Blu's Stakes Go To Woe
The Sunday Age
Sunday February 9, 2003
DRIVING to the races at Caulfield before noon yesterday, the new owners of Murphy's Blu Boy took bets on how much the Goondiwindi Bay would win by.
``My 10 bucks was to say he'd win by eight lengths," said Brian Roddy, the man who stitched up the deal to buy 49 per cent of the two-year-old colt. ``There was five of us in the car and we all put 10 bucks each in. We said two, three, five . . . and I was eight (lengths)."
Just before 2pm it took one minute three and a bit seconds for the prediction - and Murphy's Blu Boy's reputation - to be hammered.
The fastest two-year-old, winner of his four starts by a combined 25 lengths, was run down by Hammerbeam in an 1100-metre prelude to the Blue Diamond. The winning colt is well connected, being owned by Jack and Bob Ingham, the ``chicken kings", but only two weeks ago he finished 11.8 lengths behind Murphy's Blu Boy in a 1000-metre prelude.
Then, daylight was second. Yesterday, Murphy's Blu Boy was. Hit with the whip for the first time, he found nothing and Brian and Geoff Roddy's investment of ``$600,000-$1 million" appeared to have shrunk at the rate of $1000 a second in one of the most expensive minutes in Australian sport.
The Roddys had money to invest, not to burn. Disappointed, they took defeat remarkably well, their most-used words ``that's racing".
Geoff, the brother in the background after Brian had done all the running around, even to Goondiwindi in southern Queensland, to stitch up the sale a week ago, put it best: ``My brother (David) died, the brother between Brian and I. He died a few years ago. This is just a horse race.
``We might be out a bit of money, but that's life."
In the most publicised buy-in since Melbourne professional punter Garry Roberts took a share in another Queenslander, Vo Rogue, the Roddys invested the money they had earmarked for another hotel, having sold theirs in Sydney six months ago.
They took 49 per cent, leaving owner-trainer Mick Hicks with slight majority and total say.
The brothers shared their anticipation with family: Rosemary Anne, Brian's wife; Nicole, his 18-year-old daughter; and Zoe Fisher, Geoff's girlfriend. They gave agent David Lamond ``a tiny share" because there was no commission on the sale.
Brian said Geoff encourged him to go to Goondiwindi from Sydney to ``crunch this deal". ``No one knew who I was and I was talking to Mick there only for an hour or so," Brian said.
``Mick was going to Toowoomba races that night. We sort of half got a deal and Mick said to close it he'd be back at quarter past 10. He said, `If you want to wait round I'll make up my mind'.
``So I waited round. Mick came back and said, `If you just top it up a little bit you're there'. And I said I'd top it up. We shook hands and we signed everything with his accountant and that was the deal.
``I'm not going to say how much; Mick and I agreed not to. They're talking 600 to a million," he added with a grin.
The plan was to pick up the $81,250 first prize yesterday and use $55,000 as a late entry fee for the Blue Diamond Stakes on February 22. It went wrong, perhaps before the race.
Murphy's Blu Boy attracted attention in stall 90, his new best friend, the pony Tigger, with him. For a few minutes more he was not yesterday's hero - that tag belonged to the champion Northerly, who was led past Murphy's Blu Boy's stall by strapper Sheree Hough, unrecognised by the hundreds looking on, simply something in the way of television cameramen, although months earlier the winner of the Caulfield Cup and Cox Plate.
Northerly's strong first-up finish for fourth in the Orr Stakes later in the day showed he is likely to be tomorrow's hero, too.
The new yesterday's hero, Murphy's Blu Boy, had to be dragged to parade in the mounting yard, and then pushed into the barriers after jockey Damien Oliver dismounted.
He led early, cornered clear and appeared to be travelling. Shaken up, he did not shake off the field as he did two weeks ago, but Oliver looked over his shoulder and saw no apparent danger.
If he had looked a second later he would have seen Hammerbeam hammering home. When Oliver sensed the challenge he used the whip, but the colt was beaten.
There were some excuses - the colt's apparent flatness, the slower running close to the rail, and a cut back leg.
Second prize of $25,000 was little consolation, however. That left ``a few beers, mate", a term used by the Roddys almost as much as ``that's racing". They said there would be no crying in it, just working out what next with no Blue Diamond.
© 2003 The Sunday Age
