Turf Heroes – Northerly
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 eight of the series recaps the career of “The Fighting Tiger” from the west, Caulfield Cup and dual Cox Plate winner Northerly.
Previous “Turf Heroes” Instalments
Part 1: Super Impose
Part 2: Better Loosen Up
Part 3: Let’s Elope
Part 4: Octagonal
Part 5: Saintly
Part 6: Might and Power
Part 7: Sunline
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The career
Northerly’s three year-old campaign may have been brief and almost unnoticed on the eastern seaboard but was nonetheless a portent of things to come. His two runs led to a third placing on debut in Class Six race (no maidens for this budding champion!) and a win at Listed level before being sent for a spell.
His four year-old campaign begun late in the spring of 2000 with a fourth placing followed by a win in restricted company. Thereafter though, his star rose significantly. First came a win in the Group 3 RJ Peters Stakes and only a week later and at just his sixth race start, he joined the list of Group 1 winners, thrashing the state’s best milers in the Railways Stakes by three lengths. After a let-up of juts four weeks he ran second over an unsuitably short 1200 metres in the Australia Day Stakes in Perth before heading to Melbourne for the first time.
His first 2001 Melbourne assignment was the Group 2 Carlyon Stakes at Caulfield over a mile. Carrying 58 kilos, he careered away to a four length win in track record time. This saw him sent out the short-priced elect at his next start, the Listed Victoria Gold Cup over 2000 metres. However, his first attempt at the distance would prove fruitless, running third to Greenstone Charm.
This run left a question mark over his credentials for the Group 1 Australian Cup, his chief mission for the Melbourne campaign. I certainly recall standing in a TAB in the inner Canberra suburb of Braddon, weighing up his Carlyon Stakes victory and his Victoria Gold Cup defeat before deciding that he might be suspect at 2000 metres and instead backing the reigning VRC Derby winner in Hit The Roof. Hit The Roof ran second….. around three lengths behind Northerly who, despite racing three wide for much of the journey, had broken another course record. His autumn campaign concluded here, but with six wins (including two at the top level) and three placings from just ten starts, he would be a force to be reckoned with in the spring.
He resumed in the spring of 2001 as a five year-old with two runs in Perth, winning the Listed Goodwood Sprint when carrying 61 kilos and running second in the Listed Farnley Stakes when carrying 62 kilos. His next assignment would be the Group 2 Feehan (now Dato Tan Chin Nam) Stakes at Moonee Valley, and his first test against the mighty Kiwi mare (and dual Cox Plate winner) Sunline.
Approaching the home turn it was Sunline who looked well in command as Northerly wobbled around the tight turn on his debut run at the Valley, but he knuckled right down in the final 200 metres and nabbed her just before the post. Truth be told, he never looked the winner until inside the final 100 metres of the race – his determination and fighting spirit had prevailed.
The two rivals then took separate paths – Sunline winning the Turnbull Stakes while Northerly added the Group 1 Underwood Stakes and Group 1 Yalumba Stakes (defeating subsequent Caulfield and Melbourne Cup winner Ethereal) – before resuming their battle for supremacy in the Group 1 Cox Plate.
Sunline led the field up, with Northerly and Sydney three year-old Viscount stalking the speed. In the home straight, Northerly was the widest of the three runners, with Sunline on the inside and Viscount trying to bullock through in the middle. Northerly was first across the line by three quarters of a length, but had to survive fanciful protests from both Sunline and Viscount before finally being awarded the race, his third consecutive Group 1 victory.
From here Northerly returned to Perth in order to ‘defend’ his Railway Stakes title, this time lumping 61.5 kilos, 10.5 kilos more than he had carried to victory just under 12 months prior. The fairy tale return home was not to be though, as he finished 11th to Old Comrade before heading out for a well-earned spell.
After such a tiring spring and only a short spell, his autumn campaign of 2002 was an abbreviated one comprising just three races, albeit with some degree of success still forthcoming. He ran a strong second to Barkada in the Group 1 Orr Stakes before stepping out to the more suitable 1800 metre journey in comfortably winning the Group 2 St George Stakes. The scene was set for his defence of the Australian Cup and he was sent out a raging favourite to complete the task. However, fellow Western Australian galloper Old Comrade came with a well-timed run to defeat Northerly and in the process, repeat the Railway Stakes – Australian Cup double accomplished by the defeated horse the year previous.
Northerly resumed in the spring after a five month spell and submitted perhaps his best preparation of all. After two unplaced runs over unsuitably short distances in the Goodwood Sprint and the Group 2 Memsie Stakes, he won the Group 2 Craiglee (nowadays Makybe Diva) Stakes, the Group 1 Underwood Stakes and the Group 2 Turnbull Stakes before attempting to take on the Group 1 Caulfield Cup as top weight, taking on the 2400-metre journey for the first time ever, with 58 kilos to carry.
Greg Childs submitted an excellent ride, settling Northerly in the first five or six runners throughout and being well placed on the turn to take advantage of the slow race speed to outsprint his fellow front runners and hold off late challenges from Fields Of Omagh and Republic Lass.
I was at Caulfield that day along with Making The Nut founder Nick Tedeschi and among a cohort of university mates who had headed south from Canberra for that race meeting. Despite holding a win-only ticket for Fields Of Omagh in the race, I couldn’t help but be swept up in the moment. On that day, witnessing greatness exceeded financial gain. There is always another race to make a winning bet on, whereas feats of greatness are fewer and further between. It was certainly an easy trade off to accept in the moments immediately after and in the memories that remain to this day.
We headed home after that weekend but Northerly headed to Moonee Valley in search of a second Cox Plate, taking on his old protagonist Sunline in what would be her final race. On this occasion Northerly ranged up to the mare early in the home straight and held off the fast finishing Defier and Grandera to join Sunline as a back-to-back Cox Plate winner.
With the Caulfield Cup and Cox Plate in his keeping, pressure was mounting on trainer Fred Kersley to run Northerly in the Melbourne Cup ten days later. Kersley, ever a man with the best interests of his champion horse in mind, came to the view that the 3200-metre trip with a 60 kilo weight was simply too much to ask, instead opting for a spell. Hold that thought for a moment.
His 2003 autumn begun in a similar manner to the year previous – a solid run in the Orr Stakes (this time running fourth) before a win in the St George Stakes. Amazingly, the Victora Gold Cup tripped him up again as it had done in 2001 – this time he ran second to Mr Trickster. As in 2001 though, he rebounded emphatically with his second Australian Cup victory before heading to Sydney for the first time in his career.
Despite having never run the clockwise ‘way of going’ in his career, he was sent out an odds-on favourite in the Group 1 Ranvet Stakes, but was run down in the home straight by Republic Lass. Kersley opted for another run prior to the Group 1 BMW and entered Northerly in the Listed Manion Cup, but he was unable to shoulder the 61 kilos to victory over 2400 metres, instead running sixth.
Punters were undeterred and sent him out the popular elect in the BMW. Former Queensland Derby winner Freemason set a cracking pace, with Northerly going with him from the 800-metre mark onwards. Inside the final 200 metres it appeared as though Northerly was ready to put him to the sword. However, the John Hawkes-trained galloper kicked again and in an epic finish. With the greatest of respect to Freemason, he had himself tried and failed in the quest for Melbourne Cup victory, so perhaps these two defeats over 2400 metres acted as vindication of the decision not to run Northerly in the Melbourne Cup of the spring prior. Despite these losses in Sydney, Northerly was a decisive winner of the Horse of the Year Award.
In August 2003 with Northerly set to resume en route to attempting to emulate Kingston Town and win three consecutive Cox Plates, swelling was found in his off-foreleg. This revealed a torn tendon, seemingly an injury that would end Northerly's career.
However, around twelve months later, he returned to the track as an eight year-old, running fourth at Belmont over 1600 metres with 64.5 kilos on his back. The return seemed promising enough, but after finishing down the track in both the Underwood and Turnbull Stakes, the decision was made to retire the horse.
The memories
Northerly was a favourite of punters and racegoers more broadly for his ability to fight back and win after appearing defeated. His tenacity and his easy to spot racing colours of yellow with a black Maltese Cross and quartered cap helped to earn him the nickname of "The Fighting Tiger".
Legendary racing writer Les Carlyon wrote of Northerly: "He fools you every time he races. He has the body language of a loser and a heart as big as the Nullarbor. He invariably looks to be struggling, a shambles of a horse blundering around on memory while his jockey pumps and blusters. Then he gets going. One instant Northerly looks beaten, the next he looks unbeatable. The closer he gets to the post, the harder he tries. He grinds on. And on. And on. He simply refuses to be beaten."
Do you know who the first few sentences of that description reminds me of to some degree? Might And Power. Neither was much to look at, especially with respect to their action in running. Both were able to do things on a racetrack that belied their looks (and in Northerly’s case, also his ho-hum pedigree). And both seemed to grow a leg at the middle distance range.
To wit… let’s ignore Northerly’s final three runs as an eight year-old for a moment and concentrate on his 34 races up to the age of six. Splitting them up according to distance range shows the following:
Record at less than 1600 metres: 12 starts, four wins (1 x Group 3), three seconds, one third
Record at 1600 metres and above: 22 starts, 15 wins (9 x Group 1s, 6 x Group 2s), four seconds, one third. His two unplaced runs were in the 2001 Railway Stakes carrying 61.5 kilos, and the 2003 Manion Cup carrying 61 kilos.
Whilst to my mind he didn’t have the same presence on a racetrack as Sunline did, it bears noting that the two horses clashed on three occasions and he bested her on all three occasions. You know what they say about never judging a book by its cover.
His stardom arose from being as tough and honest as they come, far more blue-collar than blue blood. When the race was there to be won, you focused your gaze squarely on ‘The Fighting Tiger’, irrespective of the calibre of his opposition. In an era littered with exceptional gallopers, the mere fact that he could still draw your undivided attention so readily when the whips were cracking is the highest of praise, befitting of a turf hero.
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The stats
Overall record: 37 starts, 19 wins (9 x Group 1s, 6 x Group 2s, 1 x Group 3), seven seconds, two thirds, $9,341,850 prize money
3YO autumn/ winter (2000): Two starts, one win, one third
4YO summer/ autumn (2000-01): Eight starts, five wins (2 x G1, 1 x G2, 1 x G3), one second, one third
5YO spring/ summer (2001-02): Seven starts, five wins (3 x G1, 1 x G2), one second
5YO autumn/ winter (2002): Three starts, one win (1 x G2), two seconds
6YO spring/ summer (2002-03): Seven starts, five wins (3 x G1, 2 x G2)
6YO autumn/ winter (2003): Seven starts, two wins (1 x G1, 1 x G2), three seconds
8YO spring/ summer (2004-05): Three starts
