Firmly entrenched among my favourite racing memories are those of my first meeting with Ray Selkrig. It was late in 1965 and I was nervously setting up the broadcast gear in the 2GB box at Sydney’s Canterbury racecourse. I was about to call my first full programme of racing since being appointed understudy to the network’s chief race caller, the legendary Ken Howard. I was gobsmacked when I spotted Ray Selkrig climbing the stairs towards the box. The champion jockey had been informed a young race caller was making his debut, and simply took the trouble to wish me well. As we chatted he noticed my suit coat laying crumpled on the bench, and wondered why I hadn’t hung it up. When I told him there was nowhere to hang the coat he shook his head, had a quick look at the acoustic tiling on the walls of the box and headed off to the jockeys room.
The dawn of a great career! Ray arrives on track in the early 1950s.
The following Wednesday he visited again and took from his pocket several plastic golf tees. He’d given the matter much thought during the week and calculated that the golf tees would fit snugly into the small holes of the acoustic tiling. He was right. Next thing we had four perfect coat hooks. I thanked him profusely, and off he went to ride a couple of winners on the day. That was the kind of thing Ray Selkrig did throughout his long life. Many similar stories about his legendary thoughtfulness will emerge in the weeks ahead.
Thursday March 17th 1983 started out quite normally for the popular horseman. He could feel the bracing autumn chill as he brought the Les Bridge Draft Dodger back to the scraping sheds after a routine track gallop at Randwick. Then 53, Ray had made a successful comeback after the worst fall of his career a year earlier at Canterbury. He’d been thrown heavily when his mount Happy Halloween crashed into the fence at the 600m mark in a two year old event. An oncoming runner had been unable to avoid him, and broke Ray’s left leg in two places. “Not for one moment did I consider retirement,” said Ray at the time. “I gave it ample time to repair. Too many jockeys rush back after accidents and put too much pressure on injury sites. I didn’t ride again for eleven months and the leg was fully healed when I resumed.”
With several winners already under his belt, Ray was in good spirits as he rode Draft Dodger into his stall, turned him about and prepared to dismount. The next few seconds would change his life. At the precise moment he vaulted from the saddle, Draft Dodger “spooked” at the horse in the adjoining stall and ducked sideways. Instead of landing on his toes, Ray landed flat on both heels. He felt an immediate twinge in his back, but quickly dismissed it and actually galloped another two horses that morning. Amazingly he rode two horses at the Rosehill meeting two days later, finishing out of a place on his old favourite Favoloso, and the Bridge trained Countdown in the last race - a bizarrely appropriate name for his last ever race ride. He was in agony by the time he returned to the jockey’s room.
A pocket sized dynamo! This one was taken a decade before Ray's career was terminated by injury - courtesy Bradley Photographers.
Ray was at the Lewisham Institute of Sports Medicine first thing on the Monday morning. There, Dr. Tony Miller diagnosed no less than five compressed discs. Countless medical opinions followed - always with the same conclusion. “They all said there was nothing they could do,” Ray said in a later interview. “Every Doctor told me I had to learn to live with it. They were of the opinion surgery was likely to complicate my condition. With great sadness I announced my retirement.”
And live with it he did. For many years the stoic former jockey coped with the pain and frustration of a cruel injury. He wore a back brace for much of the time and discovered ways in which he could take the pressure off the sensitive area. Sometimes he slept on the living room floor. He found relief when sitting in the driver’s seat of his car. Several times he and Pat undertook long road trips which gave him extended periods of relief.
Few people believe in miracles. Ray was one of them until he was granted a permanent release from back pain under the most unlikely circumstances. “I had to go into hospital for ankle surgery which went smoothly, and it wasn’t until I stood up that I realised the back pain had all but disappeared,” he said in a Sky Channel interview sometime later. “The ankle surgery somehow altered my posture just enough to take the pressure of the compressed discs. I was dumbfounded and so were the doctors. I don’t know how or why. All I know is I got my life back.”
The well named Flames was a special filly to Ray Selkrig. The daughter of Brimstone was trained by his father Frank and owned by his mother Freda.
Ray Selkrig was a baby faced 16 year old when he became apprenticed to the multiple premiership winning trainer Bayley Payten in 1946. The apprenticeship was arranged by his father Frank, a former successful jockey who was working as stable foreman for Payten at the time. It was October of 1947 when Jack Craw, named after tennis legend Jack Crawford gave the tiny apprentice his first win in a Randwick three year old event. Ray improved quickly and the winners began to flow. He won two Sydney apprentices premierships, and in 1948 his diligence and impeccable conduct saw him become Dux of the AJC Apprentices School.
In an era when race meetings were fewer than they are today, Ray Selkrig won 1800 races, thirty five of which would have Gr 1 classification under today’s rankings. At the beginning of his distinguished career, he harboured three primary ambitions - to win a Derby, to win a Melbourne Cup and to win a Sydney jockeys premiership. He achieved all three objectives within fifteen years.
His first AJC Derby win came as far back as 1954 on the pony sized Prince Delville for trainer Stan Lamond. A decade passed before the jockey again tasted Derby success, but this time he delivered in spades. In the spring of 1964 Ray and his all time favourite Royal Sovereign landed the AJC, VRC and Queensland Derby treble, the latter by a gobsmacking ten lengths. That was four Derbies on the CV, but there were two more to come.
Royal Sovereign was dynamic in winning the Queensland Derby by 10 lengths.
In 1967 Selkrig sporting the club’s colours of all pink stormed down the outside to win the AJC Derby. Five years later he would combine with Jack and Bob Ingham and trainer Tom Kennedy to win yet another one on Gold Brick. With the right bob of the heads it could have been eight Derbies. He was beaten inches on Royal Account and Latin Knight in two other editions of the Randwick classic. Ray looked back with great satisfaction on his 1950 Doncaster win on Grey Boots. To win the famous race at just twenty years of age on such a popular racehorse, remained one of his most cherished memories.
The next ambition to be achieved was a Sydney jockey’s premiership in the 1958/1959 season. When George Moore elected to take up a contract in France midway through the season, Tommy Smith turned to the in-form Selkrig to fill the breach. Sixty seven wins for the season gave him the coveted Sydney premiership, just one win ahead of Neville Sellwood. In the following two seasons he was second to Sellwood and Athol Mulley respectively. The third dream achievement on the Selkrig wishlist lay just around the corner.
Trainer Frank Lewis and owner Norman Cohen allowed Ray to ride his own race on Lord Fury in the 1961 Melbourne Cup. The jockey “fluked” the McKinnon Stakes and Melbourne Cup rides on the stallion when Bernie Howlett was suspended after riding him into second place in the Caulfield Cup. Ray was slightly disappointed when Lord Fury finished with the tailenders in the McKinnon, but resolved to treat the Melbourne Cup differently. The horse dropped dramatically in weight, and Selkrig had the feeling he would enjoy rolling along in front at his own speed. The jockey’s judgement was vindicated when the son of Edwardsii turned in a lethal combination of speed and stamina to beat strong stayer Grand Print by a decisive margin.
Ray’s story about his winning “sling” from a grateful owner has done the rounds in Australian racing circles many times. He requested a cheque instead of the rather lean cash gratuity offered, because he felt the tax man would never have believed him. Lord Fury wasn’t the greatest stayer to carve himself a niche in Melbourne Cup history, but he was the horse to complete a young Sydney jockey’s “dream trifecta”.
Ray's daring front running ride paved the way for Lord Fury's emphatic Melbourne Cup win in 1961.
Few jockeys escape the inevitable “kick in the guts” during their careers and Ray was no exception. He was riding a three year old called Persian Lyric in the Spring of 1960, and gave him a strong chance in the “triple crown”. “I’d won the Canterbury Guineas on him and was looking forward to riding him in the Rosehill Guineas two weeks later,” said Ray in several subsequent interviews. “My father died the week of the Rosehill Guineas and we buried him on the Thursday. I really didn’t want to ride at Rosehill two days later, but owner Jack Mandel said if I didn’t ride him in the Guineas I wouldn’t be on him in the Derby. It wasn’t one of my best rides at Rosehill and he finished third to Wenona Girl and Sky High. I got the sack anyway, and Persian Lyric won the Derby with George Mulley in the saddle. It took me a while to get over that one.”
A proud moment for the 31 year old Sydney jockey. Ray holds the coveted Melbourne Cup trophy.
Ray’s second major disappointment came in 1973 when he was taken off Gold Brick in the Champion Stakes, then run in the autumn. “I’d won the AJC Derby on the horse in the spring which I thought would guarantee me the ride in the Champion Stakes,” said Selkrig. “I was wrong. Jack Ingham rang to tell me Ron Quinton had the Champion Stakes ride and that was it. I felt crushed at the time, and even worse when Gold Brick won easily. You’ve got to move on.”
I recall filing a story on Ray’s 1983 retirement on the Channel 9 News. In compiling the package, I went out to record a few tributes from fellow jockeys and trainers for whom he’d ridden over the years. All of the tributes were heartfelt and cognizant of his wonderful achievements. One had quite an impact. Randwick trainer Albert McKenna who’d been a long time Selkrig supporter, simply said “no more honest jockey ever threw his leg across a racehorse.”
When Allan Gainey and Terry Mulhall created Hyperion Thoroughbreds in the very early days of racehorse syndication, one of their prime objectives was to use jockeys who would communicate freely with their large ownership groups. They couldn’t have picked a more willing participant than Ray Selkrig who won a huge number of races in the well known black and pink Hyperion Thoroughbreds colours. “Ray would give owners as much time as they needed after the running of races, while he and Pat were always happy to attend our social functions,” said Hyperion co- founder Allan Gainey. “He was the perfect jockey for our kind of operation.”
Ray won many races in the Hyperion Thoroughbred colours. Ubetido was one of his favourites.
Ray suffered his first significant stroke in 2016. He had several more minor recurrences up until November of last year when stricken by another major episode. The subsequent decline in his health has been significant. He and Pat, his adoring wife of sixty seven years had been living in the same Hunter Valley nursing home for the past three years. Pat was joined at Ray’s bedside by sons John and Peter, and grandchildren Tiah and Natasha as the ninety three year old slipped away quietly in the late afternoon of Thursday June 29th.
Ray and Pat were guests at the inaugural Jockeys Reunion at Randwick in 2019 - courtesy Steve Hart Photographics.
The sympathies of the Sydney racing world go to Pat, John and Peter, to grandchildren John, Aaron, Natasha, Tiah, Matthew, Kayla and six great grandchildren.
And to you Ray Selkrig OAM, congratulations on a long life well lived on and off the track. Thanks for the joy you brought the owners of your many Gr 1 winners, and thanks for the sunshine you brought into the lives of the little punters who followed you faithfully no matter what the price. Thanks for your devotion to family and your loyalty to friends. Thank you for your kindness in giving a young race caller something to hang his coat on almost sixty years ago.
One of racing's most cherished moments. Ray unsaddles Lord Fury after leading throughout to win the 1961 Melbourne Cup.
(Banner image - From the beginning of his career Ray wanted to win a Derby. This was the first of six - the 1954 AJC Derby on the pony sized Prince Delville.)