Jockeys:
Hugh Bowman: Bowman formed one of the greatest partnerships in the history of racing with Winx, the 2017 Australian Racing Hall of Fame inductee who registered 33 successive wins – including a record 25 at Group 1 level – before she was retired.
Bowman has amassed more than 2000 winners during a glittering career in the saddle and 88 Group One wins.
He has won four Sydney jockeys’ premierships and was also the champion apprentice in 1999/2000.
Brent Thomson: Won four W.S. Cox Plates in five years in the late-1970s and rode with great success internationally.
Known as The Babe, Thomson had a long and successful association with the late trainer C S Hayes.
Horses:
So You Think: A 10-time Group One winner who enjoyed enormous success in both the northern and southern hemispheres. Trained in Australia by Bart Cummings, he won the Cox Plate at only his fifth start in 2009, and defended his crown 12 months later.
Vo Rogue: Raced exclusively in Australia, but the bay gelding became a household name in the late 1980s and early ’90s thanks in part to his bold front-running style, which yielded 26 wins, 23 placings and more than $3.1 million.
Hall Mark: Won both the 1933 Victoria Derby and the Melbourne Cup, despite an injury-affected preparation. The courageous chestnut was retired to stud in 1936, boasting a career record of 18 wins and 25 placings.
Balmerino: Began his globetrotting career in New Zealand and Australia before enjoying success on the world stage, including victories at Hollywood Park in America and in the Goodwood Select Stakes in England. He also finished runner-up in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe before returning to his native New Zealand in 1978 to begin a stud career.
Trainers:
Des McCormick: A mong Australia’s leading trainers of steeplechasers and hurdlers between the 1930s and ’60s and also trained the great flat galloper Carbon Copy.
John Meagher: Won 26 Group One races including the 1985 Melbourne Cup with What A Nuisance, owned by his fellow Hall of Famer Lloyd Williams. Later trained 600 winners in Singapore.
Associates:
Patrick Lalor: Served as Victoria’s Chairman of Stewards with distinction for 17 years;
Sir Edward Williams: Chairman of the Queensland Turf Club in Brisbane for 11 years from 1980.
Sir Sydney Williams: Was for four decades the chairman of the famous ‘Cairns Amateurs’, helping to build a local race meeting into one of the richest regional racing carnivals in Australia.
