Steve Hart keeps coming up with these wonderful “blasts from the past“.
Here’s one in the Randwick birdcage in the Spring of 1990 shortly before Stargazer’s win in the Frank Packer Plate.
Mick Dittman is getting plenty of input from the Smith camp. Tommy appears to be in his customary composed pre race mode, while brother Ernie may have been concerned about a very heavy track on the day. Gai, who had just begun her full time role at Tulloch Lodge, was doing a last minute check of the form..
Remember Stargazer? He was no superstar but what a job he did for owners F.S.Steen, H.Gluescksman, R.Rogers,and J.& E Kornhauser. The NZ bred son of Star Way raced 45 times for 9 wins and 10 placings accumulating almost $900,000.
He never won a Group 1, but was placed four times at the elite level. He did however win six Group 2 races - Gloaming Stakes, Sandown Guineas, Frank Packer Plate, Grand Prix, and the Chelmsford Stakes on two occasions. Mick Dittman rode him in four of those Gr 2 wins, Shane Dye was on board in the Sandown Guineas, while Wayne Harris partnered him in the 1991 Chelmsford.
Thanks to Steve Hart for sharing another classic from his early years as a photographer on Sydney race tracks.