Tim Donnelly is one of many horsemen with a positive story to tell about the Inglis Digital Online Auction. The concept began modestly in May 2017 with one sale a month. It went bi-monthly in August 2019, and in April of last year established a world record online gross of $10.7 million - admittedly bolstered by the Arrowfield and Hudson Conway broodmare reductions.
This time last year Tim’s son Alex drew his father’s attention to an entry in the late June catalogue. At the time Alex was working for Cranbourne trainer Greg Eurell who’d been training an unnamed Starcraft gelding for Hong Kong based owners. “The horse had been earmarked for a future in Hong Kong, but the owners had lost interest when he showed little in several jump outs and barrier trials,” said Tim. “Alex said he was a big backward horse who had a lot of maturing to do. He felt the horse might be worth a try in the Riverina if he could be bought for the right money.”
Tim was comfortable with the fact that the gelding was by the celebrated racehorse Starcraft, winner of five Gr 1 races in four countries. The trainer was also aware that Starcraft was into double figures as the sire of stakes winners, including brilliant Blue Diamond victor Star Witness. He noted that the gelding’s dam Wild Mia had been a four time winner in the USA and was already the dam of two Australian winners. “I was surprised to nail him for just $7,000,” said Tim. “For some reason many people don’t like early sale entries and maybe his American pedigree put a few off. Whatever the reason, he’s a cheap horse now. His TAB Highway win on Saturday took his earnings to $116,000.”
Cliff House scores a gutsy win in the TAB Highway. It was Danny Beasley's first Randwick success since 2015 - courtesy Steve Hart Photographics.
To look at Cliff House today it’s not hard to see why he took an age to put it all together. The rising five year old is a towering giant of 17.1 hands, and probably not fully furnished yet. Tim didn’t produce him until September of last year when he was all at sea in finishing second in a Narrandera maiden. Three weeks later and still very unsure of himself, the gangly four year old got through H10 ground to win a Wagga maiden by over three lengths with Alysha Collett in the saddle. The win purse more than doubled his online purchase price.
Two more respectable Wagga placings followed before Tim got the big boy into the spelling paddock. Danny Beasley was his new jockey when he resumed to win a Wagga BM58 on March 6th. He followed that with a gutsy third to Sizzling Cat in an Albury Cl 3, after which Tim gave him an easy time with the upcoming Wagga Cup carnival in mind. It was almost six weeks later when Cliff House contested a BM 66 mile on the first day of the Wagga carnival. Danny Beasley skillfully angled him over from a wide draw to be box seating on the fence behind two leaders on the first turn. The huge gelding seemed a touch confused as Beasley “shouldered” him between Snappy Jim and Ribeauville on straightening for home. Cliff House barged clear and went on to beat his Albury conqueror Sizzling Cat. A TAB Highway loomed as the logical next step.
With a soft barrier trial win under his belt Cliff House went into Saturday’s TAB Highway with a six week gap between runs. As big as he is, the four year old seems to relish the light workload. He started from gate 9, the same draw he had at Wagga on May 4th. This time Danny Beasley wasn’t able to manoeuvre to the fence and had to contend with a three wide passage for the 1500m trip. Those who feared he might be found wanting, were pleasantly surprised when Cliff House surged impressively to claim the leaders in the last hundred metres. In beating Swift Charm and Sungblue he took his record to four wins and four placings from only eight starts. There’s little doubt he’s just beginning to learn his craft.
Tim and Danny Beasley have forged a strong partnership since the jockey's return from Singapore - courtesy Bradley Photographers.
After claiming Cliff House from the June 2022 Inglis Digital auction, Tim was responsible for a gesture of great thoughtfulness. Shortly before the auction, the trainer had been extremely upset when a horse he’d syndicated to friends had gone amiss with a tendon injury. He immediately gave the disappointed owners shares in his new purchase, retaining an interest for himself and Alex. One of the individual owners is Tim’s lifelong friend Geoff Ellis while a large group of Geoff’s family members have a share under the name of “9 Coree St - the original Ellis family address in Finley NSW. Other part owners are Tanya Champion, and Stephen Hopkins - all up around twenty owners who’ll constitute a noisy cheer squad should Cliff House one day participate in a prestigious race.
Some observers have wondered if the son of Starcraft takes his name from one of several businesses and private homes around Australia which bear the name of Cliff House. “We had quite a few names refused which prompted my wife Trish and me to think about places we’d visited over the years,” said Tim. “We remembered a trip we did to Ireland in 2010 to visit Trish’s mother. We had lunch one day at a hotel called Cliff House at Ardmore in County Waterford. It’s a spectacular spot with amazing ocean views, and I’ve never forgotten it. Our horse is named after that wonderful Irish hotel.”
Tim has always been a small team trainer but has maintained a consistent strike rate throughout his training career - courtesy Steve Hart Photographics.
The Sky cameraman stationed at the 1500m barrier on Saturday, just happened to take a very tight shot of Cliff House as the big horse moved into line. To race fans of my generation, the colours being worn by Danny Beasley leapt off the screen - orange with green seams and green cap - colours originally registered by Dick Smith, younger brother of Tom. When the siblings arrived in Sydney in the early 1940’s they struggled to pay the rent for the small room they shared at the Doncaster Hotel. As the years passed and Tommy ascended to dizzy heights in his chosen field, the much more conservative Dick Smith quietly attained his own high profile as a publican, punter, owner and breeder.
Dick’s journey as a successful breeder began in 1957 when he, Tom and Sydney bookie Tom Powell jointly purchased the English bred mare Holiday Scene at the Alton Lodge Stud dispersal sale near Auckland. When Dick and Tom Powell later parted ways, the Smith brothers were left with a mare destined to become a stud book gem.
Holiday Scene left several talented horses in her own right, while daughters and granddaughters went on to establish an influence which can be found in the pedigrees of top horses to this day. One of her Australian born daughters Fun For All became the dam of Denise’s Joy who retired with a record of thirteen wins and seventeen placings for $300,000 - a vast sum of money in the 1970’s. Among her many wins were the Oaks in Victoria and Queensland and a WATC Derby on protest. Fun For All’s very next foal was Great Lover who would win the 1976 AJC Derby for the Smith brothers and jockey Kevin Langby.
Dick and Tommy Smith with Kevin Langby after Great Lover's AJC Derby win - courtesy Bradley Photographers.
Denise’s Joy was still at Tulloch Lodge when eighteen year old Tim Donnelly arrived to start his new job as a stablehand. The job had been arranged by Pat Smith, younger brother to Tom, Dick and Ernie and a close acquaintance of Tim’s parents. The young Riverina horseman was gobsmacked when he saw the classic winning filly, whose career was winding down. “She went off to stud not long after with an incredible future ahead of her,” he said. “Sadly Dick Smith had died the previous year but his colours would be a part of Australian racing for a long time to come. Around 1991 I got Pat Smith to contact Dick’s widow Joyce who had kept the colours registered after her husband’s passing. I’ll never forget her kindness in letting me have them. I can’t look at those silks without thinking of the many great horses to carry them over several decades.”
No wonder Tim was keen to have those colours! Great Lover, a half brother to Denise's Joy was too strong for stablemate Chasta Bellota in the 1976 AJC Derby - courtesy Bradley Photographers.
Tim enjoyed every minute of his five years at Tulloch Lodge where he absorbed everything that went on around him. Such was Tommy Smith’s confidence in young Donnelly that he allowed the young horseman to travel interstate with Kingston Town on two occasions towards the end of the champion’s career. He supervised the King’s training in Melbourne leading up to his third Cox Plate win, and through to his second placing in the Melbourne Cup. “I also got to travel with him to Perth where he would bow out of racing with a gutsy win in the Western Mail Classic,” said Tim. “He won that race despite a troublesome front suspensory, and was retired soon after. How lucky was I to spend so much time with one of the all time greats.”
After an unforgettable association with Tulloch Lodge the young horseman went on to enjoy shorter stints with Neville Begg and Neville Voigt before making the decision to train in his own right. Tim kicked off at Canterbury courtesy of owner Stan Dumbrell who gave him a small string to prepare. Go Bellbird was the horse to provide his first win at Hawkesbury and his first city success at Canterbury. Volcanic Prince enhanced the trainer’s reputation with four wins and two seconds from only ten starts. Those four wins were consecutive, culminating with the $100,000 Prime TV Quality at Tamworth.
Tim won many races with handy horses like Polyphony, Tawjoy, and False Gold in the early 90’s and later joined the lengthy list of trainers to have brief associations with the talented Sharscay. Donnelly was pleased to win the black type JRA Plate at Randwick with the dual Gr 1 winner and has always felt the horse was unlucky not to win the 1997 Brisbane Cup in which he finished third to Desert Chill.
Tim is perhaps best remembered as the trainer of the exciting Quick Flick. He prepared the long striding grey for his entire fifty five starts which yielded sixteen wins and thirteen placings for $1.3 million dollars. Quick Flick got his well deserved Gr 1 in the 1998 George Ryder Stakes, and also prevailed in two Gr 2s, two Gr 3’s and two listed races. Quick Flick was ridden in nine of his wins by Tim’s “go to” jockey Mark de Montfort.
Tim's all time favourite Quick Flick (Mark de Montfort) beats Encounter in the 1998 George Ryder Stakes - courtesy Steve Hart Photographics.
When the bigger stables started to squeeze the smaller trainers out in the early 2000’s, Tim opted for a move back to his hometown of Wagga. He got no argument from wife Trish, also a native of the vibrant Riverina city. He works a team of fifteen horses in a stabling complex just a stone’s throw from the racecourse. His strike rate has been remarkably consistent in the nineteen years since his relocation.
Tim learned to ride trackwork during his days at Tulloch Lodge and was still participating as recently as April of last year when involved in an unlikely accident. He was dislodged towards the finish of a fast gallop when the saddle slipped underneath his mount’s belly, leaving him virtually airborne. “To use a well worn cliche I landed badly,” said Tim. “I was 63 at the time and hit the ground harder than I would have a decade ago. Diagnosis was a fracture of the C6 vertebrae which shook me up a bit. Amazingly they detected another hairline disturbance in the C7 some months later. It took me a while to get mobile again, not to mention the disruption to the stable routine.”
The outstanding horseman has decided not to tempt fate again and will leave trackwork duties to younger riders from this point on. The ever-patient trainer delivered Cliff House to a nearby spelling farm over the weekend with a view to a light spring campaign. “I’m looking ahead to next year’s Wagga carnival,” he said. “This big fella is getting stronger all the time and should be reaching peak maturity by this time next year. I’ve also decided to spell Participator who wasn’t disgraced in Saturday’s very strong BM 78 won by Iowna Merc. He too will have a light spring before aiming up for the Wagga carnival next May.”
The talented trainer has been on a roll in recent weeks. When pressed to nominate a likely improver from his current team Tim was noticeably upbeat about the lightly raced Irish bred three year old County Kilkenny. This half brother to the recent Wagga Cup winner Wicklow, was spelled after being unplaced at his first start in January, and wasn’t setting the world on fire in the weeks leading up to his next assignment on Wagga Cup day. “He suddenly switched on and I was very confident he’d give his maiden a shake,” said Tim. “He flew the gates like a seasoned horse and led all the way to win by a clear three lengths. It was hard to believe he was having only his second start. He’s just a natural.”
Trainers with the ability to identify and develop the talents of inexperienced racehorses are often described as astute. Add to that the capacity to find the right races and to have the horses cherry ripe on the day. Tim Donnelly ticks all of those boxes. He’s as astute as they come.
(Banner image - Cliff House overcame a tough run to win the TAB Highway - courtesy Steve Hart Photographics.)