King Joel and veteran jockey Peter Cuddihy were photographed returning to scale after winning at Ipswich on 7/11/06. Cuddihy immediately announced his retirement on returning to scale, so that he could go out a winner and Justracing was the only media outlet present at the time. King Joel was part owned (25%) by Trevor Titcomb and Trevor part owns four times Interdominion winner Blacks A Fake. Peter Cuddihy was riding as a fully fledged jockey at Rosehill on Saturday 30/11/1974 for his former boss Jack Denham.

In Part 2 of a three part series of articles today I look at the four main races that were run at Rosehill on Saturday 30/11/1974 and the four main races from the Gabba greyhound meeting on 22/5/1980.

In respect of the Australian newspaper Form Guide for Rosehill, the “experts” who were tipping in the paper that day were Tony Arnold (Australian), David McCamey (Australian), Glenn Robbins (Australian), Tom Brassell (Mirror), Ken Callander (Sportsman), Glenn Huxley (Best Bets), Keith Robbins (Telegraph), Max Presnell (Sun) and Ray Abbott (Herald).

The four main races, class wise, at that Rosehill meeting were all worth $6,000 in total prizemoney (you may recall Doomben’s prizemoney from last week’s article was either $2,600 or $3,000 per race) were a Welter, two Graduations and a Flying Handicap - and those fields read:

Race 2 – WELTER – 1500 METRES

a 1.5 = apprentice claiming 1.5 kilos

a 3 = apprentice claiming 3 kilos

RACE 4 – GRADUATION – 1200 METRES – 3YO FILLIES

RACE 5- FLYING – 1200 METRES

RACE 6 – GRADUATION – 2400 METRES

There are many interesting things we can note from all those names. For instance 1) Malcolm Johnston and Alan Denham were still apprentices as at 30/11/1974. 2) Max Lees is the father of current trainer Kris Lees who goes quite well at the caper. 3) Sid Brown is the father of Bruce Brown, the Brisbane trainer who won the 2002 Golden Slipper with Calaway Gal. 4) Ray Guy is the father of Gold Coast trainer Bryan Guy. 5) Neville Begg is the father of current trainer Grahame Begg. 6) All of the following jockeys - Ron Quinton, Malcolm Johnston, John Wade, Larry Olsen, Neville Voigt, Kevin Moses, Alan Denham, Mick Hood and Peter Stanley went on in later life to take out a trainer’s licence. In fact some of them still train, whilst others don’t. 7) Clarry Connor’s father must have been a trainer, as a "C. Connors jnr" had a runner in Race 2, so that would be the now aging Sydney trainer Clarry Connors. 8) The late trainer Keith Swann was the uncle of current Tamworth trainer Sue Grills who is having such a wonderful trot with her classy sprinter Border Rebel, so it goes without saying that Sue Grills would have learnt a lot from her uncle, who was also a renowned farrier. 9) I recall trainer John Rosenthal as being a very astute man with a horse and I fancy he retired a few years ago and was last known as living just outside of Ipswich. 10) None of the jockeys that rode on 30/11/74 are still riding in races today, but Peter Cuddihy, who from memory was apprenticed to Jack Denham, only retired a couple of years ago, after he had his final race ride at Ipswich, as per the above photo. As such, he would have been the last one to retire from race riding of all those named jockeys and apprentices.

The big wigs at the Gabba greyhounds on Thursday 26 June 1980, when the program cost 50 cents were: President Jack Houston, Vice Presidents Jim Neary and A. (Bunny) Hewton, Honorary Treasurer Headley White, whilst the committee comprised M.S. Byrne, P.D. Daly, P.P. Goddard, P.J. Hall (not the famous trotting driver), J.N. McKnoulty, M.S. Sullings, N.J. Tubman and R.L. Underwood. The General Manager was one of the nicest men I ever did meet – John Hicks.

The stewards panel consisted of W.H. (Bill) Brittan (Chairman), S. Howard, R.J. (Bob) Lambert, N.J. (Neville) Parker and R.E. Scoffell.

The course announcer was Mick Cox, the judge was R. Williams, the assistant judge was D. Styles, the starter was R. Dawson and the Lure Driver was J. Macdonald.

The “Publicity and Promotions Officer” was David Brasch.

The previous week’s winners from the 19/6/80 Gabba meeting were noted as being Borstal Lad (5/4 fav), Sierra Gulf (2/1), Kistadel (11/10 fav), Boris Knight (7/4 fav), Be A Whizz (12/1), Carrick Lee (3/1), Pretty New (7/2), Newton John (6/4), Uncle Steve (7/4 fav) and Cheeky Leonard (7/4 fav).

“Miss Perlita’s little brother Steel Barry, a white and black dog whelped August 1976 (Eddy Barry-Blue Perlita)” was advertised in the race book as standing at stud for a service fee of $200 for John Reimer, 232 Canvey Road, Ferny Grove (a Brisbane suburb).

Bookmaker A. (Andy) Pippos, who fields at Doomben or Eagle Farm each Saturday was noted as now fielding in the “main ring”, so obviously over the years he hasn’t gone broke as a bookmaker laying short priced favourites to dills. The race book stated all bookies “were compelled to bet the odds to lose $400” and furthermore “betting on a photo finish is not permissible”.

The main four races on the 10 event card were:

RACE 2 – WINTER CHASE – 704 METRES – Heat 1 ($1,120)

RACE 4 – 2^nd AND 3^rd GRADES – 558 METRES ($1,250)

RACE 7 – BEST 8 – 558 METRES ($1,500)

RACE 8 – WINTER CHASE – 704 METRES – Heat 2

Admission prices noted in the racebook were $2, whilst children under 14 were admitted free “if accompanied by an adult.”

Interesting to note that Race 7 Dog 8 was the top class bitch Smart Mission – and she was trained in Toowoomba by a chap named Ron Gilbert, who in recent years has switched codes – and today he owns and operates Highgrove thoroughbred stud outside Toowoomba. He bought a share in Beneteau earlier this year, prior to the colt racing in the Blue Diamond and Golden Slipper.

Part 1 of this series of three articles can be accessed by clicking HERE.