MANIKATO – A DOOMBEN 10,000 HERO – BEAT A 100/1 CHANCE THAT GOT AWFULLY CLOSE TO HIM

26/05/16

It’s funny how a humanoid, on occasions, can’t remember what they did five minutes ago, yet other memories – often from as far back as childhood – are indelibly imprinted into one’s mind.

The Doomben 10,000 of 1979 may well have been run 37 years ago, yet I can still remember it as if it were yesterday. You see a bloke who I knew was a friend of the owner of a horse that was running in the race. The horse was the 100/1 shot Casca. Price assessors, bookies and the handicapper, the people who I always regard as the three smartest entities in racing gave Casca no hope. When the Friday form guides came out for the meeting Casca was 100/1 – so two of the “three smartest entities” in racing gave the horse no hope. The other of the trio, the handicapper, gave the horse Buckley’s also, as he handicapped him with just a postage stamp weight of 47kgs. Back then the Doomben 10,000 was a handicap race and when Casca’s form was lined up with both fellow Queensland horses and visiting interstate equine athletes – put simply, that’s all the weight his CV was worthy of – the minimum weight.

Today, the Doomben 10,000 is no longer a handicap race as it’s been switched to a weight-for-age event long ago. In fact if Casca was racing on Saturday in Brisbane with 47kgs there are probably only about one jockey who would be able to ride him. A metropolitan licensed apprentice, like Beau Appo, might get down to 47kgs from his normal 49kgs riding weight. Interestingly no horse of the cumulative 97 that are engaged to race on Saturday at Doomben in the eight races has been handicapped with less than 54kgs. How the world has changed, yet back in 1979 there would have been a plethora of lightweight jockeys who could have been legged aboard. Names like Fred Marsland, Fred Honnery, the late Graham Ireland, Michael Kerr, Gavin Birrer, Kerry Smith, Russell Beauchamp, the late Gary Palmer, Pat Sant, Ron Doyle, Norm Stephens, Mick Dittman and Glen Killen all come to mind as talented jockeys who could all have ridden at 47kgs way back in 1979 if they needed to.

It’s also funny to sit here and reminisce and remember that back in the “good old days”, if you were in the know, you could actually get a bet on with a bookmaker at Friday’s The Courier Mail price, so whatever price the horse came out at in the form guide you simply had go to the bookies house during Friday and pay him for your bet – and you were on. Again I say “how the world has changed”. There’s no need to do that today as markets go up soon after the fields come out and modern day price assessors are sometimes off the mark with their early prices.

Anyway back to the score at the Test and on the Friday afternoon before the big race this acquaintance, Peter, gave me the good oil that “they think Casca can win the Doomben 10,000”. I thanked him very much, waited until he walked out of sight then rolled on the ground doing Louie The Fly impersonations, thinking to myself that it is no wonder bookies are millionaires. When I got home that night I commented to my besotted bride of then three years that, Peter has officially gone mad, the stupid person (‘stupid person’ being a substituted one word I actually called him) told me Casca would win the 10,000″.

How the hell could Casca be a hope? You see there was a pretty handy horse in the race from Melbourne called Manikato. He was only a 3YO and that “good judge” bloke, the handicapper, had given him 58 kilograms, just 11 kilograms more than that minimum weighted Casca. Interestingly like champions of the ilk of Tulloch and Gunsynd before him, Manikato had been unwanted as a yearling, having been sold for just $3,500. It’s a fact that Manikato had to be gelded because of his poor attitude, but out on the racetrack of dreams, the son of the 1968 VRC Newmarket winner Manihi and the Natural Bid mare Markato, would prove to be a champion.

As a 2YO he brilliantly won two Group 1 races, firstly the 1978 Blue Diamond Stakes at Caulfield in Melbourne, before going to Sydney and winning the 1978 Golden Slipper in a time of 1.10.7. Manikato won both those Group 1 features when trained by Bon Hoysted, but when Bon Hoysted died suddenly not long after Manikato’s Golden Slipper win, his brother Bob took over the training of the horse.

And only one horse had won the Golden Slipper in quicker time than Manikato ran in 1978, since the inaugural running of the race over two decades earlier in 1957 – and that was when another champion called Luskin Star recorded 1.10.0 in 1977.

After a spell, Manikato came back as a 3YO to win the Caulfield Guineas in sensational style. In an action packed Guineas, regular jockey Gary Willetts managed to settle Manikato just off the pace. Approaching the home turn, Willetts was boxed in on the rails, but he rode hard into a narrow opening. Manikato and the classy grey colt Karaman bumped heavily, but whilst Manikato came out of the interference relatively unscathed and raced away to beat Karaman, stewards were unimpressed. Willetts copped a three months suspension over his ride – a suspension term that was reduced on appeal.

Manikato won his only Brisbane start, the then Rothmans Doomben 10,000 and in victory his handicap weight of 58 kilos equalled the weight carrying record for a 3YO. In an exciting race, the handy Sydneysider Bernard led for home, but Manikato stalked him into the straight. Manikato soon shook off Bernard and dashed to the front and looked set for easy victory. In his call, the late, great gentleman racecaller Vince Curry exclaims, “Manikato got clearly to the lead with 100 metres to go, Steel Blade (is) driving at him, Imposing coming at Manikato. Manikato the leader, Casca flying home late, but Manikato I think”. That bloody 100/1 shot Casca had flown home and run second – and needed just one or two more hops to cause what would have been the racing boilover of the century. I never did laugh again at any of Peter’s tips in life, in fact I yearned for the next time he’d tell me another Casca, but it never did happen. Imagine even having $10 each way on a 100/1 winner back then. What a windfall for a young family starting off, given that you could buy a nice home with nothing to spend on it for $40,000.

In his career, Manikato won five consecutive William Reid Stakes – 1979, 1980, 1981, 1982 and 1983 – at the first five runnings of the race when it was contested as a WFA race, not a handicap. Manikato also very nearly won five consecutive Futurity Stakes as well. He won that race on three consecutive occasions – 1979, 1980 and 1981, ran second to Galleon in 1982 then he won it again in 1983.

If there was but one day in 20th century racing, across the three codes, that you could pick to be at the races, it would probably be Cox Plate day of 1982. Manikato became the second horse in Australian racing history to earn one million dollars in prizemoney that day when he won the Moir Stakes, whilst later the same afternoon the original equine millionaire, Kingston Town, won his third successive Cox Plate. Many greats have won two Cox Plate’s since it was first run in 1922 – horses like Phar Lap, Chatham, Young Idea, Beau Vite, Tranquil Star, Flight, Hydrogen, Tobin Bronze, Sunline and Northerly, but none has – and probably never will – equal the feats of Kingston Town on Cox Plate day, October 23rd, 1982.

Shortly after running second to classy grey mare Emancipation in the 1983 George Ryder Stakes in Sydney, Manikato contracted a virus that would eventually take his life. The virus mystified all the leading vets in the country. He lost his battle with the virus in early 1984 and is buried at the Moonee Valley racetrack where he won his five William Reid Stakes. In his illustrious career he had won 29 races, run 8 seconds and 5 thirds from 47 starts and had earned $1,154,210 in prizemoney.

As Doomben 10,000 day comes around each year, it is indeed timely to reflect on a wonderful galloper from Melbourne who graced us with his presence just the once – and whose weight carrying record for a 3YO has never been bettered in a race that dates way back to 1933. In an amazing irony, as I stated previously, the race is now run at weight-for-age, but as a May 3YO in the Doomben 10,000 on Saturday, some 37 years after his famous victory, he’d actually be asked to carry less than his 58kgs, as he’d only be asked to carry 57kgs under the weight-for-age scale. And Casca as a much older gelding would have to carry 59kgs, or 12kgs more, meaning the weight turnaround in favour of Manikato would be an incredible 13kgs (Manikato down 1kg and Casca up 12kgs) which according to the late Clif Cary’s “three pounds to a length” theory, would mean Manikato would beat Casca home by 9.53 lengths.

It would have been grossly unfair if Casca had run the young budding champ down that afternoon in May of 1979, for ability wise, they were chalk and cheese. The handicapper rated Casca (47 kilos) 11 kilograms – or over one and a half stone in the old weight scale – inferior to Manikato (58 kilos). When the judge called a halt, the handicapper could have surely smiled and poured himself a quiet drink in celebration, for he was within a few inches of being correct.

What an amazing irony it was that two sets of brothers would be so closely associated with the two horses that hit the line locked together in that Doomben 10000 of 1979, as Manikato’s original trainer Bon Hoysted passed away suddenly and his brother Bob took over Manikato’s training, whilst Casca was trained in Brisbane by Barry Miller and his younger brother Trevor, himself a registered trainer, was a part-owner of Casca.

And reflecting on Manikato’s narrow victory, isn’t it funny in racing how champions have a habit of having their head in front on the line and how handicappers more often than not are regularly spot on in their assessment?

Manikato is buried in “Manikato’s Garden” at Moonee Valley racecourse, the scene of some of his greatest victories.

Sadly the 2016 Doomben 10,000 has attracted just 10 starters and there seemingly has been a chorus of negativity surrounding that fact. But right here tomorrow I’ll show you how many horses started in the last Doomben 10,000 that was run as a handicap and in fact I’ll name the entire field and their jockeys and prices. Then for all other races run on that day I’ll list the placegetters and their jockeys and prices.

Don’t forget as previously advised, there will be a Friday website story going up on Justracing each Friday, up to and including Stradbroke day, to complement the current Ubet banner advertising. And you can click on their banner above now to find out what offers they currently have happening for this weekend.

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