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Ming Dynasty |
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Gay3
Moderator Group Joined: 19 Feb 2007 Location: Miners Rest Status: Offline Points: 51818 |
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Posted: 17 May 2021 at 2:25pm |
What a great story told by Bart!!
In Bart Cummings’ autobiography ‘My Life’, Bart tells a very humorous tale about old Ming Dynasty. “Many years later I trained a very popular grey horse called Ming Dynasty. He won two Caulfield Cups in his long career, and Valmae and I part-owned him as well as me training him. After Ming Dynasty retired, we gave him to the Australian Jockey Club (AJC) as a clerk of the course mount, a job for which greys were favoured. Well, Ming Dynasty wouldn’t behave. I heard stories of him throwing his rider and wreaking all sorts of havoc. Then, about two years after he retired, I was sitting in my office at our Randwick stables when one of the staff came in and said “Boss, there’s a strange grey horse here standing in a stall – I don’t know whose it is.” I walked out and took a look. The horse had walked into a box, turned around and stood there waiting for somebody to close the door. I thought “Hang on, he’s standing in Ming Dynasty’s old box … Hang on he looks like Ming Dynasty, but it can’t be; he’s a clerk of the course horse now … Hang on …” And then the phone rang. It was someone from the AJC, saying Ming Dynasty had wandered off. Had I seen him? Yes, my old friend had returned. Ming Dynasty had appreciated a good home, and preferred to be here with the experts.
Diane Stampalia At Bart’s Sydney stable Ming would stand all day in the doorway without closing the door if you let him. He knew exactly how he should be trained and worked more than most people. |
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Wisdom has been chasing me but I've always outrun it!
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Jamal
Champion Joined: 25 Jul 2011 Status: Offline Points: 8659 |
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Winner of 2 Caulfield Cups
Edited by Gay3 - 23 May 2021 at 5:45pm |
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Australian racing is only good up to 1400m in terms of world standards when it comes to depth/quality in numbers
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Lord Hybrow
Champion Joined: 05 Jul 2015 Location: Australia Status: Offline Points: 6643 |
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Not to mention 2 Australian Cups & heaps of other big races. 76 starts for 17 wins, 13 seconds & 9 thirds - $547,825
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Passing Through
Champion Joined: 09 Jan 2013 Location: At home Status: Offline Points: 79533 |
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Career Highlights: TWO YEARS: 1975 -1976 Starts 6: 1-2-2-1 THREE YEARS: 1976-1977 Starts 16: 6-3-3-4 FOUR YEARS: 1977-1978 Starts 21: 5-4-2-10 FIVE YEARS: 1978 -1979 Starts 7: 3-0-2-2 SIX YEARS: 1979 -1980 Starts 14: 1-2-0-11 SEVEN YEARS: 1980 -1981 Starts 12: 1-1-0-10 |
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Carioca
Champion Joined: 13 Nov 2015 Status: Offline Points: 21698 |
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He's got more highlights than Rod Stewart's hair !
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Lord Hybrow
Champion Joined: 05 Jul 2015 Location: Australia Status: Offline Points: 6643 |
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He raced before my time but remember Sydney racecallers mentioning his name as the Clerk of the Course at Randwick when I started following racing in the late 80’s. From what I recall he had that job for many years & lived to quite a ripe old age.
There’s an interesting race in his record - 25/3/78 he won a race called the AJC Autumn Stakes a WFA race over 2000m, beating another iron horse in Hyperno. Looking at the Studbook, this 1978 race was the last running of the AJC Autumn Stks - what happened to this race? It had been run since 1871 & seems like a major carnival race having been won by Wakeful, Peter Pan, Beau Vite & Tulloch. And it seemed like it was still going strong in the 1970’s with the likes of Ming, Hyperno, Balmerino, Gunsynd & Rain Lover all contesting it. So equivalent of G1 standard of the time. Any racing historian shed any light on the sudden disappearance of the AJC Autumn Stks? Can’t imagine a race club just deciding to discontinue a G1 race suddenly these days. |
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Grey Affair
Champion Joined: 24 Jun 2017 Location: Queensland Status: Offline Points: 2976 |
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I don't know the answer but the following year, the distance of the Rawson Stakes was increased from 1750m to 2000m & the Queen Elizabeth Stakes was reduced from 2400m to 2000m. The Tancred Stakes had also been changed from a handicap to WFA in 1977. |
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Grey Affair
Champion Joined: 24 Jun 2017 Location: Queensland Status: Offline Points: 2976 |
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The Chairman's Handicap (2600m) was also added to the schedule in 1979. Perhaps the Autumn Stakes was squeezed out because of all those changes although I would thought the AJC could have continued with the Autumn name rather than Chairmans. |
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Grey Affair
Champion Joined: 24 Jun 2017 Location: Queensland Status: Offline Points: 2976 |
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With 1979 being the first year of Group racing in Australia, there was probably a bit of fiddling around with races & distances trying to sort out the best approach. |
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Lord Hybrow
Champion Joined: 05 Jul 2015 Location: Australia Status: Offline Points: 6643 |
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Thanks GA for the history lesson. You’re probably right with the AJCAutumn Stakes simply being squeezed out of the carnival.
It’s probably high time racing administrators pruned (or downgraded) a few of the current G1 races from the calendar to ensure a more competitive racing program at the top end.
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