Punters back on outback track to Birdsville

When bush jockey Kevin ‘Spinny’ Monaghan watches the thoroughbreds gallop down the Birdsville racetrack this weekend, he’ll do so with a sense of nostalgia.

Former bush jockey Kevin ‘Spinny’ Monaghan and Birdsville Race Club president David Brook with the Birdsville Cup. Picture: Lyndon Mechielsen

When Kevin “Spinny” Monaghan watches thoroughbreds gallop down the Birdsville racetrack this weekend, he’ll do so with a sense of nostalgia.

There will also, no doubt, be thoughts of what could have been if only his horse was a touch faster back in September 1967.

Monaghan, 77, was the jockey who come second by the smallest of margins in the first Birdsville races photo finish in 1987.

“One judge gave it to me, the other two said it was a dead heat. The photo came down and I was beaten by a couple of centimetres,” he says.

The stockman, who worked on nearby cattle stations, raced for first time in 1962, aged 18, and continued to try his luck for three decades, winning several races but never the Birdsville Cup.

Fortunately, his son David was able to ride two cup winners in the 1990s to ensure the family name made it on to the plaque.

Monaghan recalls, with a laugh, the time he agreed to ride a horse that hadn’t had enough training. “He threw me twice in the saddling paddock and then when we got going, he just stuck on the outside running rails and came second on the opposite side to the other horses,” he says.

“I couldn’t steer that horse. I still remember his name was Mack Mate, but I thought ‘I’m not your mate’.”

Monaghan will be among Diamantina locals mixing with thousands of visitors from all over at the outback racetrack. “I go every year to catch up with my old mates,” he says.

The Birdsville races, first run in 1882, are usually held in September but this year the carnival was held in April as well to make up for a two-year absence during the Covid pandemic.

Birdsville Race Club president David Brook says Indigenous stockmen like Monaghan played an integral role in the history of the Birdsville races. He recalls when the horses that ran in the races came from nearby cattle stations after undergoing short training regimes. These days, the horses are professionally bred and trained racehorses.

Horse numbers are down on regular years, with 64 runners instead of the usual 90-odd. Brook says it was to be expected given the break: “The horses aren’t back in the area in full strength.”

Patchy rain in recent days has also made the trip out to Birdsville tricky and made some dirt roads impassable for hours at a time.

Organisers are used to testing conditions, such as the 39C heat at the April event. “Sometimes we get dust storms, other times it’s rain and we’re washed out, we’ve had equine flu, but we’re still here,” Brook says.