The changing landscape of Australian stakes racing as we move through the 21st century has led to plenty of race name changes that have often been greeted with a mixed response, but when the G2 Villiers became the Ingham it was an immediate winner!
Try not to become a man of success. Rather become a man of value - Albert Einstein
‘Tis the season to celebrate all things philanthropic, and at Royal Randwick on Saturday two gentlemen who exemplified that spirit of community will be honoured as they doubtless would have appreciated - with a festive day at the track and a cracker of a horse race!
We will raise a glass to salute Mr Bob Ingham AO and Mr Jack Ingham AO, icons of Australian and global horse racing, founding benefactors of the Ingham Institute for Applied Medical Research, and all round great blokes.
The $2 million G2 Ingham is run over the famous Randwick mile under handicap conditions, and is the historic race formerly known as the Villiers Stakes which was inaugurated in 1892 and won by Two Up.
It has been a G2 race since 1986, and in its long history has always run at Randwick (except for Warwick Farm 2001,2011-12) just before Christmas time.
The winner is ballot exempt from Randwick's iconic mile handicap the G1 Doncaster, the following year, and thus the race attracts a big and high quality field.
In 2022 a massive prizemoney boost to $2 million accompanied the renaming of the race to honour the Inghams, elevating the standard of competition even higher!
Great milers appear on the Ingham honour roll with Yaralla (1941), Bernborough (1945) Carioca (1952) and Raconteur (1953) leading the list of earlier winners.
Since 1980 Rising Prince, Roman Artist, Dinky Flyer, Soho Square, Cobbora, Arletty, Referral, Final Fantasy, Carael Boy, On A High, Aqua D’Amore, Utzon, Honor In War, Palacio De Cristal, Monton, All Legal, Happy Clapper and Sense Of Occasion are some of the very fine gallopers to have won this race.
Jack and Bob Ingham celebrated the Villiers win of a horse they trained together, Dear John, all the way back in 1978.
Out of Crown Lodge under John Hawkes came their 2002 winner of the race, Boreale.
What were the secrets to Jack and Bob Ingham’s unprecedented success?
Everyone who gets involved in racing or breeding thoroughbreds is pursuing a dream. For most folks, the dream is to breed or race a good horse or two. Maybe even a G1 winner! Or a winner of their local country Cup.
Then there are those who have the means and the determination to pursue bigger and more empiric ambitions.
Though, as many have discovered, money and ambition alone are not enough. Many an ego has gone by the wayside in this industry!
To succeed, far more than the limited vision of ego is required.
In the 1950s, Walter Ingham Jr inherited a 42 acre family farm at Casula, in NSW, and turned it into the most successful chicken farm in the state.
From that base, his sons John, always known as “Big Jack” and younger brother Bob, built the little farm into the sprawling empire that became Inghams Enterprises.
Eventually their business was turning over $2 billion annually, and employed 8,000 people across a multitude of locations.
Jack and Bob had loved horses and all things racing since they were kids. Their father had tried his hand at breeding, and upon his death they inherited not only the poultry business, but a broodmare named Valiant Rose.
That daughter of the Heroic son Valiant Chief would become the grand dam of the brothers first G1 winner Sweet Embrace, who won the Golden Slipper of 1967, as a maiden, at $40!
It would be several decades before a cavalcade of stakes winners would commence to flow in the Ingham’s brilliant cerise silks (and the black second set), produced from a vast band of elite broodmares - but old Valiant Rose would always have a special place in their hearts.
By the mid 1980s the brothers were already successful racehorse owners and breeders. But these two visionaries had hatched a very grand plan.
The jaw dropping success of their fully realized vision would revolutionize the Australian racing and breeding industry, and set a blueprint for what is now standard best practice.
Who could have imagined that a brigade of chooks would underpin such a revolution?
The two brothers were always inseparable and in character they were perfect foils for one another.
Big Jack was a racing tragic of the highest order, 100% emotionally invested in every race, whether it be a midweek maiden or a G1 at Royal Randwick. His pure love and passion for the horse as much as the sport, was of larger than life proportions.
Bob was equally passionate but far more reserved, a pragmatic character famous for keeping scrupulous accounts on anything and everything, including the punt.
The brothers went halves in everything, even their betting wins and losses!
As businessmen, they knew the value of patience and meticulous planning. Using the experience and insights gained in building their Empire of The Chicken, Jack and Bob waited until they were able to launch Ingham Racing as a fully self contained, state of the art thoroughbred production line the likes of which had never been seen before in this country.
“Doing the right things, and doing them the right way ” - that was the oft-quoted Ingham philosophy.
It started with a budget of $35 million, and a 35 horse barn at Warwick Farm that would soon become famous as Crown Lodge.
The renowned Woodlands Stud in the Hunter Valley, was acquired. It was a name already synonymous with the Golden Slipper through a previous owner, STC Chairman George Ryder, who founded our great juvenile showpiece.
At Woodlands, Ryder had stood the specialist speed sire Newtown Wonder (Fair Trial) but any hope of his stallion dominating the newly minted Slipper vanished with the meteoric rise of the aptly named Star Kingdom (Stardust) who sired the first five winners of the great race!
Star Kingdom’s grandson and one of the greatest Slipper winners Marscay, was bred at Woodlands during the period in which the historic stud was jointly owned by the UK-based Lord Derby and the US - based King Ranch.
But after “the boys from the west” Jack and Bob Ingham bought the place in 1985, the Woodlands name would become etched still deeper into the national sporting consciousness, particularly via the Slipper.
In all, seven Golden Slipper winners raced in full or part ownership for the Inghams.
The last would be the filly Forensics (Flying Spur) who won in 2007, just a year before Woodlands was sold “lock,stock and barrel” to Sheikh Mohammed.
The final stage in the Ingham Racing chain of excellence was a pre-training centre at Belmont Park, and with its completion the entire racehorse “production facility” was complete.
This became the blueprint on which our major industry players now structure their organisations as a matter of course, but at the time no private set-up on this scale had been attempted before.
There was nothing soulless about it; on the contrary it was driven by a genuine lifelong passion, tempered by meticulous accountability.
Bob Ingham, the “numbers man” to beat them all, had done the math and come up with the formula for success.
Bob wanted 200 two year olds ready to go into training on August 1st each year, and 100 horses in work at any given time.
At Crown Lodge, everything had been planned and finished with the most incredible attention to detail.
The horses lived comfortably in unusually roomy boxes which had been constructed so that each inhabitant would feel the benefit of cool afternoon breezes during Sydney’s humid summers.
To avoid traffic dramas for horse and rider, the Inghams even built a tunnel connecting the stables to the racecourse! No expense was spared, no detail overlooked.
To fill those boxes with the required elite bloodstock, the Inghams had prised expert agent Trevor Lobb out of a prestigious role at Inglis.
It was his job to source them, along with the mares who would produce more - the ultimate goal was always for Woodlands to breed all the Ingham’s racing stock, and the property was ready to house this ambitious breeding program.
Crown Jester (sire of breedshaper Rory's Jester) was the foundation sire for the Inghams.
He was followed by the all time great broodmare sire, Golden Slipper winner Canny Lad, a Woodlands stalwart for many years.
Other influential sires stood by the Inghams included Quest For Fame, Commands, Strategic, and the immortal father - son duo of Octagonal and Lonhro.
Champion jockey Rod Quinn was retained as stable rider (Darren “Dazza” Beadman would join the team later) with Vic Thompson heading the training operation.
Quinn and Thompson were incredulous at the endless stream of top quality animals, sourced by the hard-working Lobb, which poured into the yard.
A system of operations that had been years in the planning was implemented. There was no skimping on staff - experienced hands were aplenty at Crown Lodge - so morning trackwork and stable routines proceeded with military efficiency.
In due course Vic Thompson was replaced as head trainer by John Hawkes, but Hawkes didn’t make any major changes to Thompson’s successful system, he just tweaked it a bit.
Hawkes would go on to train more than 4,000 winners during his 15 years in charge, including a staggering 493 (and a half!) Group race wins, 82 of them at G1 level.
Those wins were part of a 13-season domination during which the stable had at least 250 winners in each term, and topped 300 on three occasions.
The behemoth that was Ingham Racing during that period expanded to encompass 50 boxes at Carbine Lodge in Melbourne, 25 at Toltrice Lodge in Adelaide and 30 at Tenor Lodge in Brisbane, all staffed and run to the uncompromising Ingham standard of excellence.
Overseeing it all, Hawkes was flying around the country in Learjets like an enigmatic celeb, dropping into one meeting to pick up a G1 before disappearing into the sunset en route to another.
The breeding side of things had expanded beyond Woodlands capacity, and another farm at Cootamundra was purchased to accommodate the overflow of mares and youngstock.
“When they first came to me they said, ‘We’re going to get a couple of stallions and race a few’” Trevor Lobb recalled many years later.
“But we ended up with 1500 horses! They did it because they could, and they could fulfil a dream they’d had since they were teenagers.”
Woodlands under the management of Trevor Lobb, developed a number of top quality mare families which would be inherited in the distant future by Sheikh Mohammed, and which are prolific sources of black type to this day.
Bob Ingham revealed in later years that the brother's outlay in the first decade of operations for Ingham Racing's infrastructure and bloodstock was $286 million!
Some great horses strode the turf during the Crown Lodge golden era - Arena, Freemason, Viscount, Yell, Preserve, Unworldly, Niello, Commands, Strategic…..the list goes on. (I'm saving you know who)
Another memorable Woodlands bred galloper was the 18.1 hand high, perfectly named Holy Roller.
Because when people first laid eyes on the immense son of Sanction “Holy ****” was a fairly typical reaction!
Jockeys couldn’t even see past his ginormous head and neck - they literally had to trust the horse to find his own way home in a race!
Fortunately The Roller knew exactly what to do. The big boy was as genuine as they come and while he was no champion, for such a monolithic animal he was surprisingly athletic. Holy Roller would go on to win 12 races, cheered on every step of the way by an avid cult following.
The stable flagship of course was a once in a generation champion! “The Big O.”
Octagonal, the magnificently handsome jet black son of Zabeel, was one of those racehorses that just love to perform for an audience.
“Occy” delighted in thrilling the adoring crowds with nail-biting finishes in which he invariably came out on top.
With one big dark eye fixed on the stands where fans were screaming his name, the black would charge with a late run, the cerise silks blazing in memorable contrast, to grab the prize.
Octagonal was bred at Cambridge Stud in NZ, and the 1992 born colt was a member of the very first crop by Zabeel, from the imported mare Eight Carat.
Little did anyone know then of the magic those two would conjure up!
The striking colt was purchased for $210,000 by the Inghams at Karaka the following year.
The aristocratic looking Octagonal entered training at Crown Lodge alongside a Woodlands homebred the same age.
This was the powerful colt Strategic, by Zeditave from a granddaughter of Sweet Embrace, and thus a descendant of Bob and Jack’s first mare Valiant Rose.
Strategic went into the 1995 Golden Slipper backed off the map, having won five races in the lead up to the juvenile grand final, while Octagonal - despite breeding that didn’t exactly shout Slipper - was undefeated in two runs and installed as a solid second fave.
Strategic raced wide the trip and ran bravely for fifth, but it was the sight of Octagonal coming home like a train to suffer a narrow defeat by the mighty Flying Spur that stuck in racegoers minds.
This colt had something alright. He was a real excitement machine!
Octagonal then collected the G1 Sires Produce Stakes in what was the first of 10 victories at the highest level, and Strategic (fourth) had to admire his stablemate’s gorgeous black behind again.
After being pipped in the G1 Champagne, Octagonal was crowned Champion 2YO of the year.
The two Crown Lodge colts met once more as three year olds in the G1 Caulfield Guineas, but neither could win. Octagonal flashed home in customary style for third to Our Maizcay - a defeat his great son Lonhro would avenge some years later with one of the most explosive finishing bursts in the long history of that Classic!
Strategic found the mile too far, finishing fifth. Strategic, while not a champion like his stablemate, was a very talented sprinter. He got his well deserved G1 glory later on, and forged his own successful stud career at Woodlands.
After the Guineas, “The Big O” achieved legend status and Australian HOTY honours as a three year old, winning the WS Cox Plate and Sydney's Autumn G1 “Triple Crown” of the Canterbury /Rosehill Guineas / ATC Derby - as well as the WFA Mercedes Classic (Tancred Stakes).
He had been narrowly beaten and denied a historic Derby double by the supreme staying colt Nothin’ Leica Dane in the VRC Derby in the spring.
Octagonal was probably a little tired, and his four year old spring campaign yielded “only” a single G1 win, in the Underwood Stakes.
But on the firm tracks of the following Autumn, Occy was back to his best, notching up consecutive G1 wins in the Chipping Norton, Australian Cup and Ranvet Stakes. His final race start was the G1 Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Randwick in which he finished second - eerily, his lookalike son Lonhro would re enact the exact same scenario in his farewell to the turf seven years later!
Octagonal ended his career with winnings of $5,892,231, an extraordinary figure in those far off days and the highest of any Australasian galloper to that point.
Even people who had little interest in racing became fascinated with Occy.
The way he looked, the way he raced. He radiated charisma and courage.
But nobody adored the big black stallion more than Jack and Bob Ingham!
Trainer John Hawkes famously said of Octagonal,
“He wanted to work with you, and help you. He just wanted to win.”
Lonhro inherited the unusual intelligence, generosity and people-loving character of his sire and faithfully passed these traits on.
Already an Australian Hall Of Fame resident, The Big O was inducted into the NZ Hall Of Fame early this year.
Uncannily, as Zabeel had sired Octagonal from his first crop, so Octagonal got legendary son Lonhro from his.
Lonhro had a fan club from the day he was born and his popularity only grew from there. The swaggering little black colt (officially brown, but to most eyes, as black and beautiful as his sire) was born in mid December of 1998.
He was the 344th foal born at Woodlands that year, that’s a heap of foals! - but the little guy stood out, and not just because of his late arrival.
Those who were there to observe him in his first few days of life knew that mum Shadea (Straight Strike) had delivered something a little bit special.
Despite the late foaling, Lonhro won a Blue Diamond Prelude at two, and he hadn’t officially turned three when he unleashed his spectacular last to first Caulfield Guineas triumph.
Racing fans had lovingly dubbed the horse “Little O” but the latest Crown Lodge superstar needed a new nickname, because clearly he was not going to live in the old man’s shadow for long!
“The Black Flash” arose from somewhere, and it suited him perfectly.
Lonhro forged his own legend on the track and in the stud, yet he was also the glorious closing chapter in a fairytale that had begun decades before with two brothers, one mare and a chook farm on 45 acres.
Lonhro went on to win 26 races from 35 starts and 11 G1 races, one more than Occy though unlike his sire- to the despair of fans - he would only place in a Cox Plate.
Bob Ingham was bombarded with offers for the great entire, but had no intention of selling, or retiring him early. Many regard Lonhro’s 2004 Australian Cup win as a five year old to be his greatest G1 victory.
It was Lonhro’s final race in Melbourne and everywhere you looked at Flemington cerise flags were flying in the breeze, as racing tragics turned out in droves to farewell their hero.
100 metres from the finish it was all over and an utter tragedy. Lonhro would need to be Pegasus, marooned in a ridiculous position from where all hope was certainly lost. The crowd watched on in horror.
But the stallion found his invisible wings, as the voice of legendary racecaller Greg Miles echoed this delirious moment of resurrection.
Lonhro! The champion's in desperate trouble….Lonhro! He’s coming! The crowd roaring go Lonhro go! …YES LONHRO! Lonhro won it, what a champion! What a way to go…..
Even if Octagonal had sired nothing other than Lonhro he would have stamped his mark on the breed, but he was an excellent sire at Woodlands (also of international G1 winners!) and became an equally fine broodmare sire.
Occy was laid to rest aged 24 at Woodlands, beside his fellow legend Canny Lad, in 2015.
Big O and old rival Strategic had become good mates upon their retirement from stud duties, living companionably in adjoining stallion paddocks at Darley Woodlands.
Strategic died in 2018, having spent his entire life at his birthplace.
Time flies too quickly! Now Lonhro’s gone as well, having passed away in April last year after a fantastic stud career.
Lonhro’s tally of stakes winners stands at 83 - with his popular front running son, 6YO Rosehill Guineas winner Lindermann, exemplifying what the breed are all about. Lindermann (bred and raced by members of the Ingham family) recently rediscovered his purple form, adding three Group wins to his career this season!
The extraordinary durability and versatility of this sireline continued through Lonhro as it does through his own masterpiece, 5 x G1 winning juvenile Triple Crown hero Pierro, already the sire of triple G1 winning Arcadia Queen and five further G1 winners.
All the above adds up to a legacy of priceless equine genetics and a treasure trove of iconic racing memories left to us by Jack and Bob Ingham, to serve as an accurate reflection of their generosity, dedication and vision as breeders, owners and community leaders.
After “Big Jack” passed in 2003 at the age of 74, it was time for a change.
$500 million was the price Godolphin’s Sheikh Mohammed paid in 2008 for the entire Woodlands/Crown Lodge operation on a walk in walk out basis.
It was a staggering deal and remains the biggest of its kind to this day.
Bob Ingham continued to buy yearlings and race them in the famous cerise, but in a far more relaxed fashion. He threw his support behind a young, up and coming trainer by the name of Chris Waller.
That uncanny Ingham ability to identify the exceptional was on display yet again.
Meanwhile, while Godolphin expanded the breeding operation mightily at Woodlands, they have benefited much from the old bloodlines they inherited.
One striking example is the Godolphin-produced Golden Slipper trifecta of 2019!
The winner, Kiamichi, was a filly out of a Woodlands bred Canny Lad mare. The runner-up Microphone descended from three generations of Woodlands mares, and third was Lyre, a filly by Lonhro and a granddaughter of the champion Mnemosyne, Jack and Bob Ingham’s G1 Thousand Guineas heroine.
Bob must have taken great joy and satisfaction from that Slipper result.
Bob Ingham passed away at the age of 88 in 2020.
The Ingham brothers were inducted into the Australian Racing Hall of Fame in 2004 for their services to the Australian racing industry.
The cerise is carried today by horses owned by the extended Ingham family, such as the champion mare and crowd sweetheart Fangirl.
Bob's daughter Debbie Kepitis has lived a stardusted ride of her own as part owner of the unforgettable Winx - another great horse genuinely shared and enjoyed over a long career with an adoring public, in the Ingham family tradition.
“You just can’t write racing stories like that” Debbie has said of the life and times of the brothers Ingham.
“They (Octagonal and Lonhro) were also special horses - Bob and Jack had the guts to race these horses on, to have long careers, and it paid off for them.
“They weren’t shipped off to stud straight away, and they showed their toughness and ability to race at the top level year after year.
“They were the public’s horses - the public loved them and felt involved.
“Octagonal was the 'Big O', and Lonhro was 'The Black Flash.' It was a great time for racing Champions, and the love for them from everyone was unbelievable.”
