Cox Plate-winning ‘equine immortal’ Bonecrusher dead at 32

His name said it all: Bonecrusher. The champion New Zealand thoroughbred who raced into “equine immortality” died yesterday.

Bonecrusher, on the rails, and Our Waverley Star battle it out down the straight in the 1986 WS Cox Plate at Moonee Valley.

His name said it all: Bonecrusher. The champion, never-say-die New Zealand thoroughbred who raced into “equine immortality” in the legendary 1986 Cox Plate has proven to be flesh and blood after all.

“Big Red’’, a nickname passed down from Phar Lap, was put down yesterday, aged 32, at the Auckland property of his owners, Peter and Shirley Mitchell.

Bonecrusher, purchased for $NZ3250, became the first Kiwi racehorse to earn more than $1 million in prize money. He won nine races at the highest level, Group 1, but the one burned into the memories of all those who were there is that Cox Plate at Melbourne’s gladiatorial Moonee Valley racecourse. The 2040m “race of the century” was billed as a match race between the relentless Bonecrusher and his flashy compatriot Our Waverley Star, and for once it turned out that way. The two Kiwi stars dropped the rest of the field with 800m to go and staged a two-horse war to the finish line.

Our Waverley Star gained the upper hand in the short Moonee Valley straight but, as Les Carlyon puts in his book True Grit, Bonecrusher “bared his teeth, took a huge gulp of air, lunged and won’’.

His trainer, Frank Ritchie, remembered the moment on Melbourne radio yesterday: “His heart and will to win got him there. He never gave in.’’

Racecaller Bill Collins, who blotted his copybook calling the Cox Plate four years earlier when he declared Sydney champion Kingston Town “can’t win” (he did, for the third year in a row), redeemed himself with a riveting call, climaxing in the “equine immortality’’ line.

Ritchie and the Mitchells were with Bonecrusher, who had contracted a crippling hoof disease, when the gelding was euthanised. He was then buried at Ellerslie racecourse, scene of his first Group 1 triumph in the NZ Derby.

“We’d been discussing this for some time. We have struggled through this week and we have all shed a tear.’’ Ritchie said.

“He was 32 and each winter has been harder for him to get through. Peter spared no expense on vets and blacksmiths but we knew he’d got to the point where it was kindest to put him down.”

Bonecrusher raced 44 times for 18 wins and 17 placings and earned more $2.1 million. “He was a wonderful horse,” Ritchie said. “One out of the box.”