Jockey Club executive Greg Carpenters obsession with the race that stops a nation | HK Racing
Australia will have a collective tea break for three and a half minutes on Tuesday when six-time Hong Kong champion jockey Zac Purton rides Absurde in the simulcast Group One Melbourne Cup (3,200m), the 163rd edition of the race that stops a nation.
Jockey Club head of racing product Greg Carpenter is synonymous with the Melbourne Cup, an event with which he has been obsessed for half a century. In this week’s Tongue Tie Off, Carpenter talks about his journey from strapping horses in his rural hometown to handicapping horses in Hong Kong via Perth, Kuala Lumpur and Melbourne, including the sliding doors moment that occurred in the early stages of his Australian football playing career.
What was your introduction to racing?
I grew up in an era when people followed cricket in the summer, football in the winter and racing all year round. I spent my childhood in Albany, where my uncle, Ken Dawson, was a leading trainer, and I worked in his stables when I wasn’t playing junior football. In those days, you didn’t have to be at least 15 to strap horses at the races. I loved racing from a young age. My father, Graham, also loved racing, and he had a great mathematical mind. We used to look at form and do maths problems, so I always had an interest in racing, particularly around form, maths and how all that interacts.
Chapman reveals former double life: trackwork jockey by day, disc jockey by night
Where did you start working in racing administration?
I moved to Perth when I was 17 with only one thing in mind – to play league football. I made my West Australian Football League debut for East Perth in 1982. At the end of my first season, Royals coach Grant Dorrington told me he didn’t want me to go home to Albany for the summer holidays. He wanted me to stay in Perth and find work as a brickie’s labourer to build up my physical strength. I bought a copy of The Sunday Times, looked at the job ads and saw one for a racing clerk at the Western Australian Turf Club. My studies were going OK, but I thought I’d apply because it was something in which I was interested. I got the job.
I kept playing football – I was lucky enough to play 140 games for East Perth (56) and Subiaco (84), winning two premierships with the Lions and captaining their 1988 title-winning team – until the end of the 1989 season when the Turf Club asked me to become its head of handicapping. My coach at Subiaco, Haydn Bunton, told me, ‘You’ll play football for another five years, but you’ll work for the rest of your life’, so I chose racing and retired from playing.
Between your two spells as a racing executive in Perth, you spent five years working for the Malayan Racing Association from 1995 to 2000. How do you feel about the state of Singaporean racing?
In those days, racing in Singapore and Malaysia was united. Kuala Lumpur was home, but I’d spend 16 weekends in Singapore and 12 weekends each in George Town, Ipoh and KL. We’d race every Saturday and Sunday, so 104 meetings annually. It was a great learning curve. It taught me there’s another way to do things other than the Australian way.
I was there when we built Kranji. I was there when we turned out the lights at Bukit Timah. I’m sad about the closure of racing in Singapore. What I fear most is losing connections with Singaporean owners because they won’t be able to race horses in their home jurisdiction beyond this time next year. World racing, particularly Asian racing, will be poorer for the closure of racing in Singapore.
When did your obsession with the Melbourne Cup begin, and why it is so important to Australians?
I entered a public speaking competition as a 12-year-old and made the state final. My topic was the Melbourne Cup. It was 1974 – Bart Cummings had won only three of his 12 Melbourne Cups by that point, although Think Big was about to go back to back – so I’ve been talking about the race for 50 years.
For Australians of my generation, the Melbourne Cup is part of the fabric of our society. To become only the ninth person to construct the Melbourne Cup weights was a privilege. It was the culmination of everything I’d wanted to do to that stage.
When I stepped off the plane in January 2005 to start working for Racing Victoria, Makybe Diva had won the past two Melbourne Cups. The only question people wanted me to answer was: what weight will you give Makybe Diva? Sometimes in life you can’t shy away from challenges. You have to front up and make the best decisions you can. In 2005, Makybe Diva carried 58 kilograms. There have been a lot of people who’ve told me I was far too generous to Makybe Diva and she should have lugged more weight. However, it would have robbed Australia of not only one of its greatest racing moments but also one of its greatest sporting moments. At the end of the day, Makybe Diva had to beat a world-class field, and she did precisely that. A champion became a legend.
Hong Kong punters can bet on this year’s Melbourne Cup? In order of preference, who are your top four selections?
Vauban, Gold Trip, Without A Fight and Soulcombe. Irish trainer Willie Mullins has unfinished Melbourne Cup business, and Vauban galloped brilliantly at Flemington earlier this week. Ryan Moore’s mount is my top pick.
Finally, what are your reflections on Romantic Warrior’s Group One Cox Plate (2,040m) victory?
Romantic Warrior won what I thought was an outstanding renewal of the Cox Plate. Anyone who takes up the challenge of campaigning their horse overseas deserves praise because it’s very easy to sit at home and let challengers come to you.
That’s why I liken Romantic Warrior’s win at Moonee Valley on Saturday to Black Caviar’s win at Royal Ascot in 2012. Black Caviar’s connections didn’t have to travel to the United Kingdom. They could have kept racking up victories and banking prize money against Australian sprinters. However, they took up the challenge, and even though Black Caviar wasn’t 100 per cent, she got the result.
Danny Shum Chap-shing and Peter Lau Pak-fai have shown they’re great sportsmen. If racing is going to stay relevant in the future, more people have to embrace international competition. I hope what Danny and Peter did inspires other Hongkongers.
Comments
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7tK%2FMqWWcp51kwLG70a1mq5mTnruoe8Crq6KbnJp8dH6TaWhubl%2BfvKS3xLJknKSll3qmxMScrK2hppp6qL7EoGScmaKlsq%2FAxKuqZqeSqLK0v8iopWaqkZiybr%2FTqKesZZ6Wwaq7zQ%3D%3D