STEPHEN HOWELL, Racing writer
|
Melbourne Racing Club Spring Media Awards The Age's Stephen Howell has taken out the major print award at the annual Melbourne Racing Club Spring Media Awards, presented at Caulfield Racecourse today. Howell was recognised for his feature story on the enduring association between trainer Ron Maund and owner Kevin O'Brien. Age photographers Vince Caligiuri and Pat Scala received Outstanding Merit Awards for their coverage of the carnival, in which Mark Dadswell from Getty Images won Best Action Photo (which was published in The Sunday Age) and The Australian's Kelly Barnes Best Atmospheric/Events Photo. Monday 13, November 2006 |
|
|
One to keep an eye on RACING Ice Chariot's connections, who have formed an enduring partnership, hope he will carry them to Caulfield Cup glory, Stephen Howell reports. 'RON would love this picture," said Kevin, his mate of nearly 40 years. "He likes a horse with white eye." Well, owner Kevin O'Brien, 67, and trainer Ron Maund, 62, and their families have seen eye-to-eye for almost all of their time together in racing, an enduring association covering peaks and troughs and all the in-betweens that go with a sport/industry that becomes life itself. In the cold light of early morning at Caulfield on Tuesday, Maund said of the O'Briens, Kevin and wife Tanith: "These people aren't new blow-ins who think this racing game's easy. They know the highs and lows of racing better than most people. They crawled before they walked and they walked before they could run. "It's given me one of my greatest pleasures to see them there on Magic Millions day and then on Golden Slipper day and here on Caulfield and hopefully Melbourne Cup day with a chance and enjoying what they well deserve." The "chance" is Ice Chariot - and at $51, he is a rough chance – but as O'Brien said yesterday as he proudly showed The Age his Corinella property named Lauriston, he has wanted to have a Caulfield Cup runner since he was six years old. Don't get the wrong impression that O'Brien is a battler. Nothing could be further from the truth because Lauriston, bought six years ago when the O'Briens sold their big caravan and marine parts business, is an expensive showpiece with an 800-metre frontage on Western Port Bay looking to French Island. And it is getting bigger and better as the O'Briens are preparing to hive off their breeding operation from the 100-hectare home property to another of more than 50 hectares that they are developing only 10 minutes' drive down the road. That will be next year, and it is light years away from 1968 when O'Brien, wanting to race a horse with mates, asked former trainers' association chief Leo Schemnitz to recommend a trainer. "Try Ron Maund," said Schemnitz, of a young man fresh in Melbourne from Tasmania, where he had been private trainer to one of that state's biggest owners. Maund, a non-drinker, agreed to meet at the Turf Club Hotel near Caulfield racecourse and the next June, they had their first winner together, Fighting Legend, a cast-off from Bart Cummings. Proof is on the top left-hand corner of 100 finish-line pictures (five rows of 20) on the wall of the billiards room at Lauriston. The pictures stop at March 2005, but there are another 60 stacked underneath. The hanger is going to be busy. The 2005-06 season brought 49 winners, and this calendar year, the sprinting fillies Gold Edition and Pure Energy have earned big prizes, for placings as well as wins. Maund trains them and Ice Chariot at Toowoomba, in southern Queensland, having moved there a decade ago after long stints in Melbourne and at Ballarat. Son Ricky, 34, trains from Corinella, where there are grass and sand tracks. The O'Briens knew Ricky from birth, and he and his brothers holidayed with the O'Brien children when growing up. Now the O'Briens employ him. "Maybe he got thrown in the deep end a bit," said Ron of Ricky. "He was a jumping jockey one week and a horse trainer the next, and I think that's been a bit hard on Rick. It would have been a bit easier if Kevin's property and the number of horses hadn't developed much quicker than anyone intended. "Probably the pool's a little bit big at this stage, to tell you the truth. On the other hand, he's adapting and Kevin will adjust his property arrangement to suit . . . one way or another they should make it work." O'Brien said the racing part of his burgeoning farm "has its head above water". The bottom line has been helped by Ice Chariot's prizemoney ($510,000) and Pure Energy's $900,000 and Gold Edition's $620,000 and more than $300,000 from the sprinting mare Street Smart, who also will race in Lauriston's orange and green quarters at Caulfield tomorrow. The colours, with white trousers, make up the Irish flag. "What else would you expect with a name like O'Brien?" asked Tanith. The horses in work in Victoria and Queensland are only a small percentage of the 160 the O'Briens own, from new-born foals to weanlings, yearlings, two-year-olds and older racehorses and broodmares. The Age wandered the paddocks yesterday with O'Brien, Ron Maund and farm manager Paul Eden, who had just arrived back with Lauriston Rose, the grey mare in our picture - he had left at 3.30am with her and her Success Express foal in a two-horse float, waited while she was served by Bianconi at Nagambie, loaded her back on the float and brought her and her baby colt back to her favourite paddock. Business went on, on and off the property: Ricky took Encroacher in the Lauriston Thoroughbred Farm's six-horse truck to run in a maiden at Moe – he finished fourth – as the old mates inspected foals and yearlings. Maund had overseen Ice Chariot's work at Caulfield, where he is stabled on his cups campaign, before driving to the farm, an hour-and-a-half's drive from the CBD. By noon, he was off to Tullamarine to pick up "muscle man" Gary Wells, down from Queensland to massage the weekend runners. The O'Brien-Maund family relationship has been there since day one, but O'Brien opted out of racing midstream for eight to 10 years to ensure his business went ahead and his children got the secondary education he and Tanith wanted for them. Maund recalls that they got back on track the minute Tanith told him Kevin wanted to buy another racer. "I remember saying, no need for me to buy one for you," the trainer said. "Just take the Gay Bachelor half-sister to She Flys (who did just that on the racecourse). Come in half with us again, just as you went out. "They named it after their daughter, Gabriella. She was out of a flying machine, Miss Tanith, and she couldn't walk fast." O'Brien said that on moving to Corinella, he had intended to have half-a-dozen broodmares. This spring he has 23 mares served or waiting to be served, and is aiming at a well-bred pool of 30 to produce 23 to 25 foals a year to sell or race and from whom to breed. Rolling up his sleeves or signing the cheques, here is a man in his element, backed by a friend he describes as the most astute person he knows in racing. A cup for Ice Chariot would be the icing on the cake. Published: Friday, October 20, 2006 |
||
