KEEPING IT ALL IN THE FAMILY

By Graham Potter | Sunday, November 15, 2020

Some victories may not be of that great a consequence in the greater, overall landscape of the horse racing industry, but that does not mean that they don’t bring just as much pleasure to those enjoying the good fortune of their win … particularly, when it is an ‘all in the family’ affair as was the case at Gatton on Thursday.

Grey Noise is a Love Conquers All gelding owned and trained by Caroline Allardyce, whose home track is Gatton. Allardyce’s son is Jimmy Orman, one of the top Metropolitan jockeys in Brisbane, who cut his teeth at Gatton, but he is not seen out there all that often anymore.

But Orman was at Gatton on Thursday to help Grey Noise claim his first career win. Mick Orman, a clerk of the course at Gatton, was right there when Jimmy brought Grey Noise back to scale which put another tick in the family attendance register.

But the family story and the Grey Noise connection went further than that.

Grey Noise’s dam is Jo’s Luck, who was a six-time winner.

Jo’s Luck was trained for the bulk of its career and is owned and was bred by Caroline Allardyce … and, in two of those six wins, Jo’s Luck was ridden by Jimmy Orman.

“Yeah, I won on her mother,” were Orman’s first words when he dismounted, clearly pleased with the both the current result and the connection to the racing bloodline.

“I remember when Grey Noise was born. I’ve got a few photos at home of me giving him a pat. I’ve won on his mum, Jo’s Luck. I won on her at the Sunny Coast in a race with town prizemoney … and now she has produced a winner. Very happy.”

But wait there’s more.

Allardyce, who only has three horses in work, had her whole team in action at the meeting and three races later she had a double on the board when Bid In A Hurry saluted, despite Adam Spinks putting up 1kg overweight and the horse suffering interference in the home straight.
It took a good ride to get her home.

The Allardyce day had just got better.

The fact that the Allardyce trained Redzab, who competed in the last race on the card, could not complete what would have been a truly remarkable treble did little to dent to positive nature of the day for the Allardyce family,

While racing in the big smoke might get more coverage to the extent that stories like this are often lost in the wind, the fact remains that many ‘feel good’ stories abound within the provincial and country circuit which are well worth telling as, after-all, they do provide a very important part in the foundation of the industry.

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