Greys make up only about 3 per cent of the world’s thoroughbred racehorse population, but they are among the most popular with racegoers: the British had the great and much-loved jumper Desert Orchid; the Americans had their champion Native Dancer; and Australia has had a succession of favourites that include the gregarious Gunsynd and the Melbourne Cup hero and racing ambassador Subzero.
Toryboy, in 1865, was the first grey to win the Melbourne Cup, four years after the bay Archer won the first cup. Only another five greys have won since: Hiraji 1947, Baghad Note 1970, Silver Knight 1971, Subzero 1992 and Efficient 2007.
Read more Spring Racing Carnival stories:
SPRING RACING: Year of the Grey
SPRING RACING: Inside the marquees
SPRING RACING: Perils of the Punt
SPRING RACING: How to win the style stakes
SPRING RACING: Fashion trifecta
SPRING RACING: Arriving in style
Six wins in 152 cups suggests, on pure figures, that the odds are long that this year’s early favourite, Puissance De Lune, can make it No. 7. Fortunately, “pure figures” don’t determine the cup winner so there is no need to put a line through this grey simply because of his colour.
Many who were at Flemington on the final day of the Victoria Racing Club’s 2012 carnival and saw him win the Queen Elizabeth Stakes (2500 metres) – the race Makybe Diva won before she won her first of three Cups – believe Puissance De Lune can win, not the least jockey Glen Boss who “declared him” 12 months out.
If he does win, he is sure to be more popular than your run-of-the-mill bay with small punters, on looks and on point of difference/novelty – bays (brown with a dark, almost black mane and lower legs) have won 67 Melbourne Cups, nearly double the browns (darker than bay and can be almost black) with 36 and chestnuts 34.
Greys usually start out dark with a dapple effect and whiten with age. The British racing body Weatherbys states: “The body coat (of a grey) is a mixture of black and white hairs, with the skin black. With increasing age, the coat grows lighter in color.”
Efficient, the most recent grey Cup winner, was a gun-metal shade when he won the 2006 Victoria Derby, just a touch lighter when he won the Cup the year later, and whitening (dark mane aside) when he had his last race, as a nine-year-old in early spring last year. He is now kicking up his heels in retirement with other turf stars at Living Legends near Melbourne Airport.
But the most-loved grey Melbourne Cup winner, by a longshot, is Subzero, who became even more famous in retirement from racing, first as a clerk of the course’s horse (which traditionally are grey) and then as an “ambassador and educator”, with his “best mate” Graham Salisbury, a clerk of the course who has guided him through these late stages of his career.
“Subbie” visits schools and old people’s homes as part of a Racing Victoria program, and has been the star of functions throughout much of Australia and in Dubai, Hong Kong and Singapore.
He loves his work and Salisbury has cared for him so well that, despite some serious health problems, he is still soldiering on, aged 25.
Ming Dynasty, trained by the legend Bart Cummings, is one of six greys to win the spring’s other great handicap race, the Caulfield Cup (1977 and 1980). Gunsynd, originally from Queensland and a star of the early 1970s, is one of three Cox Plate winners. He was known as the Goondiwindi Grey.
Country singer Tex Morton sang of Gunsynd, loved for his “personality” as well as his wins:
“We’ve cheered him from the grandstand
And we’ve cheered him from the flat
We’ve cheered a little beauty
A real aristocrat
He’s never thrown the towel in
Been a trier all the way
A horse we’re really proud of
The Goondiwindi Grey.”
Each Oaks Day since 1996 at Flemington the big crowd has cheered lesser greys in an all-greys race, a 1400-metre handicap that is part of the support card to the Crown Oaks, the classic for three-year-old fillies.
“The Oaks Day all-greys race was the brainchild of VRC committee member Doug Reid,” said VRC racing manager James Earls. “Greys’ races had been held at Flemington (at a July midweek meeting) prior to 1996, and also had been run in Sydney.
“Putting one of these races on in the Melbourne Cup carnival was a bold initiative; one that’s been very successful.”
Reid retired from the committee after 28 years, in 2006.
Lady Josephine was the 1996 winner. She was trained by Cranbourne’s Robbie Griffiths, who also prepared the 2011 winner Dash For Viz.
Last year the Rosehill mare Arinosa came to Flemington especially for the $100,000 race, premier Sydney trainer Chris Waller, telling the media after the win: “You don’t have to be the best horse in Australia.
“She probably doesn’t have the class just yet to be down here competing in the better quality races, but this is a great concept that allows owners to be involved in the carnival. It is the pinnacle if you have a grey horse.”
Echuca trainer Gwenda Johnstone is another who enjoys coming to Melbourne for a grey slice of the spring pie. She prepared the 2003 and 2004 winners Shadowmaker and Shadowpark, both from the grey mare Be My Pride (at least one of the sire and dam must be a grey for a foal to be grey). In 2006 Theresnothinglycra (from the grey Lofty Place) gave Johnstone her third winner.
“There’s nothing like winning in the spring,” she said. “You’ve got all your owners with you and it’s just awesome. But it’s constant hard work and you’ve got to have a horse that’s got the ability to go down.”
This year’s all-grey race, on November 7 at Flemington, is the TCL 3D TV Plate. This year the Oaks Day race becomes part of a spring series for greys called the Subzero Challenge, with the other races on Thousand Guineas day at Caulfield on October 16, and on Manikato Stakes night at Moonee Valley on October 25.
For more stories on Spring Racing Carnival 2013, visit theweeklyreview.com.au
GREY MELBOURNE CUP WINNERS
2007 Efficient ($17 or 16/1)
1992 Subzero (4/1)
1971 Silver Knight (10/1)
1970 Baghdad Note (25/1)
1947 Hiraji (12/1)
1865 Toryboy (25/1)
ALL-GREY RACE WINNERS
2012 Arinosa
2011 Dash For Viz
2010 King Cobweb
2009 Outlandish Lad
2008 Looking Fur Lang
2007 Guild
2006 Theresnothinglycra
2005 Kammoora
2004 Shadowpark
2003 Shadowmaker
2002 Silver Birch
2001 Suzy Grey
2000 Rebel With A Cause
1999 Just Nelson
1998 Travelot
1997 He’s Regal
1996 Lady Josephine
