When Kingston Town won his first Cox Plate in 1980, he’d won 18 of 24 starts and five of those six defeats had been in Melbourne as he was a Melbourne maiden before he won that first Cox Plate as he’d run two seconds, two thirds and one fourth in Melbourne before winning the first of three Cox Plates by five lengths.
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In the four day Easter Carnival at Randwick in 1969 champion jockey, the late George Moore, rode 15 winners from 25 mounts, including six winners in succession. Moore rode a treble on the first day, five winners on the second day, a treble on the third day and four winners on the final day. Twelve of the 15 winners were trained by Tommy Smith.
George Moore turned 46 on 5 July 1969, the day he won the Doomben 10,000 on Black Onyx.
Eighteen days after winning the Doomben 10,000 on Black Onyx, George Moore smashed his pelvis, broke a finger, fractured a collarbone and had bruising and concussion after his mount Wilsight fell heavily. Nine weeks later Moore was back in the saddle, but he caused a sensation by banning Canterbury as being “unsafe”. He refused point blank to ride at the track which hosted nearly one third of all Sydney meetings.
The upshot of all that was that Ron Quinton went on to win that premiership. George Moore retired soon after he’d won the 2YO Triple Crown on Baguette, much to the delight of his wife Iris who’d begged him to retire after the Canterbury fall on 27 September 1969. Moore had reportedly told his wife he “wasn’t bowing out on his back.”
In his final race ride Moore was beaten a neck on Merry Jack by Cabodon and Des Lake.
However in his retirement George Moore was unsettled and nine months later returned to the saddle.
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Former top apprentice Gavan Duffy was the son of a jockey. His father, the late Bren Duffy, was a leading apprentice in his time in Ireland and he also rode with success in Europe, England and South Africa.
Bren and his Australian born wife arrived in Australia in 1960 and Bren did work as a trackwork rider for Bart Cummings for a short period, but worked outside of racing in Sydney and Adelaide. Whilst Gavan Duffy and his sister Kerry were only little children, they spent seven years in India where Bren had accepted a job as a trainer.
When Gavan Duffy was only 14 his late father sent him to England to the stables of Harry Wragg at Newmarket, but he was forbidden by the English rules of racing to get a licence to ride in races until he was 16.
Gavan Duffy had two rides in England before he returned to be apprenticed to Randwick to Albert McKenna. He had his first Australian ride just before he turned 17, on a horse called Down Under at Wyong in May 1977. In June of 1977 Duffy rode his first winner, Charming Bandit at Nowra. His first city win was aboard Black Opaque at Rosehill in February 1978.
One of Duffy’s best days in the saddle was on Ipswich Cup day in July 1980 when he rode four winners and included in those four winners was the two feature winners on the day – the Ipswich Cup on Clive Comet and the Eye Liner Stakes on Mighty Kingdom.
Gavan Duffy also rode five winners at a meeting twice in his career, firstly at the Bundamba track in Ipswich on 3/8/81 - and then 22 months later, on 25/6/83, he repeated the effort at Eagle Farm.
