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BLAST FROM THE PAST

BOB NYHAN INTERVIEW

DAVID McCARTHY INTERVIEWS BOBBY NYHAN

Q. How did you get the drive behind Cardy?
A. Actually I really don't know. I knew Wolfie from Wellington a bit but we were not friends or anything. He rang out of the blue and asked if I would take a horse over to Addington to keep Cardy company and then drive him in the Flying Stakes at Ashburton.

Q. And?
A. Merv Deans (husband of owner Audrey) was the only stable rep there. He insisted I go to the front. I was off 36 yards and it wasn't going to be as easy as he thought. When I went Jack Litten called out to the others and they all took off. I was annoyed because I looked bad but I had no option.

Q. You kept the drive?
A. At Forbury Park I told them I was going to do it my way. As it happened Robin Dundee who was on the way up then, beat us. Peter came down for the Hannon Memorial. I drove Gildirect who was past his best then but we were fifth and beat Cardy home. Peter said to me either the horse wasn't right or he needed a lot more work and we didn't have much time to find out. His work was stepped up dramatically. He thrived on it. Went through the Cup meeting unbeaten.

Q. You started with your father, Tom?
A. For a while but his team was never big. My first winner (1955) was Bypass at Omoto, trained by Johnny Crofts who lived next door. He predicted he would give me my first winner. It rained all day and the mist was so low you could hardly see where you were going. Dad then loaned me to Jack Litten for a few days to help out and I was there for four years.

Q. What made him special as a trainer?
A. He was just a great horseman, the best I worked with. I can't say enough about the man. They were the happiest days of my life really. When Mum said I looked tired soon after I started I said "When Jack says run, I run" and he rather liked that when he heard it. You didn't just learn about horses. You killed and dressed chickens, raised turkeys and lambs, tended pigs, handled stallions, the whole bit. Jack loved animals of all sorts. He was years ahead of most with young horses and the best of that was he didn't just pressure cook them like some. We each had a group to educate and when I paraded mine one year I pointed to one as clearly ahead of the rest. Jack looked at what seemed a potential 2-year-old star to me and said he thought he would put him aside until later. That was Happy Ending, a cup class stayer. Not many trainers would have done that. He did almost cost me the drive on Lookaway in the Cup though.

Q. How?
A. Leicester Roper was training him for Clarrie Rhodes then. Cliff Irvine had got him right but he was always a bit suspect. I had driven Lookaway in a trial and was to drive him in another one at Ashburton otherwise he would never be ready for the Cup. Jack suddenly told Clarrie I was needed at home. In the end Clarrie agreed to pick me up in his new Super Snipe close to the trial and bring me straight back afterward. I had never been so fast in a car. Even the fellows working on the train tracks dropped their tools to stare. I think there was something between Clarrie and Jack which sparked that. Lookaway had a nice run in the Cup but he just ran out of condition in the last 100m (4th from 24yds). He was the most brilliant horse I have ever driven. With one run at them he was unbeatable. But we didn't have a happy ending.

Q. In that?
A. He won the Allan Matson and Clarrie was desperate to start him in the Free-For-All later in the day when they had two races for the best horses. The horse just wasn't going to be able to cope with that in his condition but Clarrie overruled us. He felt awful in his preliminary and I pulled him out of the race.

Q. When you moved to Belfast with Cecil Donald it was quite different?
A. Cecil wasn't so much into young horses but he had a lot of older ones and sometimes it was a challenge just to get them worked especially in the winter. His track was good in the summer but the ground was heavy in winter and the sand track became a quagmire. Cecil was also very patient setting a horse for a race under the handicapping system then. Sometimes you didn't look too good driving to instructions.

Q. There was a heap of open class horses in the stable then. Did one stand out?
A. Probably Indecision even though he didn't have the best record and people knocked him because he was a dissappointment at stud. But he had enormous heart, a great will to win. He hardly had a sound day in his life - ligament problems mostly - and perhaps because of that he was vicious. I was the only one who could handle him at one stage. When he got to the races though, especially over two miles he tried his heart out and beat some top fields in races like the Ashburton Cup, Rangiora Cup, those sort of events. The open horses would always line up in those races then. He was certainly the most underrated.

Q. Rauka Lad was one of the best horses you were associated with?
A. He should have won Globe Bay's Cup (1972). It was the biggest disappointment of my career. I know it is an old story but he was spot on that day (favourite on both totes) and his was the run of the race. There was not much pace on early and he was never at his best when he didn't have room. He got a shove and galloped. Went a huge race afterward.

Q. Where did he come from?
A. We were at Oamaru one day and Cecil (Donald) told me to drive the float to Eddie Forsyth's (Waimate) on the way home because he was going to buy a horse off him. The horse was Dreamy Morn but Eddie wouldn't sell. Finally he pointed to Rauka Lad which had had a few starts and said "Buy him instead. You won races with his half-brother and you will with him." So he came home with us. Jack Hall bought him for £1500. He had won a race but he had fallen twice and was considered a problem. Cecil let his hopples out from 55 inches to 59 and he won nine of his next 11 start. But he was never foolproof and it caught up with him that day.

Q. Chief Command was another?
A. A brother to Indecision but quite different. He had a great nature. He won the NZ Free-For-All in front and they said Holy Hal was unlucky but nothing was going to beat him the way the race went. He was probably Peter Van Der Looy's first good horse and he trained his own later.

Q. Commissioner was a smart one?
A. Commissioner was the most unusual top horse I drove. He had one speed - flat out. I have never known a horse who could pull so hard for so long and still win big staying races like the New Brighton Cup was then. You really wanted to be in front though!

Q. Chaman was another?
A. He was the first horse to pay three figures to win after dollars and cents came in ($112) and I think it might have only been beaten once still. He was by Brahman and hit a knee bad which held him back. The old trainers had their tricks and one used with Chaman saw him just bolt in one day. A tough horse.

Q. Trotter?
A. My favourite was Front Line which the Baxters who had Battle Cry raced and Jack Litten trained. He had a twisted front leg and was often sore. He was very tricky to get going early. I thought he was a wonderful trotter when you considered that. I drove Mighty Chief for Trevor Mounce when he paid $84 at Addington. Never looked like getting beaten. He kept coming back disn't he?

Q. After Cecil's death you seemed to drop out of the limelight. What happened?
A. The estate was complicated. I had a small team at Bill Pearson's Arizona Lodge near the Rangiora track and working on the works. Trio was there for a while and I had Game Way and Joy Boy. Game Way had the smallest testicles you would ever see but he was a really good trotter and he sired good winners. I thought Joy Boy was too good to go to Westport but the owners didn't agree. He won there and I lost him soon afterward. I had an option to buy the property but my wife was not keen. My biggest disappointment was that I was offered a top free-lance driving job in the North Island with a leading stable about that time but for personal reasons I could not take it up. I would have loved to have done that.

Q. You seemed to fade off the scene for a while?
A. I had a few run ins with (stipe) Neil Escott and didn't think I got a good deal (we have settled our differences long since) and I copped a big fine I thought was tough and gave it up. We ran a restaurant in Rangiora for a while and I helped (son) Mark get started with gallopers. David Butt got me back to help him out when he started at Woodend quite a few years later. His mother Jackie (daughter of Jack Litten) and I had been friends for a long time and she playrd a part in getting me back.

Q. Your most rewarding time since?
A. Helping establish the inside track at Rangiora and winning the first totalisator race on it with Hard Cash was a highlight. A team worked at improving the training track and then (stipe) Les Purvis inspected it and said it was good enough for qualifying trials so we started workouts there and it just kept improving. Brian Ritchie played a big role and Russell De Gana was another key player. When we started workouts we would take the noms over the phone, Brian would print them on a Gestetner and I'd go home and we would ring every trainer with a horse in. In some ways that old enthusiasm has gone now.

Q. You drove Cardy but what other horses stick in your mind?
A. The day Johnny Globe won the Cup (1954) will always be with me. I was just a kid but people were jumping over fences trying to get a hair of his tail. I have never seen an outpouring of emotion for a horse in my time like that day. I don't think we will ever see that again. Then there was Lordship - and not just because I am a Nyhan! He was a great horse by any measure especially the injuries he survived and still won with.

Credit: David McCarthy writing in HRWeekly 16May & 2June2012