Hanlon fulfils ambition

Press, 8 November 1984, Page 28

Hanlon fulfils ambition

ALLAN BROWN

Melbourne George Hanlon cannot remember a time when he did not want to be a racehorse trainer and like any Australian trainer his great early ambition was to win a Mel-

bourne Cup, which he did on Tuesday for the third time. Not keen to tell his age, but believed by those who know him well to be 60 years, or thereabouts, Hanlon started as an ownertrainer close on 40 years ago, in Adelaide. His entry into training was inauspicious and not made any more promising when a gelding named Lourdes, after seeming to give him his first win in Victoria, back in 1948, weighed in light and was disqualified for the race. “It was not by much, only 13 ounces, but enough,” Hanlon said yesterday. “I had forgotten the lead bag.” George Hanlon began his association with horses when helping out on a bread delivery cart around Adelaide. The bread round took him to various stables, one of them operated by the late Jim Cummings, the father of Bart Cummings. Bart Cummings recalls: “I remember George well from.those days, he used to call in and watch us feed up.” The young Hanlon quite evidently picked up more than his bread delivery money. The knowledge he gained from careful observation of the methods employed by such successful trainers as Jim Cummings stood to him when he set up his own stable. Hanlon, who shifted from South Australia in the early 19505, to settle in Victoria, at Epsom some 30km from Melbourne, has for years been one of the state’s most successful trainers. Besides his three Mel- , bourne Cups he' has to his credit a Sydney Cup, with Dark Suit in 1972, Adelaide Cups with Gnapur and Amarant, a Brisbane Cup, also with Amarant and a string of other big races. George Hanlon does not smile much. He allowed himself a grin after the Cup on Tuesday then said: “I’d better not smile too much, people might think I’m happy.” Australian newspaper and other media people agree too,, that he can be infuriatingly evasive such as at Flemington on Tuesday when to a question which could have sought his age he first replies: “Why I’m just starting to win my Melbourne Cups,” moments later: “I’m probably too old now to win another.”