Cups treble for partnership?

Press, 3 November 1981, Page 21

Cups treble for partnership?

From ALLAN BROWN Melbourne Unheralded on a first visit to Australia two years ago. unsung, when he departed less than a year later, a 27-year-oid New Zealand jockey. Philip Smith, could well be this evening one of the most celebrated racing men in Melbourne. Smith has the Melbourne i Cup mount on Koiro Trelay, i a grey six-year-old from i Awapuni. which is regarded i just about everywhere as the j one to beat in Australia’s I biggest race this afternoon. I Since he came to Melj bourne just over a week ago. | Smith has been the centre of : interest while putting Koiro Trelay through his training paces. Two years ago few New Zealanders cared to know him. Then settled for the time being in Perth, he worked from place to place for a time as a house "j painter, then a freezer worker. South Island-born Smith served .his jockey apprenticeship a’t Riccarton in the employ of Clarry McCarthy who trained the great stayer, Dalray. His apprenticeship completed, in the mid-19705, Smith turned to free-lance

riding, staying on in the South Island for a time before shifting north. In 1978 he took a job travelling with horses to Singapore. For three months he stayed on but found mounts hard to get and returned home. Back in New Zealand it seemed he had landed on his feet when he gained the mount of Holy Toledo for his summer three-year-old racing. but his good luck did not last. Following Holy Toledo’s failure in the New Zealand Derby. Smith, as he claimed, was sacked from the horse. His disappointment was acute and induced him to pack his bags again, this time for Perth. In December, 1979, Smith again returned home but again not for long. His itching feet took him this time to Brisbane, where he rode during the winter of last year for the New Zealand trainer. Bruce Marsh. Back home in the spring last year Smith continued his association with Marsh's stable until a remarkable chain of events landed him the mount on Koiro Trelay. Koiro Trelay’s regular rider had been Gus Clutterbuck but just before the first of the big spring races Clutterbuck had a spill which put

him in hospital with a broken pelvis. The mount on Koiro Trelay then went to David Walsh, a young jockey just starting to make a name for himself. It was Walsh who rode Koiro Trelay to win a 2200 m race at Rangitikei in early November last .year.

The race was Koiro Trelay’s lead-up to the New Zealand Cup to be decided a few weeks later. Smith rode the second horse. Shamrock, and that was his lucky break. “I got off the scales after David Walsh, knowing Noel Harris was to be on Shamrock next time out." said Smith.

“I was wondering what I could do about getting a ride in the Cup when one of the reporters told me to try for Koiro Trelay. "He told me he knew that Walsh had a commitment for another horse in the New Zealand Cup and there was no chance he could ride Koiro Trelay.

“I grabbed Mr Temperton. told him what I had heard and how keen I was to ride his horse. He thought it over for a minute and said I was on.”

A fortnight later Smith and Koiro Trelay. took the New Zealand Cup. five starts afterwards the Wellington Cup. Today at Flemington they could complete a famous treble.