Cult hero Flow Meter still going strong ahead of milestone 200th start

South Australian racing cult hero Flow Meter will notch his 200th career start this weekend before he is forced into retirement.

It’s a mark rarely seen in thoroughbred racing and highlights the evergreen 12-year-old’s long-term health and his zest for competition, a credit to trainers John Hickmott and Carrina Riggs.

Flow Meter’s numbers alone are astounding: 199 starts, 20 wins, 26 seconds, 27 thirds and $793,285 in prizemoney, competing across 10 different calendar years, at 15 different racecourses.

It’s all the more remarkable given he’s never been a star. He competed in a few Group races but has never been in the placings.

Flow Meter is your classic good, honest horse – the sort you’d love to own.

Racing’s history is not easily collated so just where he sits in the overall scheme of things is more guesswork than fact but it’s safe to say he’s a modern-day marvel.

Hickmott has heard stories of another horse from the southeast of SA having more than 200 starts – “before my time” – while a more recent benchmark is country NSW galloper Star Of Universe, who finished with 21 wins and 45 placings from 196 runs for $160,870 when he retired as a 14-year-old in 2015.

In any case, Hickmott doesn’t think there are any big secrets to Flow Meter’s longevity, he’s just a horse who loves racing and relishes his environment in Murray Bridge.

“It’s huge. In the modern era, there wouldn’t be too many to get to 200 starts,” Hickmott said.

“Trotters can do it but the gallopers don’t seem to.

“Financially, it’s been a remarkable effort. Nola, my sister and I race him ourselves, and, unbelievably, the breeder still gets some royalties. It’s a horse they couldn’t even sell.

“He just keeps keeping on.”

But the end of his career is nigh because when the calendar ticks over to August, he will retired, the result of a rule brought in a handful of years back that dictates horses aged 13 and older can no longer compete in Australia.

That is the only thing that can stop him as his form is still terrific – he hit the line strongly to finish fourth at Gawler last Saturday.

The stable hopes there are a couple of races still to come and it starts with two options this weekend, a BM80 at Morphettville Parks (1950m) on the Saturday or a BM64 at Bordertown (2000m) on Sunday.

The latter is the preference, if the conditions are suitable.

Beyond racing, Danny – that’s Flow Meter’s stable name – already has a job lined up.

“He’ll just be a paddock dad and he’ll be good at that,” said Hickmott, who confirmed the Murray Bridge Racing Club is set to name a race in his honour at the final meeting of the season on July 29.

“He’s a beautiful horse.”

Even though the Flow Meter racing story is coming to a close, Hickmott hopes to continue his legacy with a recruit called Mongolian Dragon, who is a spitting image.

“Strangely enough we got a horse sent over to us the other day and he’s a dead-ringer – with the white spot on his head about the same size,” Hickmott said.

“Robert (Hickmott) bought him in New Zealand a few years ago – he’s a four-year-old now – he had a few starts and the owners sacked him and they put him online and one of my friends bought him and said ‘see what you can do with him’.

“I told Kristi Evans about him and she said she’d be interested in training him but when we got him in, Carrina said ‘he looks just like Danny, he’s not going anywhere’.”

Flow Meter will get to start 200 and maybe even to start 201 before retirement at the end of this month despite the abandonment of Sunday’s Bordertown meet delaying the celebrations.

“There’s a BM78 over 2250m next Saturday at Morphettville, there’s another one at Balaklava on Wednesday the 27th, a BM62 over 2200m and then on the 29th, there’s a BM58 over 1800m at Murray Bridge,” trainer John Hickmott said on Sunday as he assessed the South Australian schedule for the remaining weeks of the racing season.

At 12 years old, officially 13 on August 1, Flow Meter will head into forced retirement with 200 starts, potentially 201 and ideally 21 wins to his name.

“He’ll more than likely go to town (Morphettville) next Saturday,” Hickmott said.

“We’ll enter for Saturday and then, on Thursday, we’ll enter for following Wednesday and then we’ll work out where to go.

“He might do one or he might do both.”

Flow Meter made his racing debut on November 27, 2013 over 1100m at Gawler, he broke his maiden at the same track at start six and backed it up with victory number two at start 7 in a 0-68 in town.

His most recent success was at Oakbank in March but, if the racing gods are with him, Flow Meter will salute again in the next fortnight before permanently heading to one of Hickmott’s Murray Bridge paddocks.