Murphy's Blu Boy Inspires A Town Back To The Track
Sydney Morning Herald
Saturday February 8, 2003
Goondiwindi Race Club secretary Graeme Scheu, who also doubles as the town's travel agent, has been working overtime this week as the groundswell of support for locally trained colt Murphy's Blu Boy reaches fever pitch.
``It's gone over bigger than Elle Macpherson streaking down the main street here," Scheu said of Murphy's Blu Boy's rise to hero status among the Goondiwindi community. ``It's unreal. It's put the place back on the map."
Murphy's Blu Boy will continue its charge towards the Blue Diamond Stakes later this month in the Prelude at Caulfield today.
The star-studded Caulfield meeting coincides with the Goondiwindi Race Club's first meeting of the year.
Last Sunday, the GRC committee held an extensive working bee at Gunsynd Park in anticipation of a bumper crowd attending today's five-race program, one of six the club stages each year on its dirt track.
``Normally we only get a couple hundred people [to a race meeting], but I reckon we will get nearly a thousand people here tomorrow," said Scheu, who added that Goondiwindi's population was about 5000.
Murphy's Blu Boy's trainer Mick Hicks will do his bit to attract a big crowd to the meeting by shouting the first 200 adults through the gate at Gunsynd Park a beer.
Hicks, who finalised a deal to sell a 49 per cent share in his star colt to Sydney publican Brian Roddy for nearly $1 million last weekend, will also saddle up eight runners at the Goondiwindi meeting, where a yearling full-brother to Murphy's Blu Boy, also owned and trained by Hicks, will be paraded during the day.
``Everything has been doubled," Scheu said of the catering for the Goondiwindi meeting. ``We have got about 50 horses racing tomorrow and full fields in every race on the program. We even hope to have around 14 bookies fielding at the meeting.
``It's going to be a bloody big day ... and night if he wins again. We will be having a punters' post-mortem after the last at the Railway Hotel."
Not since the days the ``Goondiwindi Grey" Gunsynd graced the Australian turf during the 1970s has the small Queensland town rallied such support and derived so much pride from the deeds of a thoroughbred.
The freakish colt's emergence has provided a timely tonic for the locals battling the extreme drought gripping rural Australia.
``In the middle of a drought, it has just lifted people a little bit," Scheu said.
``It hasn't solved any of their problems ... it's a bit like someone in a small country town winning the lotto, but it just keeps repeating every seven days."
Murphy's Blu Boy, undefeated in four starts, including a seven-length romp in the Blue Diamond Preview last Monday week, remains a dominant favourite for the $1m Blue Diamond Stakes at Caulfield on February 22.
Scheu, who also penned the poem Mick and Murph about Hicks and his wonder colt, has organised a package for locals to head to Caulfield on Blue Diamond Stakes day to cheer on their town hero.
``We have got 30 people booked already to go down to Melbourne for the Blue Diamond," Scheu said. ``Everyone's excited. But I'm tipping a few more people might put their hand for the trip if he comes out and bolts in again tomorrow."
© 2003 Sydney Morning Herald
