Rogilla Better Horse Than Peter Pan

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 69, 22 March 1941, Page 4 (Supplement)

Rogilla Better Horse Than Peter Pan

My Turf Secrets —By Darby Munro

I suppose I might seem a little too enthusiastic to some people, but I honestly think Rogilla was a better performer than Peter Pan. I have ridden them both, so I should be the best judge. Probably not many people know the full story of Rogilla and his numerous injuries.

TER you have read this story 1 I think I will have convinced you he was the better of the two. Rogilla. was I>i• -i 1 at llavilah, Scone, hv Mr. 1111 nll • r White. onr of tin; groat- ' sport-men \n-tralian racing has ever k lIDWII. He pat-sed liim over to his. sen. lmt Mr. T.i'k lliiiuh was {in kv enough to .AI. (lie lime. I.es 1 ivo<l at Newcastle. From the time lie. saw Hie rneo tra<-k, Kogilla took a liking to it. Ho was one of tin" nio«t powerful animals I li.no c\er ridden. Ito was as game as they make 'em, find must, have had a heart t.wicc the size nf most other thoroughbreds. As a (liree year-old lie won his firsr. ruee at Menangle. It was a maide.n event, as he was having only his second start in a. race. Haigh, wisely, gave liini time to develop as a. two year-old. The Menanglo race was worth £33, and he ran the seven furlongs in 1.30, winning from Mountain View and Prismatic. There were 18 starters that day. but I did. not ride him. That was the start of a career which I think was the. most, illustrious in Australian racing in my short life. Kogilla was a marvel. lie suffered numerous injuries, met trouble in races nnd sustained track accidents, and lie nlsn suffered acutely from foot trouble.. Once I saw him with his head crushed in. lie looked a "goner" to me, but he survived and we.nt on to win more races. ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ OX FA" a. horse with Rogilla's great heart could have continued racing, Buffering the foot trouble that he did. Frequently after exercise his shoes used to di;op olf. That tells you how bad his feet were. There was nothing solid to nail the plates to, but his gaineness always carried tho day. I will never forget my first association with Kogilla. I looked at him and I thought lie was rather plain-looking. I rode him in eeveral gallops and found that he was a beautiful mover, although he tried to show me that he waft tho boss. A bit inoro about that later. In March, 1032, I could have ridden liini in a race at Kandwick, but instead I preferred Jaeko. Jaeko started a screaming hot favourite, but Kogilla beat him. A week later Jaeko won the Doncaster, but as lie carried'only 6.10 it was too light- for me to have the mount. On the. eamo day Kogilla was in the Vnucluse Handicap—seven furlongs—with 0.8. On Doncaster running he looked a good thing, but h« won by only half a length. In my opinion it was a super performance. During the running Rogilla broke down. I thought he was going to collapse, but the courage which enabled him to ■win much better raccs later on stood to him. From that day I decided that here •was a horse and a half.

HO\VK\ KK. I wa- iiuablc to ride liim the following sea-mi when he won the laiillii-ld and Sydney (,'ups.

lie might have added to his great record by winning the Kpsom or the. Metropolitan, or both, only for an accident.

1 was riding him out to track exercise shortly before the 1033 spring carniva' at Kandwick.

Another horse collided with him, an,l I went spinning through the air aiul struck my head aunin«t a poet. It was all ri 14lit lor Rogilla, but wlie.ll 1 lie I'ji-oni wa- run 11 it* next clay 1 was in lioj-jiit.i] in> tead of being QfU him in tlio big race. *" My old colleague. Sid Cracknell, rode Rogilla, but wa* bealen half a length by Chatham. Two days later, with the Newcastle jockey, George Robinson, in the saddle. Rogilla was beaten only halt a length by Penis Boy in the Metropolitan. After Randwick Rogilla went to Me! bourne, and despite the shocking stale of his feet, he won the Can I field Cup, ridden by Robinson. At that time I had not recovered from the track accident, but f was fortunate enough to be able to ride, him in the Melbourne Stakes, a eight-for-age event, 011 Derby Day. What a moral beaten! Ho lost many length* at the start through swerving away just a* the tapes were released, yet he ran l'eter Pan a great race and was beaten only a neck. Goodness knows what he would have, done if everything had been fair at the start. The barrier incident was a new one 011 me. ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ PR FAMOUSLY, in Sydney, he had never misbehaved at flie start, but something must have bitten him. because. after the Melbourne Stakes, it. was only a lluke when he left the barrier. lies Haigh and I tried to fathom it out, but we were baffled. I thought it might have been just pure pig-headedncss, because he was a strongheaded horse, who although knowing that I was on top, always tried to get his own way. Rogilla was such a great horse that perhaps ho thought he could give the opposition a start and a beating! However, front that day on he always caused me trouble at the barrier. 1- After he won the Sydney Cup the I following autumn, Haigh thought he was a certainty for the A..T.C. Plate — two miles and a quarter—weiglit-for-age. Peter Pan was a runner, and was oddson. Even the email punters raked tip every penny they could to put it on Peter. Itogilla again beat himself by a bad 6tart. He lost nearly half a furlong, and that was the end of the section. In this race he was again ridc'an by the Newcastle bov, Robinson. I would have been on Rogilla, but at the time I was riding for Bailey Payten's stable. We never saw any more of Robinson after that. He was a most capable rider. Wisely he looked after the presents he received, and I understand he interested himself in a small coal mining concern. With his father and brothers he worked this, and as far as I know they have got a comfortable living out of it.

then on I rode Rogilla regu•T larlv. He was a beggar, but taking a lesson from my clear old dad, I treated him like a human being. I made a fuss of him, and. believe it or not. at the finish ho was like a human to me. I would let him have his head, but at the same time I would carefully study tin; reason why he was so cranky. I could see he was a nervous type who had to be kidded to. I did the kidding because I realised that here was a great horse, and I still say dear old Rogilla was an ornament to the Australian turf. I could use up perhaps a page telling of his great efforts. There were so many of them. Here is one that is outstanding. It was in a. si\" furlongs at Warwick Fiirin, the important Liverpool Handica p. Everybody lielieved that. Rogilla was purely a stayer, and that they would run over him in a sprint. However, this was another ease in which class told. Les Haigh and I knew he was jumping out of his skin, and 1 believe Les got 10 to 1 for his money. For a change, Rogilla was on his best behaviour at the barrier. I got him away well, but, naturally, he could not go with them early. I was surprised, because on his track work I thought he would be with them, just like many other good horses, sprinter, or stayer, fiivt up. You've seen that happen many a time. However, along he went, but with a little less than a furlong and a half to go he was last. I was beginning to lose hope, because the straight at Warwick Farm is really only a breeze home. Frankly I didn't think he could win, but suddenly he unwound a burst that nearly jolted me out of the saddle. I have never been 011 a horse who has come home so fast. I was beginning to think—well if it was only another furlong I would be a certainty. Now, don't think I'm piling the agony on, but cxactly 15 yards from the winning post he was still three lengths behind the leader, Vista. But Rogilla had giant strides. He grabbed Vista in the very last bit, and won by a short head. + + + + I'VE often heard good judges say that no horse can give weight and a startto a rival, but I'll always argue that Rogilla was the exception. Everybody remembers a smart horse Vista was. Rogilla gave him 211b, an enormous start over the last furlong, yet beat him. Neither Peter Pan, nor any other horse in the last 15 years, could have done what Rogilla did, with the exception of Pliar Lap, who was a freak. Rogilla turned on one of the most marvellous performances it was possible to witness. No wonder the punters shrieked the stand down. As I rode for my life over the last 50 yards I heard the shouts in a strange tongue. 0 They were the coalies from Newcastle. Rogilla was their idol, and they came down to back liim wherever thev could get set. I won the 1934 Melbourne Cup on Peter Pan, and that, was another super performance which I will discuss later. Rut the day was to come when I was able to weigh the merits of Peter and Rogilla. Rogilla was always his master in weight-for-age races. Peter, a big, robust and restive stallion, was ready to fight or savage all comers if he was in a sour mood. He was rarely otherwise. No horse can do this and win races, so when I was on Rogilla I used to wait behind until the very last furlong and then sweep alongside Peter. He would lay back his ears and his mind would not be on the job of going straight to the post. I didn't care much. Rogilla and I had a job to do, and I'd be sooling him along, making him go past Peter so fast that savaging would be out of the question. I'm not very good at statistics, but Rogilla had an astonishing number of ■ victories over Peter. 1 If there were arv doubts about his ' superiority, he proved it in the King's , Cup of 1934. I'm proud of that wir.. 1 Some people say I got a lucky run, 1 but. even though I say it myself, I used my head tuat day.

Peter Pan. on the outside, received ju-t as good a run a? Kogilla. Peter had !>.o and Rogilla f».:■>. Rogilla gave him three lengths' start in the last furlong and won bv a head. Kll vera, ridden by my friend, Maurice. McCarten, was half a head away third. Over the last half furlong Peter Pan, ridden by the great Jim Pike, hugging the rails, w as just "in front of Kuvera. I was right on their hammer, praying that, great as Pike was, he might move out a little to give me a run—but not a presentation one. He did, just a fraction, and I drove my chestnut fellow through, and again those giant strides won him a trophy probably even more coveted than the Melbourne Cup. It was a great performance because just think of those that finished a long way behind us. There were Hall Mark—Melbourne Cup, Derbies and Doncaster winner; —winner of the Metropolitan; Li march—winner of the Legers: Heroic Prince —an Australian Cup winner; Silver Scorn—unWaten champion in New Zealand in 13 starts; Mis,; Nottava—a Summer Cup winner. Before that race Les Haigh asked me how l was going to ride Rogilla. He seemed to be on his toes, and I believe he had put a lot of money on his horse. I told him there was only one wav to win, and that was to have a crack at them over the last two furlongs. That's why I rode behind. Actually, I was hemmed in on the fence and couldn't go until a bit later than I had planned. Whew! What did he do when we saw daylight. Me turned on all his amazing speed and took the opening in a stride. ♦ + ♦ + ROGILLA was so strong that he could push his way through the eye of a needle. I have riddeu many horses since, but it took gamencss to make that opening. There was a hedge along the straight in those days, and Rogilla was so close to the fence that his off legs were scratched by the twigs. Among the other game performances lie put up was his victory in the W. S. Cox Plate at Moonee Valley in 1933. Again he was last at the top of the straight, and such brilliant gallopers as Chatham, Dermid and Waltzing Lily were literally miles ahead and spread out in a line. » The \alley straight is onlv a furlong in length, yet the remarkable Rogilla gathered them in and won by half a length. , If I repeat myself excuse me, but Rogilla could gather speed more quickly than any other horse I ever rode. ♦ * * OAD to relate, not long after these wonder performances Rogilla. met with an accident. Haigh thought it must prove fatal, and so did I. Rogilla was spelling, and one day was attacked by a stinging fly. Mad with pain, he rushed through a fence. He couldn't have seen it, because he was so intelligent that he would not have crashed. Anyhow, one side of his head was stove in and one of his eyes was out of its socket. It looked a hopeless case, but Haigh, who loved Rogilla like a child, determined to spend every penny to save him. Les went to the expense of getting a Macquarie Street eye-specialist on the scene. Ethics forbid me to mention the name of this man, who certainly did a great job. The medico restored the eye, operated on the head, restored a bone, and Rogilla's courage did the rest. Not only did he recover, but he went into training again, and won more races. He had the heart of a lion. I don't want to contradict myself, but I have just thought of an occasion when Rogilla showed he could lead from start to finish. This was when he won his first Spring Stakes at Randwick in 1933. He had Kuvera to keep him company as pacemaker, and they bowled along at 12 to the furlong. We were together, and McCarten, on Kuvera, said, "Darb.. we're going too fast. This can't last." I said: '"Maurice, you're wrong. I can't hold this fellow any slower. He'd pull if I did." After that it was 110 race. I gave him a bit of reins and Rogilla went on to win easily. That was one of the days when he was fit and well, was suffering from no ailments, and was right at the top of his form.

I suppose Rogilla was one of the worst looking horses ever to grace Randwick or Flcraington. Ho was lean ami looked weak, but what a difference if you were riding him. I don't know what he stood, but when T first rode him I seemed to be a long way up in the air. 110 felt a big power under yon, too. and you could feel him bursting with vitality. Ho would pull even when he was doing trotting exercises ou the tracks. The result was he spent energy on (ho easiest ta-ks. However, it helped to make him fit. Now Kogilla is lading in a paddock at Talbragar, near .Scone, I u i-h hint well. I'm not sentimental, but I will lie up>ct the day 1 hear hi-> life ]ia- ended. + + + + Next week I think my story will cause a lot of criticism. I'm going to tell you why. in my opinion, the io-called mighty Ajax was just a good horse. When the story is published I suppose my 'phone will never j.top ringing, but I have plenty of good reasons for saying that this was the most over-rated champion we've ever had.