Koala King dies

Press, 21 February 1987, Page 32

Koala King dies

NZPA-AAP Melbourne

Koala King, winner of the 1980 Sydney InterDominion pacing championship, has died.

The former New South Wales champion died on

Monday at the Werribee Veterinary Clinic, about 30km west of Melbourne.

Veterinary surgeons said Koala King, a 13-year-old, suffered heart failure.

Koala King will be remembered as one of harness racing’s all-time greats. He won 77 races, including a record 40 at Harold Park, in a career in which he matched strides with the legendary Paleface Adios and Pure Steel.

“Old George,” as he was affectionately known, was trained at Shoalhaven Heads on the New South Wales South Coast by Ray Wisbey, who also owned the stallion.

Koala King earned $664,985, a handsome return on the $l3OO that Wisbey paid for him as a yearling. Koala King’s pinnacle in a career that spanned 207 starts in every state of Australia except Tasmania was the 1980 Sydney Inter-dominion which he won off the 10m mark.

Koala King also won the Clive Uhr Championship in Queensland, the A. G. Hunter Cup in Melbourne, and was placed in a Miracle Mile.

. Ironically, the son of Koala Frost died just two days after the Winfield Cup — a race he won in three consecutive years from 1978-80, a record that still stands.

For the last three years Koala King has been the resident sire at Peter and Mary Dow’s Twin Falls' Stud at Maryborough.

Mr Dow said Koala King had served more than 100 mares and had already had bookings for 80 mares for next season.

“It’s a tragic loss,” said Mr Dow. “He was just starting to hit the highlights as a sire.”

Mr Dow said Koala King had been buried at Twin Falls. "He deserves a nice spot here, they don’t come any better,” he said.