Top five performances in 100 years of the William Reid Stakes

Saturday will mark 100 years of the William Reid Stakes and Racenet has listed the top five performances in the history of The Valley’s century-old feature.

Saturday’s William Reid Stakes marks 100 years since the feature sprint was first run and heralds the last edition of the race before The Valley is demolished for redevelopment later this year.

News Corp’s Brad Waters listed the five greatest William Reid Stakes performances in a century of the weight-for-age feature.

1 – MANIKATO

Manikato simply had no peer with five wins in the William Reid Stakes, becoming racing’s version of Muhammad Ali in the process. The great chestnut won the Blue Diamond, Golden Slipper and Caulfield Guineas in one year placing him among the best horses to have graced the Australian Turf. But it was his William Reid Stakes performances that showed his fighting side. He bled as a four-year-old and damaged suspensory tendons at five, requiring trainer Bob Hoysted to wrap his legs in plastic bags full of ice after every race. But the equine prize-fighter Manikato kept taking on all comers in the William Reid Stakes, scoring his fifth win in 1983, a little over a year before his sad passing from a virus.

Manikato, with regular rider Gary Willetts aboard, winning the first of five William Reid Stakes in 1979.

2 – BLACK CAVIAR

The late champion would top any other list of this type but winning the race five times in a row is a rarity. Black Caviar did wonders for racing with her mere presence packing The Valley with young and old fans alike for both of her wins in 2011 and 2013. The Peter Moody-trained legend strolled around The Valley in two easy wins in the William Reid Stakes on her way to 25 straight victories before her retirement. Black Caviar’s 2013 William Reid Stakes win came as part of her farewell tour with the great mare ending her career with a resounding win in Sydney at her next start.

Black Caviar easily won two editions of the William Reid Stakes.

3 – FLYING HALO

Flying Halo is not a horse that is mentioned in the same breath as the legends of the turf but he should be in the top echelon of William Reid Stakes performers with three wins in the Moonee Valley event. Flying Halo finished a narrow second to the outstanding galloper Comic Court in 1951 before going on to win three of the next four runnings of the William Reid Stakes. Flying Halo won 24 of 76 starts but was versatile enough to win the Ascot Vale (now Coolmore Stud) Stakes in addition to his William Reid Stakes triumphs over six furlongs (1200m) as well as the Underwood Stakes (twice) and St George Stakes over nine furlongs (1800m).

4 – APACHE CAT

With his distinctive white blaze, Apache Cat was one of the most popular racehorses of his time but was also a brilliant galloper, winning 19 of 43 starts with eight of those being at Group 1 level. Apache Cat won the Australian Guineas as a three-year-old before becoming one Australia’s best sprinters in a career that included two William Reid Stakes wins. The grand galloper won the race for the first time in 2008 as part of a run of five straight Group 1 wins that also included top-level wins in Sydney and Brisbane. He returned the next year to post an easy three-length win in the 2009 race. Apache Cat’s last win was at The Valley in a Group 2 race over 1200m, drawing a roar of delight from the Cox Plate Day crowd.

Comic Court charged home to narrowly defeat three-time winner Flying Halo in the 1951 William Reid Stakes.

5 – COMIC COURT

Comic Court only won the William Reid Stakes once but the stallion turned in an amazing performance to win the six-furlong race less than three months after his record-breaking 1950 Melbourne Cup win. The Jim Cummings-trained Comic Court beat Flying Halo, who went on to win three William Reid Stakes, as part of a five-year-old season that produced 10 wins from 16 starts. Comic Court was good enough to win stakes races from six furlongs to two miles to justify his position in the Australian Racing Hall Of Fame.

Apologies to dual winners Imperatriz, All Shot, Golden Doubles, The Night Patrol (the grandsire of Comic Court) and Heros – but they couldn’t all go in a top five.

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Mixed feelings for the Gauch on Valley rebuild

Three-time William Reid Stakes winner Darren Gauci will view Saturday’s edition of The Valley feature with a mixture of sadness and optimism.

Saturday’s running of the race will be the last William Reid Stakes on the current track before the venue is demolished for redevelopment after October’s Cox Plate.

Gauci rode on The Valley for more than four decades but said the new version of the track could be an improvement.

“There always is a little bit (of sadness) when you rode there and there is a lot of history there,” he said.

“But things do change and I’m sure they have a plan that will change it for the better.

“It will be interesting to see what the future holds”

Gauci won his first William Reid Stakes on outstanding sprinter River Rough in 1985 for Manikato’s trainer, the late Bob Hoysted, before winning for the Ingham brothers and trainer John Hawkes on Strategic and Yell in 1006 and 2003 respectively.

River Rough also won two Lightning Stakes and two Pure Pak Stakes (now the VRC Champions Sprint) while he was also voted Australia’s Champion Sprinter in 1984.

Gauci said River Rough’s motor matched his impressive physique.

“He was the most beautiful looking athlete that you’d ever want to see in a racehorse,” Gauci said.

“He was jet black and just so athletic.

“He was a powerhouse but he was also very light on his feet and just glided when he galloped.

“He had a high cruising speed and didn’t feel like you were going that quick because it felt like he was putting in no effort.

“His biggest strength, was in races, he had that high cruising speed while other sprinters were under pressure, then he’d go and put another three lengths on them.”

Darren Gauci won his first William Reid on River Rough in 1985.

Hoysted holds the William Reid Stakes training record with six wins, five with the champion sprinter Manikato, in the weight-for-age sprint.

Gauci said Hoysted’s simple approach to dealing with jockeys was his major strength.

“I found him quite straightforward to ride for. He wouldn’t overdo it with instructions,” Gauci said.

“He would rely on you to have done your homework but he’d tell you if there were any idiosyncrasies that you needed to know about a horse.

“He was a real gentleman of racing.

“He loved his horses and a great trainer.”

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VBs produce high speed on Hareeba

Buying a bloke a beer led Simon Marshall to the fastest experience he ever had on a horse in the 1995 William Reid Stakes.

Hareeba posted a six-length win with Michael Clarke at Ballarat in November 1993 but post-race events set Marshall on a course to a Group 1 triumph 14 months later.

Marshall gave Hareeba’s trainer Ken Newman a lift from Ballarat to Mornington before a casual but crucial conversation at the end of the ride.

“I gave him a lift back and bought him a six-pack of VBs at the drive-through bottle shop.

“When he got out of the car, he said, ‘thanks son, thanks for the ride’.

“I said, ‘Kenny, if Mick Clarke stuffs the ride up one day and you need another jock, remember the six-pack’.

“It was after the Vic Health Cup where Michael dragged him back and rode him quiet, Kenny wasn’t happy with him.

“That night, I got a phone call. Kenny had had a few and he said, ‘remember the six-pack of VBs you bought me at Ballarat and I said I’d put you on the horse one day?’.

“He said, ‘you’re on it next start’.”

Hareeba gave Simon Marshall the fastest ride he ever had on a horse.

Marshall steered Hareeba to a win in a Group 2 race at Flemington at his first ride on the speedster before the pair combined to win the race now known as the VRC Champions Sprint in 1994.

The 1995 William Reid Stakes was run at Flemington as The Valley underwent the installation of the StrathAyr track in preparation for the introduction of night race at the venue.

Hareeba blitzed a top-class field down the Flemington straight, leaving Group 1 winners Spanish Mix and Schillaci more than five lengths in his wake.

Marshall said that race was the fastest he ever went on a horse.

“I’ve never gone that quick on one,” Marshall said.

“I had a quick look under the right armpit at the 400(m) and I couldn’t see any one. We were about seven in front.”

“He broke 1.08 and won eased down.

“For a horse to do that and win by five-and-a-half was pretty phenomenal.”

Hareeba won 10 of 26 starts in a career that was interrupted by leg issues.

“He was 585kg so he always had soft-tissue setbacks but his feet were his biggest problem,” Marshall said.

“Kenny Newman did a marvellous job to manage him the way he did. That’s why he was so lightly raced.

“Hareeba beat Mahogany, Schillaci, all of them at his best. He was a great horse.”

Originally published as Top five performances in 100 years of the William Reid Stakes