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AT THE END OF AN INTERNATIONAL CAREER. STILL CHASING THE RIG PRT7FS
Ron Hutchinson's Indian summer
From Allan Barker in Singapore
Ron Hutchinson Help
Ron Hutchinson
A.FTER retiring from English
racing at the end of 1977 — a
decision that probably cost him
an Epsom Derby triumph on
Shirley Heights — jockey Ron
Hutchinson is still booting home
plenty of winners.
The ultimate peaks of interna
tional racing may have eluded him
but Hutchinson is a contented man
who looks back without regret after
a successful riding career in his
native Australia, then in Ireland and
England, and now finally in Singa
pore and Malaysia.
In 1977, in England, he rode and
won on Shirley Heights, then a two
year-old. But he readily admits that
the horse did not really impress as
a potential Derby winner.
Shirley Heights was trained in
Sussex by John Dunlop, for whom
Hutchinson had long been stable
jockey. But Hutchinson felt that 50
was a good age to wind up and, after
riding Balmarino in the Washington
DC International, he announced his
retirement.
So the ride at Epsom on Shirley
Heights went to Grevillc Starkcy
and they seized the covctcd classic
in the last strides, then went on to
win the Irish Derby.
"It was one of the disappointing
things that one comes up against in
life", Hutchinson said in an in
terview.
"But I have no regrets. I decided
of my own free will to retire at 50,
and Shirley Heights fooled me. He
went from strength to strength as a
three-year-old and finished up Eng
land's Horse of the Year".
The nearest Hutchinson came to
winning an Epsom Derby was third
place, which he achieved twicc, on
Kythnos and Mount Athos. He also
failed to win a Melbourne Cup.
But he won many big races on the
English and Australian racing calen
dars and now, in the twilight of his
career, is the leading jockey of the
1978 Malaysia-Singapore racing
season.
He plans to continue race riding
for another year and then hang up
his boots for good. He looks re
markably fit for his years, has no
weight problems and is much in
demand by trainers.
He had planned to retire for good
earlier this year but slopped off in
Singapore on his way back from a
business trip to New Zealand, had
a few rides and liked the racing set
up.
Hutchinson is now riding free
lance as one of six foreign jockeys
under contract to the Malayan Rac
ing Association, the sport's controll
ing body.
Racing goes on throughout the
year but shifts every couple of weeks
between four venues — Singapore,
Kuala Lumpur, Penang and Ipoh.
The courses are picturesque, with
excellent amenities for patrons and
good going lor horses. Crowds are
usually big and the totalisator bet
ting cheap and furious.
Hutchinson likes the warm weath
er and is impressed by the general
standard of racing, although the
horses are not worldbeaters and, in
fact, arc usually castoffs bought
cheaply in England, Ireland, Aus
tralia. New Zealand and sometimes
the US.
"Most of them arc probably not
much above selling platers in Eng
land, but they are turned out in
superb condition and they improve
tremendously as the develop. It must
be the good weather", he said.
A few of the horses he has seen
and ridden here could hold their own
in other countries, he says. He men
tioned Star Prince, an English-bred
sprinter, and Regal Tan, a New
Zealand-bred stayer, both of whom
may race in the United States and
England in the coming year bccause
they were being weighted out of
events on the Malaysian-Singapore
circuit.
Looking back on his career in
Britain, during which he spent 16
years as first jockey to the late Duke
of Norfolk's stable at Arundel, Sus
sex, Hutchinson remembers vividly
his association with Ragstone.
"Ragstone gave me the most
pleasure", he said.
"He was really a mile-and-a-half
(2400 metre) horse but we won the
Ascot Gold Cup in 1974 over two
and-a-half miles (4,000 metres) with
him.
"It was the Duke's lifelong ambi
tion to have a horse capable of
winning this race. He was racing
manager at Ascot for many years,
and I was proud to have won it for
him on Ragstone, not very long
before his death".
Hutchinson has a very high opin
ion of North Stoke, a Dunlop
trained horse who did not contest the
classics but won a string of races last
year before suffering an injury that
put him out for the 1978 season.
Other top horses he recalls are
Scottish Rifle — "I won an Eclipse
Stakes on him though he was not
really top-class" — Balmarino, a
much-travlled New Zealandcr, and
Pitcairn.
He thinks he might have won the
Epsom Derby on Pitcairn if Dunlop
had allowed the colt to star in the
race, instead of confining him to
events around 1600 metres.
"Pitcairn really liked the lef
thanded track at Epsom. He won the
Blue Riband Stakes there a month
or so before the Derby. It was a
substandard year in which the win
ner was an outsider, Snow Knight.
But John (Dunlop) though Pitcairn
wouldn't last the mile and a half',
Hutchinson said.
Hutchinson also rode and saw
many good horses in Australia. Two
that stick in his mind arc Taras
Bulba (a "very, very good horse" on
which he had his last ride in Aus
tralia in 1974) and Family Of Man,
who continues to rake in some of the
rich prizemoney available in Aus
tralian racing.
It is a matter of some disappoint
ment to Hutchinson that he can no
longer ride in his home country. This
is because he is a director and part
owner of the Lindsay Park stud in
South Australic, a successful con
cern managed by leading trainer
Colin Hayes.
The Australian racing authorities
class him as a part-owner of all
horses that run in the Lindsay Park
colours, and active jockeys are not
allowed to own race horses.
Hutchinson and his wife run a
bloodstock agency in England that
specialises in shipping horses to Aus
tralia, Singapore, Malaysia and oth
er parts of the world. His wife still
lives in England with their children,
two of whom are at school there.
After he retires for good, buying
and selling of racehorses will be
Hutchinson's main interest. He ex
pects to return to his native Mel
bourne in a few years but will not
seek a trainer's licence — "very few
jockeys make good trainers", he
said,
Asked his opinion of the best
jockey of his era, Hutchinson
thought for a moment and said, "My
ideal of a really class rider was
Scobie Breasley.
Unlike some of his contem
poraries, Hutchinson has never had
any worries in keeping his weight
down. He has always been a natural
lightweight and even today weighs
only 52 kilos — the heaviest he has
ever been in his life.
Despite what he jokingly says
must be the onset of "middle-aged
spread", he hopes to win one or two
of the big prizes in Malaysia or
Singapore as he enjoys his "Indian
summer" in the saddle before final
retirement. — Rcutcr. throiiph AAP.
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