Country-trained gelding Body Bob is the rank outsider of the Doomben 10,000 field but that matters little to his jockey Danny Beasley.
Beasley, who has held a dual trainer-jockey licence for the past eight months, has announced this week he will be retiring from the saddle at the end of June.
Saturday’s feature could well be the final Group 1 ride of a decorated career that has spanned Australia and Singapore, but it will have a more significant aside.
Beasley was a close mate of the late Harry Eden, a gifted rugby league player of the late 1960s and 1970s, and the horse is named after one of Eden’s former teammates, rugby league great Bob McCarthy.
Body Bob is owned by several of Eden’s friends, who Beasley met through the former star player, and he says it will be extra special to ride the horse for them in one of Queensland’s biggest races.
“We all have that mutual connection through Harry, our mutual friend,” Beasley said.
“It will be special to ride this horse because this horse will bring us back together. I haven’t seen these guys for years and years.”
Beasley is based at Wagga Wagga and will head to Brisbane specifically to partner Body Bob.
The hoop hasn’t won a Doomben 10,000 before and he isn’t anticipating $126 betting apps outsider Body Bob adding his name to the race’s honour roll, but he is looking forward to the occasion.
“He will go out, he’ll lead, he’ll run his time. Where that takes him in the field, we’ll know on Saturday afternoon,” Beasley said.
“He’s racing the best sprinters in Australia. I Wish I Win is arguably number one at the moment, so it’s not an easy task but we’ll go there and enjoy the day.”
Beasley is also looking forward to the next chapter of his career.
While he still loves riding and says retiring from it will be bittersweet, he is excited to pour all his energies into training after being granted 10 boxes at Wagga.
Under the rules of a dual licence, he is currently restricted to having five horses, but he will be free to grow that number once he hangs up his saddle and already has the likes of Hong Kong-based trainer Mark Newnham and Neville Begg offering to add stock to his team.
“If you wait twelve months, they’re probably not going to be there, both stabling and horses. It was too good an opportunity to pass up,” Beasley said.
“I had a taste of it (training) in Singapore because I retired for a couple of years and was an assistant to Daniel Meagher. I know what’s involved, I was pretty much born in a stable.
“You know it’s going to be hard work and there’s going to be long days and challenges but when you’re working with this animal that has given you so much, it’s rewarding.”
