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spring I WAS moments RIDING FOR HIM Triumph and tragedy meet in the saddle THE sequence of life-changing events — brutal and euphoric — CHIEF still melts Damien Oliver’s signa- RACING ture stoicism. WRITER In the 17 years since Oliver lost his brother, Jason, in a racetrack LEO fall and won the Melbourne Cup SCHLINK eight days later on Media Puzzle, the double-edged nature of life’s harshest realities haunt him still. father dying early. There was Sitting in an ante room at always a rivalry there but I fol- Flemington, Oliver reflects on a lowed him into racing and he was victory that will always be the always helping me along the way. most memorable of his 2463 wins “The circumstances in 2002 but, for the most tragic reasons, were obviously exceptional, losing will never be regarded affection- my brother the week before the ately. Cup.” “It’s obviously the most mem- Oliver agonised over whether orable but it’s hard to say it’s my to ride on Derby Day and also on favourite because of what hap- Cup Day. pened,” Oliver said. Fretting over public perception “I don’t think I’ll ever enjoy it and aware of family sensitivities, because it’s the memory of losing he said: “I was probably at the my brother more than winning height of my career at that stage the Cup. and it (Jason’s death) really threw “You can still see now how everything into disarray. emotional I get and it’s 17 years “I didn’t know what to do, what ago.” to think and what people would The winner of three Cups — think if I rode. Doriemus (1995), Media Puzzle “I sat down with my mum (Pat) and Fiorente (2013) — Oliver can and obviously my brother was a smile about runner-up finishes on huge inspiration. Paris Lane, Pop Rock and Purple “My mum and I both Moon. thought about it and came to www.heraldsun.com.au + WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 2002
CITY: FINE. MAX: 26. PAGE 61 $1* But there is fraught introspec- the conclusion that if I was sit- (Incl. GST) tion when he revisits those hellish ting on the couch at home eight days from the spring of 2002. watching the Melbourne Cup, By DAMIEN OLIVER Media Puzzle’s triumph reso- Jason would have been saying AS soon as I won the Melbourne Cup I looked straight up at the sky and thought of Jason, my big brother who was killed in a track fall last week. I was blowing him kisses, because it nates so powerfully because of the ‘You bloody idiot, what are was all about him, not about me. He’ll always be my best mate and he will always be in my heart. I’ll never forget him. Melbourne Cups don’t mean a thing ghastly toll exacted on a family you doing?’” to me any more. I’d give it back right now to have my brother back. But in the end I did it for Jason. This one’s for him. shaped by a sport that has given Despite an imposing book Damien Oliver writes: Page 5
The Cup: Pages 4-9, Sport FB123 plenty but taken far more. of rides, Oliver struggled on
Jason and Damien Oliver fol- Derby Day. C
M Y lowed their father Ray into racing “I had one placing from K
despite his death in a race fall at eight rides and I was starting PAGE 6-NOV-2002 DHS
Kalgoorlie in 1975. to question whether I’d ABC SECOND 1 Jason Oliver was fatally injured made the right call,” he said. țț Damien Oliver
in a trial at Belmont on October “I rode most of them OK, 6NOV F E D reflects on his 29, 2002. but there was a lot of noise victory in the “He was on life support for a on the outside. People were 2002 Melbourne
Damien Oliver wins the Cup on Media Puzzle and Cup, which came few days but I had to turn off the good to me but at times it looks to heaven to thank his brother Jason (inset). Picture: life support a few days later,” was difficult to focus. MICHAEL DODGE + eight days after Damien said. “I was most comfortable when the death of his “He was someone I always I was on a horse. brother Jason, and looked up to, especially with my CONTINUED PAGE 79 (inset) the Herald Sun’s front page the day after the Cup. Picture: MARK STEWART
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The Greatest. Always.
PHAR LAP MICHELLE 4 MELBOURNE CUP 5 PAYNE and WINX WEEK 1930 PRINCE OF 3 2015-18 COX PLATES Almost 90 years on, Big Red’s PENZANCE From defeat in the Flemington tour de force is barely 2015 MELBOURNE CUP 2015 ATC Oaks, Winx was utterly comprehensible. It started on the Michelle Payne and $101 bolter Prince extraordinary and, with due first Saturday with victory in the Of Penzance combined for a victory deference to heroics north of the Melbourne Stakes (2000m) — a day for the ages. Payne had to lobby border, the Cox Plate and the Valley after gangsters tried to shoot the connections to stay aboard the injury- became her ultimate stage. If Chris chestnut. Lumping a record 62.5kg prone gelding. Having meticulously Waller’s superstar was slightly under for a four-year-old to victory in the followed track walker Peter Ellis’s the radar in ’15, she stamped her Cup (3200m), the champion of speed map, Payne used the authority in extraordinary fashion the Depression bolted in by three opportunity to strike a blow for her over the ensuing three years. lengths. His job was half done. gender. “It’s such a chauvinistic sport, There was the clock‑smashing Contesting the Linlithgow Stakes over a lot of owners wanted to kick me demolition of ’15. There was 1600m on the Thursday, Phar Lap off,” she said. “Everyone else can get the record eight-length margin won by four lengths. The CB Fisher stuffed (who) think women in ’16. In ’17, she broke her own Plate (2400m) was his fourth and aren’t good enough.” track record. Last year delivered final assignment on the Saturday, another record — standing as the strolling in by 3.5 lengths. only horse in the race’s storied Comparing eras is history to win it four times. Waller’s impossible — and staggering management of his unfair. Suffice to say sensational mare has been widely Phar Lap’s feat feted. Equally, Hugh Bowman’s will never be nerveless handling of the superstar matched. was inspiring. Oliver and Media Puzzle the best ever 10 Melbourne’s fabulous spring carnival is synonymous with barely imaginable highs and crushing lows. For more than a century and a half, the post-winter extravaganza has become a magnet for racing devotees and those with only a passing interest as bluebloods — horses and humans — compete for glory. Champion gallopers and their handlers have shaped the carnival since the 1860s. With thousands of epics to choose from, 5 chief racing writer LEO SCHLINK says 9 Damien Oliver and Media Puzzle’s 2002 Melbourne Cup victory is the greatest spring racing moment in history. 4
VINTAGE CROP MEDIA PUZZLE MAKYBE DIVA BART 10 1993 MELBOURNE CUP 1 2002 2 2003-05 MIGHT 9 CUMMINGS’ If not for the timely lifting MELBOURNE CUP MELBOURNE CUPS BONECRUSHER 8 AND POWER MELBOURNE of a Dublin “pea-souper”, Dermot Damien Oliver and Dermot Weld, Minutes after Makybe Diva achieved KINGSTON 7 and OUR 1997 CAULFIELD CUP CUP DOZEN Weld’s former hurdler would not have contrasting characters from what no other horse in history had 6 TOWN WAVERLEY As displays of pure, sustained pace 1965-2008 changed the face of the Cup. Weld completely different backgrounds, with a third straight Melbourne Cup 1980-82 COX PLATES STAR and power go, few rival Might And Seconds and minutes shape racing. capitalised on a break in the weather combine to win a Cup drenched in triumph, Lee Freedman summed up Racecaller Bill Collins’ famous 1986 COX PLATE Power’s demolition of a class field Bart Cummings shaped the to fly Vintage Crop to England before emotion. Weld was the first northern the achievement best. “Go and find declaration “Kingston Town can’t win” If Collins was deemed to be errant in one of the world’s best 2400m Melbourne Cup, not for seconds or the fog closed in again. The rest is hemisphere trainer to master the the smallest child on this course, as the field turned for home in the ’82 in ’82, he nailed it four years handicaps. Given free rein from minutes, but for generations. His history. Ridden by Mick Kinane, the logistical challenge of travelling because they will be an example of Cox Plate resonates as powerfully as later with his wonderful call of barrier seven by Jim Cassidy, Jack training association with the Cup chestnut bolted in to trigger the horses across the world to snaffle our the only person here that will live long memories of the “The King’s” searing what was dubbed the “Race of Denham’s powerhouse crushed his spanned 56 years, 89 runners and radical internationalisation of the brightest jewel. The Irishman ignited enough to see something like that acceleration. Collins, known as “The the Century”. The two-horse war rivals in record time, bolting in by 12 winners. His personal link to the Cup. He returned twice more to finish the carnival’s internationalisation again,” he said. As with the 106,000 Accurate One”, was not the only caller took shape from the 600m as seven lengths. While the infamously Cup started when he strapped his seventh and third, bowing out in his with Vintage Crop in 1993. Media spectators at Flemington staring at that day to get it wrong. Crocked Our Waverley Star, shadowed by reticent Denham maintained his father’s horse Comic Court to victory final career start behind Doriemus Puzzle’s quest was overshadowed the mighty mare and jockey Glen Boss by leg injuries, Kingston Town was Bonecrusher, hit the front. “Here public stonewall and refused to in 1950. His first Cup runner was Asian and Nothin’ Leica Dane in 1995. by the death of Ollie’s brother, — responsible for three perfect rides restricted to racing only in the spring come the New Zealanders,” Collins speak with the media, Lee Freedman Court (12th in 1958). His last was Jason, eight days before the Cup. in three successive Cups — Freedman as an older horse, making his effort to said. “Have they gone too early?” summed it up with: “The most Precedence (sixth in 2014) when the It is unimaginable for most athletes was awestruck. He had inherited the become the first galloper to win three The lead changed five times over amazing race I have ever seen.” training colossus was almost 87. His even to contemplate competing in stayer from David Hall after her first Cox Plates even more phenomenal. those closing three furlongs with winners include some of the greats such circumstances. Instead, Oliver Cup win. Freedman was asked if Tony Trained by Tommy Smith, he was Our Waverley Star appearing likely — Light Fingers, Galilee, Red Handed, produced a peach of a ride on a Santic’s champion was the greatest of partnered to victory in those three to win. But Bonecrusher refused to Think Big (twice, pictured above with perfectly prepared raider. Simply epic. all time. He said: “I don’t want to put successive wins by three different yield, drawing this gem from Collins: Cummings in 1974), Gold And Black, Phar Lap down, but I never saw him jockeys — Malcolm Johnston, Ron “And Bonecrusher races into equine Hyperno, Kingston Rule, Let’s Elope, win three Melbourne Cups.” Quinton and Peter Cook. immortality.” Saintly, Rogan Josh and Viewed.
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The Greatest. Always.
PHAR LAP MICHELLE 4 MELBOURNE CUP 5 PAYNE and WINX WEEK 1930 PRINCE OF 3 2015-18 COX PLATES Almost 90 years on, Big Red’s PENZANCE From defeat in the Flemington tour de force is barely 2015 MELBOURNE CUP 2015 ATC Oaks, Winx was utterly comprehensible. It started on the Michelle Payne and $101 bolter Prince extraordinary and, with due first Saturday with victory in the Of Penzance combined for a victory deference to heroics north of the Melbourne Stakes (2000m) — a day for the ages. Payne had to lobby border, the Cox Plate and the Valley after gangsters tried to shoot the connections to stay aboard the injury- became her ultimate stage. If Chris chestnut. Lumping a record 62.5kg prone gelding. Having meticulously Waller’s superstar was slightly under for a four-year-old to victory in the followed track walker Peter Ellis’s the radar in ’15, she stamped her Cup (3200m), the champion of speed map, Payne used the authority in extraordinary fashion the Depression bolted in by three opportunity to strike a blow for her over the ensuing three years. lengths. His job was half done. gender. “It’s such a chauvinistic sport, There was the clock‑smashing Contesting the Linlithgow Stakes over a lot of owners wanted to kick me demolition of ’15. There was 1600m on the Thursday, Phar Lap off,” she said. “Everyone else can get the record eight-length margin won by four lengths. The CB Fisher stuffed (who) think women in ’16. In ’17, she broke her own Plate (2400m) was his fourth and aren’t good enough.” track record. Last year delivered final assignment on the Saturday, another record — standing as the strolling in by 3.5 lengths. only horse in the race’s storied Comparing eras is history to win it four times. Waller’s impossible — and staggering management of his unfair. Suffice to say sensational mare has been widely Phar Lap’s feat feted. Equally, Hugh Bowman’s will never be nerveless handling of the superstar matched. was inspiring. Oliver and Media Puzzle the best ever 10 Melbourne’s fabulous spring carnival is synonymous with barely imaginable highs and crushing lows. For more than a century and a half, the post-winter extravaganza has become a magnet for racing devotees and those with only a passing interest as bluebloods — horses and humans — compete for glory. Champion gallopers and their handlers have shaped the carnival since the 1860s. With thousands of epics to choose from, 5 chief racing writer LEO SCHLINK says 9 Damien Oliver and Media Puzzle’s 2002 Melbourne Cup victory is the greatest spring racing moment in history. 4
VINTAGE CROP MEDIA PUZZLE MAKYBE DIVA BART 10 1993 MELBOURNE CUP 1 2002 2 2003-05 MIGHT 9 CUMMINGS’ If not for the timely lifting MELBOURNE CUP MELBOURNE CUPS BONECRUSHER 8 AND POWER MELBOURNE of a Dublin “pea-souper”, Dermot Damien Oliver and Dermot Weld, Minutes after Makybe Diva achieved KINGSTON 7 and OUR 1997 CAULFIELD CUP CUP DOZEN Weld’s former hurdler would not have contrasting characters from what no other horse in history had 6 TOWN WAVERLEY As displays of pure, sustained pace 1965-2008 changed the face of the Cup. Weld completely different backgrounds, with a third straight Melbourne Cup 1980-82 COX PLATES STAR and power go, few rival Might And Seconds and minutes shape racing. capitalised on a break in the weather combine to win a Cup drenched in triumph, Lee Freedman summed up Racecaller Bill Collins’ famous 1986 COX PLATE Power’s demolition of a class field Bart Cummings shaped the to fly Vintage Crop to England before emotion. Weld was the first northern the achievement best. “Go and find declaration “Kingston Town can’t win” If Collins was deemed to be errant in one of the world’s best 2400m Melbourne Cup, not for seconds or the fog closed in again. The rest is hemisphere trainer to master the the smallest child on this course, as the field turned for home in the ’82 in ’82, he nailed it four years handicaps. Given free rein from minutes, but for generations. His history. Ridden by Mick Kinane, the logistical challenge of travelling because they will be an example of Cox Plate resonates as powerfully as later with his wonderful call of barrier seven by Jim Cassidy, Jack training association with the Cup chestnut bolted in to trigger the horses across the world to snaffle our the only person here that will live long memories of the “The King’s” searing what was dubbed the “Race of Denham’s powerhouse crushed his spanned 56 years, 89 runners and radical internationalisation of the brightest jewel. The Irishman ignited enough to see something like that acceleration. Collins, known as “The the Century”. The two-horse war rivals in record time, bolting in by 12 winners. His personal link to the Cup. He returned twice more to finish the carnival’s internationalisation again,” he said. As with the 106,000 Accurate One”, was not the only caller took shape from the 600m as seven lengths. While the infamously Cup started when he strapped his seventh and third, bowing out in his with Vintage Crop in 1993. Media spectators at Flemington staring at that day to get it wrong. Crocked Our Waverley Star, shadowed by reticent Denham maintained his father’s horse Comic Court to victory final career start behind Doriemus Puzzle’s quest was overshadowed the mighty mare and jockey Glen Boss by leg injuries, Kingston Town was Bonecrusher, hit the front. “Here public stonewall and refused to in 1950. His first Cup runner was Asian and Nothin’ Leica Dane in 1995. by the death of Ollie’s brother, — responsible for three perfect rides restricted to racing only in the spring come the New Zealanders,” Collins speak with the media, Lee Freedman Court (12th in 1958). His last was Jason, eight days before the Cup. in three successive Cups — Freedman as an older horse, making his effort to said. “Have they gone too early?” summed it up with: “The most Precedence (sixth in 2014) when the It is unimaginable for most athletes was awestruck. He had inherited the become the first galloper to win three The lead changed five times over amazing race I have ever seen.” training colossus was almost 87. His even to contemplate competing in stayer from David Hall after her first Cox Plates even more phenomenal. those closing three furlongs with winners include some of the greats such circumstances. Instead, Oliver Cup win. Freedman was asked if Tony Trained by Tommy Smith, he was Our Waverley Star appearing likely — Light Fingers, Galilee, Red Handed, produced a peach of a ride on a Santic’s champion was the greatest of partnered to victory in those three to win. But Bonecrusher refused to Think Big (twice, pictured above with perfectly prepared raider. Simply epic. all time. He said: “I don’t want to put successive wins by three different yield, drawing this gem from Collins: Cummings in 1974), Gold And Black, Phar Lap down, but I never saw him jockeys — Malcolm Johnston, Ron “And Bonecrusher races into equine Hyperno, Kingston Rule, Let’s Elope, win three Melbourne Cups.” Quinton and Peter Cook. immortality.” Saintly, Rogan Josh and Viewed.
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