The photo has seen better days, but is of historical significance.
The legendary broadcaster Ken Howard coined a phrase years ago, which has passed into Aussie folk lore. For more than thirty years he used the expression “you can bet London to a brick on”, when he was sure a horse would get a photo finish result.
When 2GB sent Ken to London in 1968 to call the Epsom Derby, they made sure they got a photo of him with a genuine London brick. They fitted him out with a bowler hat, plonked him near Cleopatra’s Needle in the City Of Westminster, and handed him a “fair dinkum” London brick
I can tell you Ken hated being away from home, and detested international travel. How he managed that beaming smile for the camera, I’ll never know.
The only thing to please him on the trip, was the fact that he got to call the brilliant win by Sir Ivor. When Ken arrived home he simply said “he’s a bloody good horse mate”. Sir Ivor’s trainer Vincent O’Brien said, “He and Nijinsky were the best I trained”.