. A choice to leave him ‘as-is’ would have most likely led to an overgrown beast full of hormones, and therefore much more difficult to handle.
The gelding procedure was followed by a short break on Seccull’s farm before the horse returned to training. It was time to find out just how fast he could run.
2
The Hardworking Kiwi
Gary Willetts was annoyed. This was unusual for the easy-going New Zealander, who had recently moved across the Tasman to further his exceptional career as a jockey. Willetts was beaten on a horse at Moonee Valley—one that was prepared by George Hanlon, a horseman Willetts rode for in both races and trackwork. The trainer was known to blame jockeys in defeat and he certainly let Willetts know about this one. Upon exiting the racecourse later, the humble Kiwi decided henceforth to exclude Hanlon from his trackwork rounds at Epsom.
The following Monday, Willetts steered his vehicle into a different driveway at Epsom. Instead of heading in the direction of horses trained by George Hanlon, he made for the lot prepared by Bon Hoysted. Good jockeys were in high demand at trackwork because of their experience. They assisted and collaborated with trainers on where to aim their horses for upcoming races. Hoysted duly greeted Willetts with a grin and several horses to ride.
* * *
Born in New Zealand in 1943, Gary Willetts devoted his childhood to further his dream of riding horses. At thirteen, he started working for trainer Fred Smith during school holidays. Not long after, he began an apprenticeship for the same trainer and had his first race ride in 1959. For the next fifteen years, he consistently kept himself in the top five on the national jockeys’ premiership in his homeland. He made the occasional trip to Australia to ride and had success with top-class stayer Battle Heights in the 1974 Cox Plate, Sydney Cup and Queen Elizabeth Stakes.
It was the week of the Queen Elizabeth Stakes victory that Willetts was first introduced to Bob Hoysted, brother of Bon and a successful trainer in his own right. Bob had a two-year-old—Scamanda—entered for the Champagne Stakes, and asked Willetts to ride him. After accepting the mount, Scamanda was ultimately scratched from the race, but Bob promised that one day he would make it up to the Kiwi if he ever returned to Melbourne. A seed had been planted.
Eighteen months later, the Melbourne spring of 1975 was a career highlight for Willetts. It all started with a lucky pick-up ride minutes before the Moonee Valley Cup for Bart Cummings on Holiday Waggon. Willetts made the most of the opportunity in the quagmire that afternoon. The following week, he piloted How Now to victory in the Wakeful Stakes at double-figure odds for Colin Hayes. On Oaks Day, Bob Hoysted stayed true to his word and engaged Gary Willetts to ride Scamanda in the Linlithgow Stakes. The pair crossed the line first. That spring was so successful, Willetts packed up from his Matamata base and moved to Melbourne permanently.
Willetts was a hard-working freelancer. When Epsom opened its gates at 3.30am for trackwork, he had his helmet and jodphurs on and was ready to ride his first horse of the morning. In an era where jockeys managed themselves, this was the most effective way of guaranteeing rides. Loyalty came from riding work.
Before then, Bon Hoysted had occasionally used Willetts at the races, but their newly laid trackwork arrangement had lasted all of one week before an unnamed yearling appeared from Mal Seccull’s Gruyere property and their relationship grew. The yearling hadn’t been away for too long, so changes to his bulging physique were minor. He was already nudging 550 kilograms—a hundred kilograms above the average weight for a horse his age.
On a chilly and dark Monday morning in late July 1977, the Manihi gelding got his first taste of the Epsom Training Track, a facility that held race fixtures until 1936 and was now used by over forty licensed trainers to prime their thoroughbreds for action. Bon Hoysted had one of the larger stables in the area.
Willetts was legged aboard the massive yearling and something stood out to him before they even took a step.
‘He had this huge head that looked all out of proportion with the rest of his body.’
The jockey didn’t know what to expect and as they walked to the track, Bon reminded him that he had only recently been broken-in. Willetts lengthened his stirrups for a little more balance and control before getting a feel for the chestnut. The morning exercise was to be no more than a basic induction to the surrounds of the training centre, which had several different tracks. There was an outside sand track, the course proper (with a circumference of around 1800 metres), another sand track (which would later become woodfibre), the ‘B’ grass, an inside sand track and the most inner track (which was a 1300-metre hurdle track).
Horse and rider trotted around the outside sand track for a few minutes before gently cantering off and then just running along a little quicker over the