A CAREER HIGHLIGHT: MY BIG DAY OUT WITH ROCK ROYALTY AT THE RAMORNIE HANDICAP

By Chris Whiteley | Monday, July 13, 2015

Chris Whiteley scored a memorable win in the Ramornie Handicap at the 2015 Grafton Carnival. In his role as ‘guest blogger’ on HRO, Chris tells the story of this year’s Ramornie from his perspective ...how he got the race winning ride on Rock Royalty, what happened in the race and the behind the scenes scenario when he was hauled before the stewards after the big race for a sometimes acrimonious exchange of opinion regarding his race winning ride.

It was definitely a highlight for me to win a prestigious race like the Ramornie.

A lot of people don’t realise it is very hard to get a ride in the race let alone win it. I had a look at the honour board in the race-book prior to the race. I was trying to see how many I’d been in ... and I only counted three. So, like I said, it’s not easy to get a ride in the race.

To get an opportunity was great and I was just happy to have a ride in it. Then the barrier draw came out and we drew seventeen. I thought, ah ... we’re none now!

Liam Birchley just said, just be positive and go forward. See if you can get in ... if you get in with cover ... happy days. Even if you’re three wide we’d be happy.

I just got the best run. I gave it a squeeze. Terry Treichel sort of got up inside me a little bit but I ended up getting behind Rocket To Glory which just gave me a dream run.

We just popped out when we needed to and I could feel Rock Royalty find that turn of foot he has got. Then I knew he was going to be very hard to run down.

I was confident before the corner, let’s put it that way, and his effort in the straight sealed it.

People talk about time honoured races. The Ramornie is really one of those races. They come from all over the Eastern seaboard to try and win it ... from Sydney, Newcastle, Kembla Grange ... even Canberra. Big trainers, big jockeys come for the Carnival.

It’s a very competitive week.

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Originally I didn’t think I would have a ride in the race. In fact it is quite an interesting story how I went from not having a ride to being a Ramornie winner.

Liam (Birchley) gave me a call roughly ten days prior to the race. He asked me if I had a ride in the Ramornie. I said, no. He didn’t even tell me what horse it was. I just thought, ah great, I’ve got a ride in the Ramornie. I thought it was Jack’s Jet because I’d won a couple on him.

Then the nominations came out. I saw Liam had two in it. The other one I think was A Time To Plunder. It had average form so I thought I’d probably be on that. I thought one of the big names would be on his favoured runner.

It was not until acceptors came that I saw my name on Rock Royalty. The barrier draw hadn’t come out at that stage. When it did, as I said earlier, we’d drawn seventeen.

Then I also saw that Rock Royalty had also been nominated in Brisbane on Saturday, so I thought he’s not going to run in the Ramornie from that draw, so I’m probably not going.

So I booked a round of golf at Helensvale for the Wednesday. I thought I’d be playing golf with my mates. I was locked in for a 9.57 tee off.

On Wednesday morning I checked the scratchings and Rock Royalty wasn’t out yet. I checked about five minutes later. Rock Royalty was still in the field and Liam had scratched a couple of his other horses on the day ... so I knew we were on.

I was going to Grafton.

I was very happy with that. I didn’t have to waste for 55.5kg. A nice cruisie run down. A cup of coffee on the way down and we were ready to go ... and, of course, the result is now history!

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Unfortunately my day wasn’t finished after the race.

I guess my run in with stewards following my winning ride on Rock Royalty had been well documented.

To be honest I never saw it coming.

I was ready to jump in the showers when the stewards said they wanted to see me. I said ok. On the way through I asked a couple of jocks what they thought happened through the race.

A couple of boys said there was a bit of a squeeze very early ... about 150m after the start. Terry (Treichel) said I might have carried him in but he thought everything would be ok.

It was not unto we got into the stewards room and saw the head on that I knew straight away I had caused some movement, but hardly anybody lost any ground. Stephan Tracey loses a little bit of ground ... not a lot at all ... and Glen Colless and Glyn Schofield’s evidence was that they did suffer some interference but didn’t lose any ground.

I erred in judgement by a second. A second later Terry Treichel and I had got right away from those runners to our inside. We were really motoring through, but I had made a slight error so I put my hands up. I put up the white flag and said, I did it.

But then (steward) Greg Rudolph wanted to carry on. He said it was one of the worst bits of interference he had ever seen.

I did get a bit hot under the collar with that and I did have a disagreement with Mr Rudolph.

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They ended up giving me a suspension of twelve meetings, but knocked off two meetings for a good record and one for a ‘guilty’ plea. That left me with a nine meeting suspension, which I accepted ... but then, right at the death, they added a $2000 fine on top of the suspension because of the big race status of the Ramornie and the number of runners that were interfered with in the race.

I wasn’t happy at that stage both at the assessment of the incident and the outcome, but I ultimately did go back into the stewards’ room and apologized to Mr Rudolph for some of the things I had said. Mr Rudolph accepted the apology ... and that was it as far an any exchanges between the two of us are concerned.

That part is all past tense now.

I am appealing the severity of the penalty. They did say it was in the high range which I would like to get down-graded to mid-range, which I think it is. If I can get a meeting off, so be it but, I guess, to get the $2000 knocked off would be the goal.

A Ramornie win and a collision with the stewards ... it was all a bit different to a quiet game of golf.

Like I said though, whatever else happened around it, it will remain a highlight of my career to have won such a prestigious race.

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