The ‘Bush Phar Lap’, Fab’s Cowboy, primed for farewell race at Longreach on Saturday
After a record-breaking career that’s netted 54 wins at some of Australia’s most remote tracks, the outback king of Australian racing, Fab’s Cowboy, will hang up his saddle at Longreach on Saturday.
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He’s the King of the Australian outback and he’s about to hang up his saddle.
Fab’s Cowboy is the bush Phar Lap who has won a record 54 races from 158 starts, travelling 147,000km across the Queensland bush to dominate tracks everywhere from Roma to Cunamulla to Charters Towers and everywhere in between.
With racing rules stating racehorses must be retired when they turn 13 – which the bush legend will do on August 1 – Fab’s Cowboy will run his last race at Longreach’s dirt track on Saturday.
Racing writer Ben Dorries has been in the outback this week, charting the last week of the old marvel’s career as a racehorse.
• Racenet will broadcast exclusive live video of Fab’s Cowboy’s final start at Longreach at 4.15pm AEST on Saturday. Go to racenet.com.au to watch.
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THE HORSE
Fab’s Cowboy has clocked up more wins than any other horse in the modern era of Australian racing … but he almost didn’t make it past day one of his life when he came into the world on a scorching 52 degree day in outback Julia Creek.
Part-owner Liz Currin, who currently works as a prison guard in Townsville, says her late father Fabian, the breeder of Fab’s Cowboy, rang her early on the morning the horse was born.
“When Fab’s Cowboy was born, Dad was in Brisbane getting his tongue removed as he was having an operation for mouth cancer,” Currin said.
• Fab’s Cowboy’s last stand: The ultimate ‘rags to rags’ story
“Dad rang me up at 6am in the morning and he said he was going in for surgery and asked if I could check the round yard.
“So I looked and there were actually eight legs there that I saw, not four like there should have been.
“I raced out there and Fab’s Cowboy had been born, he slid under the round yard, ended up in the wrong paddock and didn’t get his first milk.
“He had collapsed and the mare was scooping water out of the water bucket onto him to keep him cool.”
🎥 | Longreach Jockey Club president and racecaller Andrew Watts recalls some of his most memorable Fab’s Cowboy wins. pic.twitter.com/K8giGUVGis
— Racenet (@RacenetTweets) July 25, 2024
• Fab’s Cowboy’s amazing birth: ‘There were 8 legs instead of 4’
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THE TRAINER
Champion bush horseman Bevan “Billy” Johnson has trained Fab’s Cowboy from the start.
It was an emotional moment when the horse scored his 52nd win earlier this year in Mount Isa, eclipsing the record which previously belonged to Walk Cool, who won 51 races across central Queensland racetracks from 1988 to 1995.
But Barcaldine-based Johnson will be even more emotional after Fab’s Cowboy has his last race, with the bush star then set to head to Living Legends horse retirement facility in Melbourne.
“I will be sad,” Johnson says.
🎥 | Trainer Bevan "Billy" Johnson tells @bendorries76 how much Fab's Cowboy means to him.
— Racenet (@RacenetTweets) July 24, 2024
READ MORE: https://t.co/yb47dSJ6p2pic.twitter.com/EgCQCUhjD8
• ‘Bush Phar Lap’ circles the globe three times in his career
“Every morning when I walk out he looks at me, and I will miss riding him every day.
“I consider him a friend and everything will certainly be different when he isn’t here.
“I don’t think anyone in the bush will ever get a horse to Living Legends again.
“If this horse was in a pub, you would walk around him rather than front up to him.
“He is a big upstanding sort of animal and he wants to be the boss.”
Fab’s Cowboy having a light workout ahead of his final race start tomorrow.
— Racenet (@RacenetTweets) July 26, 2024
🎥 via @bendorries76pic.twitter.com/vMu22q5TH6
• Why Fab’s Cowboy is the horse you DON’T want to meet in a bar
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THE OWNERS
Cattle farmer Paul Currin and cousin Liz own Fab’s Cowboy and they have a lifetime of special memories.
Paul Currin quips it is sport’s ultimate “rags to rags” story.
“You always hear about the rags to riches stories … this is a rags to rags story,” Currin said.
“We were poor when he started racing and we are poor when he finishes racing.
“But we have had a bloody good time in between.
“There are so many stories that you hear of people who are broke and then they get a star racehorse and they get wealthy.
“We have a good racehorse, but we certainly haven’t got rich. It’s been rich in memories, but maybe not in the bank account.
“Fab’s Cowboy is going to retire to Living Legends in Melbourne and I’m very confident that Liz and I will be the poorest people to have a horse there.”
The “Bush Phar Lapâ€, 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 inspectionâ€. https://t.co/UyEPc1YkNQpic.twitter.com/5tjeTjdEYj
— Racenet (@RacenetTweets) July 25, 2024
• ‘I thought I had killed the horse’: Fab’s owner reveals scary moment
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THE JOCKEY
Little-known apprentice jockey Shakira Bailey, who only scored her first career win last week, will have the honour of riding the horse in the “Farewell Fab’s Cowboy – Birdcage Sprint Open Plate (1200m)” on the dirt track at Longreach.
Bailey, who is apprenticed to Barry Lockwood in Brisbane, is a former barrel racer (rodeo event) and her four-kilogram claim will reduce Fab’s Cowboy’s weight from 62.5kg to 58.5kg.
Fab’s Cowboy’s trainer Johnson has always maintained the 12-year-old warhorse races better for inexperienced jockeys.
“He likes to take charge of the jockey, so I always try to put apprentices on him,” Johnson said.
“Once senior jockeys try to stand over him, he simply won’t go.”
🎥 | Jockey Dakota Graham has won 8ï¸âƒ£ races on Fab’s Cowboy and tells @bendorries76 what the horse means to her. pic.twitter.com/XqLkKHnnXS
— Racenet (@RacenetTweets) July 26, 2024
• ‘I’ll pay for the water’: Track twist ahead of Fab’s farewell
Originally published as The ‘Bush Phar Lap’, Fab’s Cowboy, primed for farewell race at Longreach on Saturday
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