A son of a gun made a cameo appearance at Doomben on Saturday … and it was a winning one, although you had to look past the presence of champion trainer Chris Waller in the winner’s enclosure, past the lime and black and white checked sleeves silks carried by Tommy Berry … and past the Rough Habit Plate winner, Imperialist, to find him.
Harry Cahill, the son of multiple Group 1 winning rider Michael Cahill, had just landed his first winner as a strapper … and there was no messing about here getting that landmark win on the scoreboard with a Group 3 winner no less … and that at a starting price of $61.
Both Waller and Berry showed their pleasure at being part of a moment which is just a small part of a journey young Harry has long since set himself on.
“Michael Cahill’s young boy is a lovely young man with a bright future,” said Waller. “He is doing the hard yards at the moment. Great family.”
And from Tommy Berry … well, he met the strapper with a big smile on the return to scale, a smile which got even broader when he posed with the young man for the post-race photo, all rounded off with a warm handshake.
Harry Cahill gave a brief smile of his own for the photo and then stayed on just long enough to give Channel 7 a brief interview but, basically, he remained pretty much poker-faced. This was a serious business and Cahill was taking it seriously. He still had a horse to look after.
For the fifteen-year-old working for the Chris Waller stable now brings obvious benefits of its own in terms of packing education and experience into what can be a steep learning curve.
“He’s not working full time for Chris Waller,” explained Michael Cahill. “They have been good enough to give him a bit of hands-on experience.
“He is going to the trade college in Robina and for his work experience … he did that for the Waller stable. He had a couple of weeks work in the stables, and he’s got more of that to do in a couple of weeks-time … so, not full time, but he is aligned with the stable anyway.
“They have been good to him. With the work experience the senior staff there … Lofty and Georgia … were a great help to him in general and they identified the horses they thought he could handle. I don’t think anyone expected that horse to win. We thought it was more about getting experience and now he’s strapped a Group 3 winner!
“Harry has just started riding trackwork a few weeks ago. He has been riding Pagato for Jay Bellamy. He’ll do that for a while until he gets more experience under his belt and then he will progress to where he is riding more horses.
“I’m still riding trackwork so it will be good to ride trackwork with him.
Cahill already had enjoyed a good leg-up into the industry with his father, Michael, being as good a mentor as you likely to find, both in terms of honing riding skills as well as instilling the required disciplined and dedicated work ethic.
And Harry’s mother Maxine, being an equestrian coach, also provides a solid foundation behind that.
For all of that, it is still up to Harry to do the hard work required … then, now and moving forward … to get where he wants to be and, so far, there are absolutely no signs of him flinching at the challenge.
