Fab’s Cowboy farewell: ‘I thought I had killed the horse’

Fab’s Cowboy will line up for his 159th and last start on Saturday but he almost didn’t have any, with part-owner Paul Currin recalling the day he feared he had accidentally killed the young horse.

Fab’s Cowboy’s part-owner has told the astonishing story of how he feared he had once accidentally killed the future bush star and then how he tried to convince the breeder never to race him.

Fab’s Cowboy has had 158 starts but long before he lined up for his debut, farmer and part-owner Paul Currin was helping to wean the immature youngster when near disaster struck.

“I handled him when he would have been less than six months old, the horse got a little bit stressed as he was pig-headed,” Currin remembers.

“He threw himself over on a side, he didn’t hit his head but he was motionless.

“I went over and checked if he was OK and if he was alive and he did not flinch.

“I thought I had killed the horse.”

The “Bush Phar Lap”, Fab’s Cowboy, will have his final race start at Longreach on Saturday … but how is the track looking? Racenet’s @bendorries76 channels his inner Tony Greig, complete with car keys, with his “pitch inspection”. https://t.co/UyEPc1YkNQpic.twitter.com/5tjeTjdEYj

— Racenet (@RacenetTweets) July 25, 2024

• Fab's Cowboy: The horse you don't want to meet in a bar 

Fab’s Cowboy certainly had an eventful start to life because that incident happened months after he almost died on his first day on earth in 52 degree heat.

Paul Currin’s uncle, the late trainer, owner and breeder Fabian Currin, was the man who bred Fab’s Cowboy in outback Julia Creek.

But if Paul Currin had his way in the early days, Fab’s Cowboy would never have had the chance to become a record-breaking star of the bush.

“I tried to convince Fabian that the horse wasn’t worth racing because his constitution was so poor, I simply didn’t think he wasn’t going to be able to handle any stress,” Currin said.

“I thought it was even going to be worse if we raced him.

“I almost convinced Fabian not to worry about racing him.

“But Fabian looked at him in the paddock and said he was a good mover and so he stuck by him.”

Bush marvel Fab's Cowboy and his trainer Bevan "Billy" Johnson in Barcaldine preparing for the warhorse's last race in Longreach on Saturday.

• Fab's Cowboy's amazing birth: ‘There were 8 legs instead of 4'

Fab’s Cowboy will be ridden by four-kilogram claiming apprentice Shakira Bailey in the “Farewell Fab’s Cowboy – Birdcage Sprint Open Plate (1200m)” on the dirt track at Longreach on Saturday.

Bailey is a former Victorian who has ridden in 20 races and scored her only career winner at Gympie last week.

Bailey, who is apprenticed to Barry Lockwood in Brisbane, is a former barrel racer (rodeo event) and her claim will reduce Fab’s Cowboy’s weight from 62.5kg to 58.5kg.

Fab’s Cowboy’s trainer Bevan “Billy Johnson” has always maintained the 12-year-old warhorse races better for inexperienced jockeys.

• ‘Good for racing’: Rival trainer cheering for Fab farewell

Ahead of 12-year-old Fab’s Cowboy’s farewell run, Paul Currin’s cousin Liz (also a part-owner) remembers a sliding doors moment before the horse was even born.

Fab’s Cowboy’s was sired by Greenwood Lake and his dam is the Fabian Currin-owned Real Live Woman, who was due to be served by a stallion called Top Mark.

Liz Currin takes up the story.

“Dad worked on a mail run and I got a call from someone who said the mare was ready to go, but Top Mark had just died,” Currin recalls.

• Cowboy’s last stand: The ultimate ‘rags to rags’ story

“We had won some free stud fees so I asked a stud what the most expensive stud fee they had was, and that was Greenwood Lake who was $8,800.

“Because he was free I said we would take him, I knew nothing about the horse.

“So Fab’s Cowboy was meant to be a Top Mark.

“If he was a Top Mark, we might not be having this conversation.”

🎥 | Trainer Bevan "Billy" Johnson tells @bendorries76 how much Fab's Cowboy means to him.

READ MORE: https://t.co/yb47dSJ6p2pic.twitter.com/EgCQCUhjD8

— Racenet (@RacenetTweets) July 24, 2024

• ‘It's pretty incredible': ‘Bush Phar Lap' circles globe three times over

Australian racing rules state horses must retire when they turn 13 so Fab’s Cowboy’s race at 4.15pm at Longreach on Saturday will be his last of an extraordinary career which has netted a record-breaking 54 wins and more than $440,000 in prizemoney.

Originally published as Fab’s Cowboy farewell: ‘I thought I had killed the horse’