 | RACING HISTORY |
YEAR: 1981
FEATURE RACE COMMENT
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| Ces Devine, Jack Smolenski & Lord Module |
Now that we have entered the realms of our 'living memory', the very first occasion that always springs to mind as a 'greatest event' is Lord Module's 1981 Allan Matson. It was a great race featuring a number of great horses like a lot of others, but it was a spectacle combined with the recent history and the emotions which flowed which made it all the more special.
I was a rising 21-year-old cadet with the then 'NZ Trotting Calendar' in November, 1981, having been brought on board the HRW's predecessor a year or two earlier by editor Tony Williams, based solely on unabashed enthusiasm - couldn't even type let alone write a story. Reading up the old Calendars at the time to refresh the memory, it is obvious by the time the 1981 Cup Meeting came round that my main responsibilities each week had still only evolved into banging out the weekend's race results all day Monday on our trusty old portable typewriter, sorting out the NZ-bred winners in America and being 'trusted' with the intro, and 'working' at the Addington races, where my primary objective was to ensure I made the stretch to the old tote 10 times a night and in time to get Tony's investments placed, which was all very exciting given each one was more than my weekly wage. The memory banks recede with time, but I will never, ever forget the night of November 21, 1981.
Sitting in the open Press Box in the old Member's Stand and on an angle to the public grandstand, which in those days was pretty full for events such as the last night of the Cup Meeting, the sight of the stand moving like a slow moving landside was unbelievable. The people were coming to greet, cheer and clap their idol, and they crammed around the birdcage for the nearest and best possible vantage point. It was enough to make grown men cry, and some did.
To appreciate and understand what led to this night of unbridled enthusiasm and passion and an unforgettably magic moment in time, one had to live through the career of Lord Module, one which for the most part seemed like one sensational hair-raising performance or controversial abject failure after another.
In 1976, the racing days of Canterbury's favourite (standardbred) son Robalan were over, and the people needed a new champion. Lord Module wasn't long in coming, displaying exceptional talent and potential as a 2-year-old for a by now veteran and semi-retired but legendary horseman in Ces Devine, a man who did not suffer fools lightly let alone owners and slow horses. He suffered Lord Module though, even when more often than not that season he would run the favourite and do a stretch at the start, mobiles being still a rarity at Addington, rather than the norm. But his class was well and truly confirmed when he romped away in record time with the NZ Juvenile Championship at Alexandra Park at season's end, accounting for the boom northern youngster Testing Times (10 wins from 12 starts going in) and other top colts in Glide Time, Redcraze, Main Star and Motu Prince.
He was back bigger and bolder at three, but no better behaved, and waywardness would cost him dearly in both the New Zealand and Great Northern Derbys. Devine was not afraid to start him against tough and older intermediate grade pacers if it suited the schedule though, and his eight wins that season included a 'c5-c6' mobile at Addington over the good mares Ruling River and Bronze Queen and the 'c7-c9' Barton Memorial at Forbury Park, where he started favourite against pretty much an open class field and bolted in by six lengths over stable-mate Sun Seeker (handled by son-in-law Kevin Williams) and Miss Pert.
Not much changed at four either, a season he began in open class. Lord Module started favourite in each of his first eight races that year - except for the NZ Cup where he blew the start - and failed to win any of them for one reason or another. He started to get his act together in the second half of the season with three straight wins and a game third from 30m behind in the Forbury 4YO Championship to frontmarker Graikos, giving cause for a rise in optimism going into the 1979 Inter-Dominions at Addington.
That optimism crashed to Ground Zero on the first night though when he was up to his old tricks again and tailed the field home bar one even more tardy Australian in Gemini Boy. Faced with a 'must win' situation on the second night, Lord Module again conceded ground and settled well behind favourite Markovina (15m), but the 3200m helped and after tracking the NZ-bred entire up and into line six-wide, and as many lengths from the leaders, Lord Module scorched the outside fence and got up to down Belmer's Image in the last stride. A sound second to the unbeaten heat winner Wee Win on the third night had him comfortably into the Final, but Lord Module had had enough of the heroics for now and in an Inter-Dominion which was supposed to serve as redemption for the 'one that got away' with False Step, Devine's thoughts instead turned to what would be his last NZ Cup drive that year.
Lord Module would be overshadowed in the spring by a redhot Roydon Scott - on the comeback trail after going amiss the previous January - and was also the centre of much mirth at the National Meeting in August. Roydon Scott had beaten him fairly and squarely in the Louisson, but when the field emerged from a blanket of fog less than 100 metres from the finish in the National Handicap, Lord Module had Roydon Scott in a box as Sunseeker won uncontested to qualify for the Cup. Roydon Scott had gone amiss again by the time Lord Module was runner-up at Ashburton to Bad Luck and Oamaru to Watbro, but Devine was just foxing and fine-tuning his V8 to have it ready to explode at the Cup Meeting.
And explode it did, at least at the start in the minds of punters, who sent him out a $3.55 favourite. While only winning once at Forbury Park in his seven lead-up races, Lord Module had been second or third in the other six and had been rewarded for his good behaviour by being taken off the unruly list. This however resulted in him drawing the awkward barrier one in the Cup, and as if to signal that Lord Module figured big occasions equated to failure and disappointment, he stood motionless as he tape flew and watched the rest of the field disembark. He had however made up his lost 50 metres by the time Bad Luck reached the winning post the first time and Devine immediately latched onto Sapling's back for an early cart into the race.
What happened soon after would become the stuff of folklore. Sapling took over the 'death seat' occupied by Sun Seeker, and Lord Module managed to slot into the one-one in an incident which forced his stablemate down onto Greg Robinson, who galloped and put Rondel out of the race. Pushed back from the half by the three-wide train as Sapling also tired and came back on him, Lord Module showed up at the furlong and careered away for a brilliant and magnificent four-and-a-half-length win in a truly-run 4:09.
Gavan Hamilton, who was a 22-year-old participant in all this and had a good view behind his father Ron's horse, the third-placed Trevira, wrote to vote for this race as one of the greatest, and offered his thoughts on what transpired. "I was talking to Henry (Skinner with Sapling) later and he said 'I looked around and saw Lord Module coming and I thought this was good. Then I looked around again to see where he'd got to and he was on my back, and I thought how the hell did that happen.' Soon after we had finished, Max (Robinson with Greg Robinson) drove over to Ces and screamed 'you are going to lose that' and so on. Max was normally a very placid sort of fellow and Wolfie was none to happy either. Then I was called into the room about getting cut off (by Lord Module) at the furlong. I had taken hold for a stride but that's all, I didn't think it had cost me second. But if I had been second, it would have been tempting to say 'what about the earlier incident'."
There was an enquiry into the infamous incident about 2100 metre from home, but after receiving conflicting evidence and viewing an inconclusive video, the announcement that the placings would stand came about 20 minutes later much to the delight of all and sundry. Fair to say, the Stipes knew they stood to be lynched by an angry mob at best if they had taken the race off Lord Module, or more to the point, Devine.
Hamilton, these days working for a fertilisator company while keeping his hand in with the odd horse, was as much in awe of Lord Module that day as anyone. "I was four-wide coming to the turn outside Del's Dream and Lord Module was inside me, fair bolting and climbing all over Denis Nyhan (Del's Dream). Denis turned to me and said 'who is that' and I said it's 'Tassie'. He said keep him there as long as you can and you might win. Being just a lad with a chance to win the Cup, I thought I would go for it and put a winning break on him. Well no sooner had I done that and he was out and around me and gone in two strides, and I thought, my God what a horse, and I didn't even know he had done a stretch at the start."
Three days later, Lord Module jogged the opening mile of the Free-For-All in 1:57.4 and won easing down by four lengths over Trevira, missing Robalan's world record by .1 of a second, and the Allan Matson was likewise a walk in the park. The Pan Am Mile and the NZ record for a race of 1:56.2 soon followed - where he loafed home in 30.2 with nobody to push him - as he did in the New Year Mile over speedster Locarno and new Auckland sensation Delightful Lady.
The 1:55 barrier then fell in an epic time-trial at Addington in far from even good conditions. The event had been postponed a week due to the weather, and from 8.30pm until after the last race following day-long rain, but over 6000 ardent admirers braved the bitter conditions and Lord Module didn't disappoint in powering home in 1:54.9 when most figured 1:57 would be tough.
Turning back an offer of $600,000 from Del Miller which would have resulted in the resurrection of the International Series in New York with a flat "not for sale at any price - I'm having too much fun," Devine next headed off for a tilt at th Auckland Cup, and Lord Module headed for the downward spiral to his career which would land him on the night of the 1981 Allan Matson, with only one further win behind him - a mile at Washdyke over light-weights Philippa Frost and The Raider the previous February from 14 races in his 6-year-old season.
He had developed a reputation as a complete rogue, and it mattered little that the painful quarter cracks which had troubled him on and off for much of his career had reduced his mental capacity to that of an errant 3-year-old with a tooth ache. He had been stood down from even starting in the spring and failed special trials which would have allowed him to take his place in the Cup. Yet another sullen display had seen him fail to participate at all in the NZ Free-For-All, in a week when the spotlight shone brightly on Armalight, Lord Module had been reduced to the butt of cruel jibes and jokes by all but his most fanatical followers.
Come the Allan Matson, and the 'bully' was that if Lord Module produced another act of petulance and Devine didn't then retire him, the Stipes would. Enough was enough - the end was nigh.
It was therefore hearts in mouths stuff as the mobile began to move away, and heads in hands when Lord Module pig-rooted and momentarily it seemed 'here we go again'- the end had come with another inglorious display. But out of desperation, Jack Smolenski went for the whip, and Lord Module lept into action and was almost unbelievably in his rightful place as the start was reached, and the crowd roared for the first time. Settling handy only to be pushed back in the running, Lord Module was last on the fence with a lap to go as Armalight and Gammalite - under the bat but unable to cross - took them along at break-neck speed, closely attende by Bonnie's Chance and Hands Down.
All the while the crowd rumbled with feverish excitement. Still last at the 300m, Lord Module began to make his move and when he showed up six-wide at the furlong, Reon Murtha screamed "and here's Lord Module, and oh, he is just mowing them down!" And the crowd erupted. There was a secondary eruption when a new world record was announced, and a third when Lord Module finally arrived back at the birdcage after some delay - he had kept going at high speed some way past the finish and Smolenski had only been able to bring him to a standstill and turn around in the backstraight.
Even Devine was visibly shaken, and down at the track the incessant and frenetic reaction that swept along everyone meant that it was impossible to hear someone only a few feet away. Lord Module returned to a hero's welcome and old-timers agreed that the only receptions to compare were the aftermath of Johnny Globe's NZ Cup almost half a century earlier, and the retirement of the immortal Harold Logan in the late 30s. All else was forgotten in the delerium and ecstasy - no abuse this time, just admiration and awe.
Not known that night was that it would in fact be Lord Module's last race. The quarter cracks would deteriorate beyond repair in the ensuing months, and Devine announced his retirement to stud a few months later. That would not be the start of another fairytale story, but as the end to a spectacular racing career, what a way to go!
Credit: Frank Marrion writing in HRWeekly 5Jul06