John Tapp in the early 1970’s with Ribands at a Bathurst charity gymkhana.
Looking back on a fifty year involvement with harness racing, I’ve never had a bigger thrill than this.
This shot was taken at a Bathurst charity gymkhana in the early 1970’s, and I got to drive one of my all time favourite harness horses in a stallion parade.
The great Ribands was in beautiful condition for a twenty two year old entire. He’d been at stud in Blenheim (NZ) for seven years following a stellar racing career in Australia and the US.
His owner Frank Kelloway had just brought him home for a permanent retirement, but was happy to parade him at three public venues. He’d already bowled a couple of laps at a Harold Park meeting and a big Fairfield charity gymkhana.
This was to be the final appearance of a career which had taken him to great heights. Remember the mobile barrier hadn’t been introduced in Australia and the great horse was very hit and miss from the standing starts.
He invariably galloped off the mark and gave away impossible starts. He was handicapped off 48 yards in the A.G. Hunter Cup of 1954 and gave the leaders more like 70 yards by the time he hit his straps. Around the tight Melbourne Showgrounds he beat the dual Inter Dominion winner Captain Sandy by a big margin. Scribes of the day said he did the impossible on the night.
He won all three heats of the 1953 Interdominion Championships in Perth, only to be narrowly beaten by Captain Sandy in the Final after losing valuable ground at the start. In the same year he won the Harold Park Spring Cup off 36 yards behind - you could always tack a bit more on for his tardy starts.
In the Ribands era the two minute mile was still a pipe dream for trotting men. Such was the interest in the son of Lawn Derby, that the NSWTC put out “feelers” for Frank Kelloway to send him against the clock in an attempt to better Avian Derby’s 2.00 time trial record.
Twenty two thousand people turned out on a Wednesday night to watch Ribands, accompanied by “prompters” Ambassador and Homestretch, stop the clock at 1.58.7 - the fastest ever on a half mile track in Australasia. Twenty two thousand people on a Wednesday night to watch a time trial - what heady days they were.
Frank Kelloway later accepted an invitation to campaign the great horse in the USA. The aircraft transporting Ribands to America crash landed on the Persian Gulf and he had to be unloaded via a ramp made of sandbags.
With the aid of the mobile barrier he was able to win another five races, but it was obvious the brilliant pacer was past his best.
Back to Bathurst and the charity gymkhana where the experience of driving the legendary horse wasn’t without incident. I was warming him up in the little parade yard alongside the late Kevin Newman who was waiting to parade the much younger and very handsome Koala Frost.
The younger stallion suddenly let out an almighty squeal before attempting to savage Ribands. We had to get the two stallions away from one another before they put on a real “blue”.
The old boy actually got on the bit as we bowled around the Bathurst Showground. During his appearance descriptions of some of his most famous wins were relayed over the course broadcasting system.
I was probably in the gig for no more than fifteen minutes, but the memories will remain suspended in time.
The great racing and trotting journalist Bill Whittaker described Ribands as “pure pacing dynamite”. That says it all.