Simon O'Donnell never-ending quest for racing's holy grail

SIMON O’Donnell made his name as a powerful all-round cricketer. He helped Australia win a World Cup in 1987 and also played 24 VFL games over two seasons at St Kilda.

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SIMON O’Donnell made his name as a powerful all-round cricketer. He helped Australia win a World Cup in 1987 and also played 24 VFL games over two seasons at St Kilda.

But this time of year, one sport consumes his thoughts — racing. His role as a co-founder of OTI Racing has led him on a relentless search for a Melbourne Cup winner. No owner has come closer without getting there — his horse Bauer was beaten by a nostril in the 2008 Cup.

What’s the most obscure place you’ve ever gone scouting for a horse?

I went to a place this year I’ve never been to before called Po. I thought Po was one of the Teletubbies. I went to the south of France. It’s at the bottom of the Pyrenees, and I must admit I got off the plane and I thought “Wow! If I drop dead here on the tarmac, no one’s gonna care.

And what was the racing like in Po?

Very good ... like Bendigo or Ballarat. I struggle to find the airport. I’m not a great traveller. And here I was in this place, everyone speaking a foreign language, and I’m thinking “What the hell am I doing here?” But the journey continues. It takes you to some wonderful places, the world of racing.

What do you think will happen first — St Kilda winning an AFL grand fFinal or you winning a Melbourne Cup?

I’ve waited a lifetime and they still haven’t won a premiership. Their last (and only) premiership was 47 years ago. I hope I don’t have to wait another 47 years to win a Melbourne Cup!

What’s it like being a Saints fan? Do you just roll with the punches or is it a tough life?

If you took it personally, I think you would have turned off football a long time ago. You just have to roll with the punches and hopefully the next opportunity that comes along, a kick or two goes our way and we can take it.

What was your biggest moment playing for St Kilda?

I think in lots of people’s careers there’s a trigger point that sends you or sculpts you as a person. Mine was the first game of VFL footy I ever played.

St Kilda were playing Hawthorn at Moorabbin, and in our team meeting, my job was to tag (Hawthorn legend) Michael Tuck, who I’d been watching play footy for 10 years.

He was a fantastic player. Alex Jesaulenko, our coach must have seen the look on my face when he said that’s what I was going to do in my first game of VFL footy. He kept me back after the team meeting, sat next to me and said “son, I will never ask you to do something I don’t think you’re capable of”.

That must have been a massive moment?

I grew 10 feet that moment. And I think that’s something that shaped me, rightly or wrongly, as an aggressive, hopefully never-say-die sort of person, on and hopefully off the field.

When Bauer was beaten by a nose in the Melbourne Cup you took it well, which must have been hard because you thought you had won, didn’t you?

Yeah, we did. We thought, for 15-odd seconds, we thought we’d won a Melbourne Cup. All that does is really, it inspires to keep at it.

Because that feeling, for that period of time was extraordinary. You know that if you had that ultimate feeling about the race you’re so passionate about winning, if you had it full-time, then all you’d want to do is keep winning it.

Because it’s such a wonderful race, and the emotion of it is second to none as far as I’m concerned. But it’s a feeling that, from a sporting perspective, I’ve never had matched.

Really? Even that time when you hit a six at Lord’s to win a Test in 1985?

Yeah ... look, the difference being that in sport, there’s something you can do about it. You’re emotionally engaged but you can bat, you can bowl, you can field, you can take a mark, you can get a kick, you can lay a tackle, you can shepherd.

But there’s one race you want to win a year, and you are completely and utterly emotionally engaged in that race for three and a half minutes, but there’s nothing you can do about it. You can’t change the direction of the race sitting up in the grandstand.

Can you remember, during that 15 seconds when you thought you had won, how it felt?

It was definitely a floating feeling. It’s hard to describe. But when you’re talking about racing, and people are wondering about whether they will or won’t get involved in the racing game, I wish I had a better grip on the English language to be able to elaborate or describe what that 15 seconds was.

Because if I could do it adequately, we’d have a lot more people in the racing industry. It was an extraordinary feeling.

Does it ever cross your mind that had you been born 20 years later, you might have been an instant millionaire as a Twenty20 cricketer?

People have said it, but I never think it. I haven’t questioned my mum and said, you know... you went a bit early didn’t you? What happens happens and I don’t want my time back.

Can you remember what your first contract with Cricket Australia was worth, because those were the days when contracts weren’t huge, were they?

I think we toured England in ’85 and I think we might have got $17,000 for the tour. And were away just on six months. We were gone April 13 or 15, and we got back the week before the grand final.

Even going back in time, that still doesn’t seem a fortune I’ve got to say.

We thought it was relative. But there wasn’t the compensation or the remuneration that there is in the modern day. But it was relevant to our day. We thought that was a massive amount of money.

The search for Melbourne Cup horses. You’re a pioneer of it overseas — is it getting harder?

Yeah, from the point of view there’s more people in the market place, there’s more money now in the market place and we have a level we’re prepared to go to, so we’re constantly reinventing ourselves to try and stay in the market, and hopefully a little ahead of it.

But when you’re competing against some of the heavy-hitters in world racing, their bank accounts and ours don’t add up.

Someone said to me recently a Melbourne Cup hopeful you might have paid $400,000 for five years ago would get $800,00 today. True?

It can even be worse. The obvious horse that’s already qualified for a Melbourne Cup then would get the weight to get into the field, many of those are being sold for $1 million-plus.

And that’s just not our market. You’re then travelling and there is probably three races in the world you can win to make that up. And we just can’t compete at that level. And we frankly don’t want to compete at that level.

What’s the sort of cost to bring a horse from Europe and get him settled?

If you’re bringing a horse out — giving him his season in Europe, then into quarantine, fly him over and then in quarantine out here building him up for the Melbourne Cup — there would be not a cent back out of $100,000.

You played cricket through a tough era. What tips would you give the current Australian side?

It’s about teamwork and mateship. That’s what (winning) the World Cup in 1987 taught me. Probably the Ashes in 1985 taught me a little bit. In the end when it really got tough, we were a little bit fractured. But it was a long time away from home, so as I grew older I understood that.

I think modern cricket is better than back in our day, but I just don’t see the mateship and the camaraderie. That’s the one thing I do believe money has changed ... it’s a great thing to look back on, not just a healthy bank account but that emotional roller-coaster you went on with a group of people under trying conditions.

There’s just not that sense of “looking after your mate” that there was back in those days?

(No) and I can understand it. If you look at these guys, they’re running a big business. They’re earning millions of dollars. Some people will work in a business all their lives and never turn over what these guys are in a year. I wonder if guys should ask the question more often: “What was the best thing you experienced in the past eight or 10 years of your cricket life?”

I think you’d get a really interesting answer. Because I just don’t see as much fun and enjoyment in it as there was.