Turf Heroes – Octagonal

Filed in Horse Racing by on August 29, 2011

As part of our excitement about the Sydney and especially Melbourne Spring Racing Carnivals and all that they entail, Making The Nut is pleased to bring you a ten-part ‘Turf Heroes’ series, where Cliff Bingham will look back fondly upon the great memories these champions thoroughbreds embedded in his mind. Part four of the series recaps the career of ‘The Big O’, Cox Plate and AJC Derby hero Octagonal.

Previous “Turf Heroes” Instalments

Part 1: Super Impose

Part 2: Better Loosen Up

Part 3: Let’s Elope

 

The career

Octagonal’s career began with a flourish as a two year-old. He won comfortably on debut in December 1994 before trainer John Hawkes put him out for a short spell and brought him back for a campaign the autumn, in which he resumed with a win in the Group 2 Todman Slipper Trial before tackling the Group 1 Golden Slipper.

The Slipper was a tale of woe for Octagonal – while Flying Spur kept finding clear running room down near the rails as he dived through to win, ‘The Big O’ spent too long mired in midfield traffic before finally obtaining a clear passage and rocketing to the line all too late to run second. Thereafter he would tackle quality filly Isolda in both the Group 1 Sires Produce and Group 1 Champagne Stakes, with the colt winning the former and the filly the latter in a photo finish. It was clear that Octagonal was going places, and being by Zabeel his prospects as a three year-old over longer journeys only looked more rosy.

He resumed in September 1995 as a three year-old, finishing second to Kiwi speedster Our Maizcay in the Group 3 Roman Consul Stakes, before winning both the Listed Heritage Stakes and the Group 3 Stan Fox Stakes and heading to Melbourne for the Caulfield Guineas, where he ran home strongly for third place behind Our Maizcay once again. Both horses would now head to Moonee Valley to take on the older horses in the WFA championship of Australia, the Cox Plate.

It was in the Cox Plate that both Octagonal’s staying credentials and his iron will first came into the public spotlight. While Our Maizcay had ‘punctured’ before the home turn, Octagonal had responded so strongly to a couple of whip cracks from jockey Shane Dye around 700 metres from home (at what is known at Moonee Valley as ‘the school’, in reference to a school adjacent to this part of the track) that he hit the lead approaching the home turn, which Dye (and many others, myself included) thought was too soon. Multiple Group 1-winner Mahogany dived back up inside Octagonal to take the lead with 100 metres to go but the three year-old wasn’t done yet, surging again to take the lead in the shadows of the post and hold on.

His final run of the spring would come in the Group 1 VRC Derby at Flemington. Split Enz used to sign that ‘History Never Repeats’, but in many respects the Derby played out in a similar vein to the Gold Slipper some seven months prior. Jockey Shane Scriven was stuck in traffic for much of the Flemington home straight and by the time he did get clear, Nothin’ Leica Dane (who subsequently ran second in the Melbourne Cup on the Tuesday and was thus in career form) had too great a lead to be reeled in.

Octagonal’s 1996 autumn campaign begun with a second to Nothin’ Leica Dane in the Group 2 Hobartville Stakes before Darren Beadman hopped on board for the first time in the Group 1 Canterbury Guineas, in which he defeated up and coming star Filante. The Rosehill Guineas and subsequently the AJC Derby brought together the cream of the three year-old crop – Octagonal, Nothin’ Leica Dane, Filante and Saintly – for epic instalments of each race. In both instances, Saintly loomed as the winner late in the race, only to be mown down by Octagonal in the final strides.

As if to emphasise the point, Octagonal had roared home late to snare a narrow victory when taking on the older horses in the Group 1 BMW in between the Rosehill Guineas and the AJC Derby (a race in which Saintly also competed, running third). By the end of 1996, Octagonal had amassed a record of 16 starts for ten wins (six at Group 1 level), five seconds and a third and was awarded the Australian Horse of the Year title.

The spring campaign of 1996 was one more of disappointment than triumph for Octagonal. He ran sixth in the Group 1 Manikato Stakes, seventh in the Group 2 Memsie Stakes and fifth in the Group 2 Feehan (nowadays Dato Tan Chin Nam) Stakes, before a switch of jockeys saw his fortunes briefly swing with a win in the Group 1 Underwood Stakes. The rest of his spring campaign was a disappointment though, finishing fourth in the Group 1 Yalumba Stakes, fifth in his defence of the Cox Plate title and ninth in the Group 1 Mackinnon Stakes. The six unplaced runs in this campaign would prove to be the only six such events in his race career.

It didn’t take long for Occy to prove that he was back in full flight in the autumn of 1996, running second to Juggler in the Group 2 Apollo Stakes before a daring ride by Shane Dye saw him capture the Group 1 Chipping Norton Stakes. With the field bunched and the tempo muddling, Dye took off for home well before the turn, skirting around the field and holding off all challengers comfortably. From there he headed south to Flemington and in another of his patented nail-biting finishes, took out the Group 1 Australian Cup.

More of the same was on offer when he returned to Sydney and took out the Group 1 Mercedes Classic for a second time – the photo finish with Arkady was such a tight one that at the time race caller John Tapp had suggested that Arkady was likely to win the photo, much to his subsequent chagrin. In Tapp’s defence, I’ve watched ‘The Big O’ DVD on numerous occasions and every time I watch the replay of that race, it looks like Arkady got the bob in. Nonetheless, his ability to win the tight finishes was on display yet again, adding further to his aura and public appeal.

His final race was at Randwick in the Group 1 Queen Elizabeth Stakes. Before an adoring public, he spotted the quality three year-old (and eventual winner of eight Group 1 races) Intergaze a significant head start and despite racing like a tired horse, soldiered on up the straight to run second. Even in defeat, he never shirked the task at hand – it’s no wonder he had become such a public darling.

 

The memories

Octagonal was a very different beast to his three predecessors in this series. He brought with him an excellent pedigree and fitted many of the prototypical characteristics of an outstanding racehorse. He looked the part in every sense of the word. This was no guarantee of success though – many have come before (and since) him who could talk the talk but failed to walk the walk. Not Octagonal though – he was a blue blood with a blue collar approach to racing.

His racing style made him a legend and a public darling. Australians by nature tend to be drawn to the little battler who made good, rather than the athletically-blessed child prodigy who kicked on later in his career. By most metrics, Octagonal was an unlikely public hero. But once you had seen him race, you understood completely why he was so beloved.

Octagonal was often the little battler at the 600-metre mark who had made good by the winning post, none more famously than in the AJC Derby. Darren Beadman had said he was "beaten 600 metres from home" in the AJC Derby, "but he wouldn't stop trying". It came as a little surprise then that he received a standing ovation as he returned to scale afterwards.

Don’t underestimate the effect of his one poor spring on public sentiment the following autumn when he resumed his vintage form. As Shane Dye noted in “The Big O” documentary, public sentiment and affection for the horse was at its peak in the autumn of 1996 – the racing public wanted to see their fallen idol winning races again.

Sadly, as the way with many a quality sire prospect, the breeding barn whisked him away from racing at the end of his four year-old campaign. Given his breeding and his credentials as an elite 2400-metre runner (almost certainly the best in the country, given his two Mercedes Classic wins), how would he have gone in a handicap such as the Melbourne Cup?

Could he have ousted Saintly in the 1996 Melbourne Cup? Probably not – that was the spring where he was out of form, and with a Cox Plate, Mercedes Classic and AJC Derby all on his mantelpiece before weights came out, he would have spotted an in-form Saintly two to three kilos.

A more interesting question might be this: assuming he came back in the 1997 spring in similar form to the 1997 autumn, could have lumped somewhere around the 60 kilo mark in the 1997 Melbourne Cup against Might and Power? It would have been a huge weight to carry against such a strong adversary, but he was a fighter of the highest order.

The great Les Carlyon once wrote of Octagonal “Like Kingston Town, he has a radar in his head: he knows just where the post is.” Kingston Town all but won the 1982 Melbourne Cup; could Octagonal have done likewise? Maybe, maybe not. Just know that at some point he would have loomed in the straight along with Doriemus as Might and Power started to tire, willing himself on against the crushing weight and the brave opponents. Irrespective of the final outcome, we’d have had an even more indelible moment in Australian racing history.

Really that is the only ‘what if’ of Octagonal’s racing career – one that was controlled by his retirement date. On the track, no-one was ever left wondering afterwards what his absolute best effort would have led to – it had just been played out before their very eyes. Whether you’re talking racehorses or people, you can never ask more than for one to give their absolute best. Therefore, you could never ask more of Octagonal.

Score a $100 Free Bet from Luxbet!

 

The stats

Overall record: 28 starts, 14 wins (10 x Group 1s, 1 x Group 2s, 1 x Group 3s), seven seconds, one third, $5,892,231 prize money

2YO spring/ summer (1994-95): One start, one win

2YO autumn/ winter (1995): Four starts, two wins (1 x G1, 1 x G2), two seconds

3YO spring/ summer (1995-96): Six starts, three wins (1 x G1, 1 x G3), two seconds, one third

3YO autumn/ winter (1996): Five starts, four wins (4 x G1), one second

4YO spring/ summer (1996-97): Seven starts, one wins (1 x G1)

4YO autumn/ winter (1997): Five starts, three wins (3 x G1), two seconds

$2-lines

Image:

Comments are closed.