Trainer Kelly Purdy was a bundle of nerves as the Eyeliner Stakes field neared the home turn at Ipswich on Saturday. Her recently acquired stable star Bandipur was last of fourteen runners, only 7 lengths from the leader but behind a wall of horses.
Kelly was cursing her luck. Only ten days earlier she’d watched in horror as Bandipur was pushed off the track in the Ramornie Hcp at Grafton, making the home turn seven wide before finishing tenth just 2.3 lengths from the winner Signore Fox. This time it was the exact opposite - travelling strongly only one horse off the fence, but hopelessly pocketed.
Bandipur followed the tiring Hard Stride into the straight and jockey Jag Guthmann-Chester was lucky to be able to switch inside that horse before it was too late. With Bandipur absolutely “charging” the jockey made a beeline for the narrowest of runs between I Dream Of Green and Winter Passage - the latter receiving interference which earned Guthmann-Chester an eight meeting suspension.
Jag is a jockey who struggles constantly with his weight and wasn’t going to miss a Stakes win because of a tentative ride. Had Winter Passage not been forced to ease slightly, it would have been the ride of the year.
Jag Guthmann-Chester's gesture of defiance as he passed the post will find its way to the racing archives - courtesy Trackside Photography.
Bandipur snatched victory from the jaws of defeat to win the black type sprint for Mike Crook’s Mishani Enterprises operation and universally liked Kelly Purdy - a former jockey who by her own admission has been little more than a hobby trainer since quitting the saddle ten years ago.
Two years ago she had only one horse in work, and was employed as a trackwork rider by the strong Toby and Trent Edmonds stable on the Gold Coast. “Suddenly I got the urge to give training another crack,” recalled Kelly. “I had a few homebreds that really needed to be in work and one or two clients who’d asked me to train horses.
“I won a race here and there, but badly needed a horse to take me to the next level. It was a wonderful surprise when Mike Crooks rang me late last year and asked me to train Bandipur.”
Mike had shelled out a sale topping $260,000 for the Eyeliner winner at last year’s Magic Millions National Racehorse Sale. Bandipur had raced nineteen times in the Godolphin blue for eight wins, seven of them on metropolitan tracks including the listed Lightning Stakes at Morphettville. His reputation was that of a genuine racehorse, and a delight to train.
The new owner decided to send the Commands gelding back to Victoria where he’d won six races. He failed to win in five starts for the Richard Laming stable but four of those were in strong stakes races. Then it was back to Queensland where Kelly Purdy was selected to be his new trainer.
Popular opinion is that Mike was aware of the former jockey’s attention to detail and rock-solid work ethic.
It was a career defining moment for talented trainer Kelly Purdy - courtesy Trackside Photography.
Kelly’s love of horses surfaced at a very early age. Born at Smithton on Tasmania’s north west coast, she was just three months old when a job transfer took her parents Wayne and Annette and sister Patrice to Melbourne.
She was on a pony at four or five, and later joined the nearest club but didn’t enjoy the strict regime applied by instructors. “I wasn’t interested in all the little disciplines associated with pony club,” said Kelly. “All I wanted to do was go flat out. I was going to be a jockey from the moment I sat on a horse.”
Kelly Purdy was fourteen and a half years old and weighed 32kgs when she became apprenticed to trainer Trevor Miles at Tatura in Victoria’s Goulburn Valley region. “Trevor had me riding gallops earlier than most green kids, and I learned quickly,” she said. “Experienced riders like Les Beer and Ron Anderson were also attached to the stable and rode work with me regularly.
“I rode in a huge number of trials and Trevor felt I was ready to go to the races, but was surprised when he learned I was still six months short of completing my probation period. The stewards gave me permission to get started and suddenly I was a real jockey,” said Kelly.
Young Purdy’s long awaited debut on October 24th 1987 fell very flat when she finished 9th of 14 on Half Blast at Tatura for Trevor Miles. Just three weeks later at her tenth race ride, that magical first winner came along. Tatura trainer Tony Dynon took Kelly and a speedy gelding called Vanish across the border to Tocumwal for a 1300m Improvers Hcp. “I drew ten of eleven runners but Vanish was in a hurry and so was the jockey,” reflected Kelly. “We led and won by 4.5 lengths. Four runs later we won another one at Wangaratta. Vanish was a special horse to a green kid.”
Kelly was thrilled when Trevor Miles asked the young jockey to ride Big Zapple in the 1990 Adelaide Cup. “I managed the 49kgs pretty comfortably and it was such a thrill to ride in a Gr 1 race,” she said. “He’d had a hoof issue leading into the race and didn’t feel right in the run. I actually had to pull him up and he failed to finish. Disappointing, but at least I lined up in an Adelaide Cup.”
During her stay in Adelaide, Kelly rode trackwork at Victoria Park where she came under the notice of Colin Hayes. The champion trainer had a couple of jockeys out with injury at the time and actually offered Kelly the opportunity of staying on at Lindsay Park for a while.
“I was anxious to get back to Victoria where a couple of my favourite horses were racing,” she said. “I’ve regretted the decision ever since. I wasn’t going to get on Better Loosen Up, but it would have been a rare experience.”
Kelly completed the last twelve months of her apprenticeship with Dennis Berryman, before moving to Caulfield where she knew Brendan McCarthy was looking for jockeys. “I walked in and told him what a great rider I was,” chuckled Kelly. “He looked shocked but gave me a job anyway. I rode a winning double for him soon after and we had a good run from then on.”
Kelly fell in love with Queensland when she took a contingent of McCarthy’s horses north for a winter carnival. “I loved the weather, I loved the people and I enjoyed Brisbane racing,” said the accomplished horse person.
Kelly Purdy towards the end of her 15 year riding career. She rode more than 150 winners in Victoria and Queensland - courtesy Trackside Photography.
It wasn’t long before her trademark friendliness, exceptional talents and unwavering work ethic endeared her to many Queensland trainers. She rode regular winners over the next few years, many of them trained by the astute John Wallace, a great Purdy supporter. But there was one quirky, ill-tempered filly who was destined to give Kelly her most important win as a jockey.
Warrior Girl, a daughter of Ombra Della Sera showed her trainer Maryann Thexton plenty of ability right from the start. She also displayed a foul attitude and some dangerous habits. “She was an awful thing from the outset,” said Kelly. “She would “jack up” without warning and thought nothing of rearing over backwards. She often refused to go into the starting gates. I got the ride because nobody else wanted to take her on.”
Not surprisingly Warrior Girl’s unpredictable ways saw her start at long odds in the 2010 Magic Millions Sprint (1000m). “We had to keep second guessing her all the time,” said Kelly. “I got the Clerk Of The Course to lead me the opposite way around to the barriers. On arrival we loaded her before she had time to think, even though we knew she’d be in there for a long time.
“Amazingly she stood like a lamb while the others were loaded and got away with the field. With heaps of speed up front, I let her drift back into the field and just left her alone. It’s now history that she stormed home to blow them away.”
Kelly's finest moment in the saddle. She rode the race of her life to get quirky filly Warrior Girl home in the 2010 Magic Millions Sprint. Runner up was Fab Fevola (Jim Byrne) - courtesy Trackside Photography.
Kelly quit the saddle soon after the Magic Millions Sprint and later got to train Warrior Girl. She actually won two races with the wayward filly, leaving the riding to Patrick Keane. One of her early favourites as a trainer was Rundle, a Lloyd Williams castoff with whom Purdy won three metropolitan races in Brisbane.
The trainer’s life in Queensland has been a wonderful adventure. Her only sister Patrice is also a convert to the Sunshine State, as is Kelly’s twenty seven year old daughter Emily. “I have a small property not far from the racecourse where Emily lives with her husband Sam,” she said. “That’s where I spell my horses under the supervision of my daughter and son in law. It’s also home to my three year old grandson William, who has brought a great deal of joy into our lives.”
Kelly’s partner, former jockey Gary Smith works in the building industry nowadays but takes a keen interest in her team of horses and is available for a second opinion when required.
It’s been an amazing journey for the little girl who took her first breath on the Apple Isle. Those pony “scurries” in Victoria ignited a spark that would take her to the ranks of Australia’s female jockeys in an era when they were still struggling for a fair go.
That amazing win on the ill-tempered Warrior Girl was a precursor to Kelly’s transition to the crowded training ranks in Queensland. But what else would you expect her to do?
A life without horses wouldn’t suit Kelly Purdy.
(Banner image - Bandipur charges through a narrow opening to win the Eyeliner Stakes at Ipswich. The other horse in the picture is I Dream Of Green who wound up in fourth place - courtesy Trackside Photography.)