Family celebrate the golden anniversary of Cairns jockey Frank Reys’ mighty Melbourne Cup triumph
A bush battler who beat the odds to win the race that stops the nation should be immortalised in bronze, according to the late jockey’s Cairns family. This is his story.
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A bush battler who beat the odds to win the race that stops the nation should be immortalised in bronze, according to the late jockey’s Cairns family.
On Tuesday Victoria Racing Club will honour Frank Reys at Flemington with a display commemorating his historic 1973 Melbourne Cup win aboard Gala Supreme.
Half-a-century on, Reys is the only First Nations rider to claim the Cup while no other jockey has won from Barrier 24 in the race’s history.
Renowned artist and niece, Susan Reys, whose work will feature as part of the VRC’s tribute, said Cairns should also acknowledge her “determined” uncle’s amazing achievement.
“I would love to see a statue of him in full victory pose,” Ms Reys said.
“I was always in awe of Uncle Frank and to be honest, I can’t believe that there isn’t anything here (in Cairns) already.
“He should be seen by everybody and his story should be shared.”
Memorialising Reys’ incredible ride was important, Member for Cairns Michael Healy said.
“Frank Reys holds a remarkable place in the sporting and First Nations history of Far North Queensland,” Mr Healy said.
“We should remember his achievements with pride and it is only fitting that we find a way to properly recognise and celebrate his life.”
The son of a Djirrbal woman and a Filipino father, Reys emerged from humble beginnings to become one of the nation’s most respected and well-known jockeys.
Learning to ride almost before he could walk, the talented horseman chased brumbies with his brothers along the Mulgrave River before becoming apprenticed as a jockey in his late teens.
In a career spanning four decades, Reys claimed over 1300 wins including the Oaks Stakes (1962), the Australasian Cup (1969) and consecutive Oakleigh Plates (1970, ‘71).
But it is his Melbourne Cup triumph, after failing on nine previous attempts, that captured the hearts and minds of the sporting public across the nation.
THE BIG RACE
Prior to his greatest victory, wretched luck had largely defined the late stages of Reys’ career.
In 1972, injuries forced the ailing jockey to forego riding the George Hanlon-trained Piping Lane in the spring racing carnival’s main event.
As fate would have it, the gelding, a 40-1 chance, won the Cup that year, booted home by South Australian John Letts.
“I remember we were sitting in the backyard when the race was on that year,” Reys’ son, Chris, recently recalled.
“He started crying and he turned to me and said, ‘I’m never going to win that bloody Cup’.”
After breaking his ankle while helping free a pony from a barbed-wire fence in early 1973, many urged Frank to retire.
But he ignored calls for him to quit, taking a chance on a precocious four-year-old gelding trained by close mate Ray Hutchins.
“The sight of Gala Supreme was all it took to get him back in the saddle,” Chris said.
A second place in the Caulfield Cup encouraged Reys’ supporters but the jockey’s hopes were dealt a blow when he drew barrier 24.
“I just about felt sick when I heard Gala Supreme had drawn the outside barrier,” Reys told the Sporting Globe in 1974.
“I was terribly depressed.”
Quickly, the famous Reys resilience kicked in.
“That’s when his careful planning to figure out the problem started,” Chris said.
“He studied hard and told us what he’d do ahead of race day.”
Before a crowd of 104,000 racegoers, Gala Supreme created Melbourne Cup history.
“I remember it vividly,” Chris said.
“I was sitting in the stands and watched it all unfold exactly like he told me. It was amazing.”
Just as he planned, Reys sat four back on the rail when the field settled. Then, a wall of horses emerged as Gala Supreme rounded the home turn.
“We were sitting in the jockey’s stand near the mounting yard,” Chris said.
“He was third or fourth when he went past us but I knew he was going to win. I watched it unfold in awe.
“Mum was praying.”
Gala Supreme surged towards the post “popping his nose” between favourite Glengowan and Daneson in a photo finish.
“I knew he had won it when he hit the line,” Chris said.
Standing before an adoring crowd, Reys, at 41 the oldest rider in the race, fought back tears as he delivered a stirring victory speech.
“It is the one thing in my life as a jockey that I have wished for, it is every jockey’s dream,” he said.
“I cannot believe it is possible. I have picked myself up off the ground to win this and now I don’t know what I am going to do.”
To celebrate the golden anniversary of Reys’ historic ride, the VRC has invited his wife Noeline, children Chris, Shelley and Debra along with extended family to attend the Melbourne Cup as distinguished guests.
“The Cup is what he strived for all his career,” Chris said.
“It was the only reason we lived in Melbourne, really. He hated the winters and the cold.
“He always swore he’d move back to Cairns the second he finished racing.”
After a long battle with cancer, Reys died in 1984, aged 53.
But his legacy lives on.
“Cup Day is Father’s Day for our family,” Chris said.
“When they jump in the Cup we all reflect and think of him. We love to spend the Cup together.”
The scourge of racism
The man with “a smile that would last for days” must be beaming somewhere.
When the Victoria Racing Club formally recognise Frank Reys as the first and only First Nations jockey to win the spring racing carnival’s main event tomorrow, he’ll have posthumously overcome yet another barrier in his astonishing career.
Soon after winning his first race in 1949 at Gordonvale on Cruedon, Reys packed his belongings and ventured south to try his luck in the big smoke.
Nestled into a railway wagon with galloper, Baysure and trainer Alf Baker for company, few could have imagined how far his unwavering determination would take him.
Punters embraced him, the public adored him and his contemporaries deeply revered him.
But no matter how far he travelled, or how desperately he tried to avoid it, the scourge of racism followed him throughout his life.
In an interview in 2011, Frank’s younger brother, Fred, told me of the slurs they endured even as young hoops racing together in Far North Queensland.
“I can remember when we were riding at the track here (in Cairns),” Fred told me.
“I was coming alongside Frank in front of me. We were near the fence and we heard ‘Who’re the little monkeys? Who are those two monkeys?’
“But that never worried Frank. That’s the sort of person that he was.”
When he moved south, Reys chose not to acknowledge his Aboriginal heritage.
Assimilation policies and discrimination touched most elements of First Nations peoples’ lives at the time.
Instead, he referred to himself as the son of a Filipino canecutter and a proud Queenslander.
“I probably shouldn’t say this but there was an owner that Dad wasn’t allowed to ride for at one stage because of what he looked like,” son, Chris Reys, told me last week.
“But in the end, he wound up riding horses for that bloke too.”
This week, I was reminded of what old Fred Reys told me about his brother at his home in White Rock all those years ago.
The resilience he learned as one of 14 children who would run down wild horses for fun in a post World War II-era Cairns.
“When you chase brumbies you’re moving from one side to the other of the animal,” Fred said.
“You’re in heavy scrub, weaving and ducking. Then when you break them in, they’re not so polite. They do buck a bit.
“We were born-and-bred here. We are Cairns people and to see one of ours go down there and capture the big race for us put us on the map forever.
“It’s the climax of Frank’s career and it’s for all the boys who chased brumbies with us.
“It just makes for one happy, momentous occasion.”
It may have taken 50 years to get there but at Flemington tomorrow, ‘old Frank’ will have done it again.
How the VRC is celebrating
The Victoria Racing Club will be celebrating the golden anniversary of Cairns jockey Frank Reys’ win aboard Gala Supreme during the Melbourne Cup Carnival.
Tributes will include two heritage displays inside venues and video packages to feature on Network 10’s broadcast throughout race day.
Members of the Reys family will also be hosted on Lexus Melbourne Cup Day in the Committee Room at Flemington.
The main Frank Reys heritage display will be located in The Atrium which includes an original saddle that was owned by Reys, a set of racing colours, a racing helmet and Reys’ 1973 Melbourne Cup jockey’s trophy.
Newspaper clippings and a black and white framed photo with Reys on Gala Supreme taking off the hat of trainer Ray Hutchins will also feature in the display.
Behind the showcase is a printed textile wall mount by Susan Reys, Frank’s niece, entitled Celebration of Culture.
A second display will be located in the Committee Room, including a set of Gala Supreme racing silks loaned from the Australian Racing Museum, which includes a St Christopher medal attached to the inside of the silks.
A front cover of the Herald Newspaper that reads ‘Old Supremo Frank’ will complement the racing silks and a whip.
VRC Chairman, Neil Wilson said it was important to recognise Reys because of the legacy that he forged during his riding career.
“The Victoria Racing Club (VRC) is proud to be celebrating the 50-year anniversary of Frank Reys’ win aboard Gala Supreme during this year’s Melbourne Cup Carnival,” Mr Wilson said.
“The Melbourne Cup is Australia’s most iconic race, because of the significance it holds to our culture and history, and Reys’ triumph in 1973 is an important part of that.”
Reys also served as president of the Victorian Jockeys Association for two years.
Originally published as Family celebrate the golden anniversary of Cairns jockey Frank Reys’ mighty Melbourne Cup triumph
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