How a racehorse joined Victoria Police and helped push back violent anti-lockdown protesters
London Fog was just a year off the racing track when he found himself at the centre of a violent protest in which another police horse was struck. He stood his ground.
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Police officer Gemma Kyte could feel her troop horse, London Fog, start to tense his muscles as a group of agitated anti-lockdown protesters moved towards them.
The retired thoroughbred had been stuck in some tight spots during his racing career, but it was nothing compared to this.
He was now a police horse – a member of the Victorian Mounted Branch – and, along with rider Sen-Constable Kyte, was on the frontline of crowd control facing an unruly mob outside Melbourne Arts Centre on St Kilda Rd.
London Fog was right to feel nervous. Members of the crowd were seething with rage and suddenly a balaclava-clad man stepped forward brandishing a flag pole.
Before he could be stopped, the thug cracked another police horse across the head. An ugly protest had become violent in a flash.
But the police blockade held firm. The Mounted Branch, including London Fog and the horse that had been struck, stood their ground and the anti-lockdown crowd were stopped in their tracks, unable to push further into the city along St Kilda Rd.
In time, the restless crowd dispersed. The flag pole-wielding bully was later identified, charged and jailed for assault and animal cruelty.
London Fog had passed “a massive test”.
“They were big and they were noisy and there was a lot going on,” Sen-Constable Kyte said.
“He could have had every excuse to pop out the back or have to be taken away from the situation but he was really good, he stood his ground and he did everything that was asked of him.”
The careers of London Fog and Sen-Constable Kyte seemed destined to meet.
Three days after the gelding ran his last race for trainer Simon Wide – a ninth at Bendigo on June 23, 2019, following a five-win career – he was sent to the Victorian Police Mounted Branch via Racing Victoria’s Off The Track program for retired racehorses.
Sen-Constable Kyte also had a racing background.
The 37-year-old police officer was born in London, rode and worked jumps horses in Lambourn, County Berkshire before coming to Melbourne in 2010 and getting a job in the Victorian racing industry with Malua Racing and the Corstens family for several years. She joined the police force in 2016.
“That’s why I was teamed up with London initially, because I have ridden thoroughbreds,” she says. “They are a different type of horse to ride than the big heavy Clydies.”
While the Victorian Mounted Branch is now more focused on using Clydesdale cross breeds in its ranks and is not currently seeking more thoroughbreds for its program, Sen-Constable Kyte says London Fog is the right fit to be a troop horse.
“First of all, he was safe,” she says.
“He has a very low flight response for a thoroughbred. He’s inquisitive.
“Instead of running away from something he wanted to go to that something and sniff it. In crowds he was happy to stand in a group of horses instead of flying off in the other direction.”
London Fog’s career change is a feel-good story in a sport that came under heavy scrutiny during the 2019 spring carnival after a damning ABC report revealed that some ex-racehorses in Australia were ending up in abattoirs.
It was a heartless image that the Victorian racing industry has worked overtime to repair – with increasing success.
Racing Victoria created its Off The Track program in 2012 and it continues to develop new initiatives to find avenues for the retraining and repatriation of thoroughbreds in all corners of the state.
Like London Fog, Tally was bred to be a racehorse.
He was known as Retaliation on the track, raced in Godolphin’s royal blue and in a mega-stable that is focused on breeding Group 1 winners he struggled to set the world on fire – eight starts for two wins and $57,000 in prize money.
But Tally wasn’t spat out or forgotten. Instead, he has found a new life as a para dressage horse with Equine Pathways Australia in Narre Warren North.
Like London Fog, Tally had to pass a series of tests.
Where he was once ridden by Melbourne Cup-winning jockey James McDonald, he was now paired with an ambitious athlete of a different kind – aspiring Paralympian Abby Vidler.
For Vidler, an early connection was crucial. She could see that Tally was a “sweet horse” with a “sweet eye”.
She had been told the rangy bay was a retired thoroughbred who would be retrained in the hope he could become a para dressage competitor.
She learned that they had been earmarked as a potential team.
But Vidler, 18, also knew that her first impressions were not the only ones that counted.
It also mattered what the former Godolphin racehorse thought of her. Or, more importantly, how he would cope with her riding gear when she first sat on his back.
Vidler was born with upper dual limb deficiency and competes with an adaptive rein aid – a loop on her rein that sits above her elbow. In the event of a fall, a special safety pin is designed to release her from the horse.
None of this bothered Tally. He was forgiving, empathetic and willing to learn.
“With myself with shorter arms, it definitely took a horse who is able to pay attention to what the difference is and not care too much about it,” Vidler tells V Weekend.
“That’s a big thing, to be responsive but not too worried. To know they are in a safe environment with a safe person.”
Vidler first sat on a horse aged two and later joined Riding for the Disabled to help build her confidence and core strength. By the age of 11, she had become an accomplished rider and graduated to the para dressage world.
The Media and Communications student at Swinburne University now has her sights set on wearing the “green and gold” for her country.
“The dream would be to be representing Australia in 2028 at the Para games (in Los Angeles). Even better would be to represent Australia at a home Games in Brisbane in 2032,” she said.
“It would be amazing to get a thoroughbred on an Australian team. Whether or not that can happen, I think it can. They have the right mindset for it.”
Tally has become a significant part of Vidler’s dream.
But bringing them together involved a series of conversations and connections. Tally was sourced as an EPA horse by the organisation’s founder Julia Battams.
Battams created EPA at her Balmoral Equestrian Centre in 2017 to offer people with disabilities the chance to share “life experiences and goals by exploring para equestrian activities”. It is also accredited for Paralympic preparation.
She began recruiting retired thoroughbreds for the association two years ago after developing partnerships with Racing Victoria, the Melbourne Racing Club Foundation, Godolphin, Racing SA, the Australian Turf Club Foundation and several trainers.
As a result, she was sent Tally and travel mate Benny by Godolphin after the international racing organisation identified them as potential para dressage horses.
Not all racehorses can make the switch. Some can’t cope with the new and different demands and shut down.
But Battams believes thoroughbreds have an advantage because of their exposure to the noise and visual distractions of big race day crowds.
She sees Tally as “a horse Abby will be able to learn on, and learn to train” – even if “he turns out to be an interim horse for her” in a sport that can see riders work with numerous horses before they reach Paralympic standards.
“What I particularly like about him is that you can see him trying to work it out,” Battams said.
“He gets it. If Abby is on him for a 30-minute session you can see where he starts and where he finishes is clearly different, and clearly improved every time.”
Since January 2020, the Victorian racing industry has introduced a number of initiatives for rehoming retired racehorses, including launching a RESET program to help horses struggling to adjust to a second career, growing Off The Track partnerships and introducing a $100,000 grant program for Victorian equine businesses to use more thoroughbreds.
Racing Victoria has also launched Off The Track Community – ottcommunity.com.au – an online platform that caters for owners, prospective buyers and racing fans.
It is through these initiatives that London Fog is helping keep the peace and that one day Vidler and Tally might compete at a Paralympic Games.
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