GARY DOUGHTY … THE CAULFIELD GUINEAS … AND THE LONGEST PRICED GROUP 1 WINNER IN AUSTRALIA

By Gary Doughty | Friday, October 7, 2011

Gary Doughty is a Group 1 winning jockey whose riding career was ended due to injuries sustained in a horrific fall during the running of the 2000 Eye Liner Stakes at Ipswich. One of his Group 1 victories came in the Caulfield Guineas. The latest edition of that race takes place in Melbourne tomorrow but the record Doughty and Abaridy claimed on that occasion twenty-five years ago still looks likely to stand for many years to come. Doughty shares his memories of that momentous day.

“In 1986 I won on the Caulfield Guineas on Abaridy who is still the longest priced Group 1 winner in Australia. He started at 250-1!

“I had a better ride in the race but horse I was due to ride got hurt, so I was left without a ride in the race for a while. It finished up that on the Thursday the guy rang me to ride Abaridy. I’d ridden a couple of winners for him and I said … ah, yeah, I’ll ride it although it looked like the horse shouldn’t have even been in the race.

“Steven Burridge had ridden him in his last two starts and Steven chose to go and ride at the Provincial meeting that day instead of riding in the Group1 race … because he was no chance on paper.

“Abaridy got back to second last. The trainer wanted him up there a bit but … he was a stallion and a piggy stallion at that. He played up a lot in the barriers and all that. I just rode him where he was comfortable and he got back to second last.

“There was a lot of interference in the race. One of the favourites for the race was a horse called Drought … one of Lloyd-Williams’ … and Broad Reach, a Bart Cummings horse was the favourite.

“Broad Reach had won the Stutt Stakes two weeks before at Moonee Valley and Abaridy had actually run last in that race … by a long way.

“Anyway, I was back second last … not travelling. I gave him a dig … came off the hill at Caulfield down about the 1100. There’d been a lot of interference which I’d missed. Drought got absolutely pole-axed and went back to last.

“In all honesty I wasn’t going good enough to get up to them. As they were starting to travel up they were hooking out and making their runs and going … and I was just slotting up into where they’d come from.

“Somehow by doing that I got past about fifteen horses. That was the only way I was able to do that. I was never going to be good enough to go around them. I just got through.

“I came to the turn and I thought, shit this thing is going to finish in the minor end of the money.

“But it got even better than that.

“I got right through on the inside of them and got up and won by a head. It was only in the last four strides that I got through. I came from second last and went around one horse and got up and won.

“He beat quite a good horse called Tristram. He is now a stallion.

“I was as much surprised as anyone else, but it was obviously a real thrill.

“Abaridy’s next run was in the Cox Plate behind Bonecrusher. He really should never have been in that.

“Bonecrusher just pushed me out the way at about the 1200 when he wanted to get going. That was when Bonecrusher and Waverley Star had that big fight in what was described as a two-horse war and one of the best races even seen.

“Interesting enough, the Caulfield Guineas day had also provided me with my first Group 1 winner three years earlier when I won the Toorak Handicap on Showmeran.

“Once again it was a mile race. There was not a lot of speed in it. A good old horse of Henry Davis’s called Getting Closer ended up leading … he used to be a back-marker really.

“I settled back second last on the fence. I then peeled out about three off with cover … sucking up behind them … and was just cantering. As we straightened up I just got to outside, and he came from second or third last and won by a length.

“That was my first Group 1 winner.

“So I have very good memories of Caulfield Guineas day.”

These days Gary is heavily involved in the racing stable run by his wife Kelly, so while he will make sure to watch this year’s Caulfield Guineas on the small screen, his main focus of attention will be on stable runner Morning Captain who will contest the first race at Eagle Farm on Saturday.

With a record of three second placings from three starts, Morning Captain could be poised to go one better and thus, fittingly, give Gary Doughty another winner on Caulfield Guineas day!

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