When it comes to horses I’m a hopeless sentimentalist.
I had the pleasure of calling Halwes in all of his Harold Park wins in the late 1960’s and he left an indelible impression on me. He was a horse of high speed, great reserves of stamina and a terrific will to win.
These were the thoughts running through my mind on a sunny February day eighteen years later, when I was driving through the tiny village of Hagley about 32kms from Launceston.
I’d been on a “drive yourself” holiday with my wife Ann and four year old daughter Rebecca.
This was the home of Aub Wesley who had trained the champion throughout his career. This was the location of Fairview Stud where Halwes spent his post racing days.
I went into a little general store in the middle of town and asked the lady behind the counter where I might find Mr. Aub Wesley.
“There he is over there”, she declared pointing directly across the road. “That’s Mr. Wesley in the blue overalls and the hat”. I could see an elderly man pottering around near a galvanised iron shed.
A semi-trailer roared past as we ducked across the road and climbed between the rails of an ancient ironbark fence. “Can I help you sonny?”, asked the man in the blue overalls as I approached with outstretched hand. I remember thinking it had been a bloody long time since anyone had called me “sonny”.
Image courtesy Peter Collier - This was a familiar sight to passers by in the late 1960s. Aub Wesley and Halwes on the training track at Hagley.
Aub only vaguely remembered having met me in Sydney, but was quick to ask about his old friend Kevin Newman who’d driven Halwes in most of his mainland races.
After introducing my family and exchanging the usual platitudes, I asked the predictable question “Is the old horse still alive Aub?”
“He was when I fed him a while ago”, said the old world horseman “Wait here and I’ll fetch him “.
I struggled with a lump in the throat when the veteran trainer emerged from a stable, with one of my equine idols. There he was in the flesh. The great Halwes or “Toby” as Aub always called him.
A little swampy backed maybe, but alert and bright eyed with a coat that was gleaming like satin. He looked nothing like his 27 years.
The memories flashed by. A mighty win off 12 yards in a Spring Cup, an even better win off 36 yards in an Easter Cup and of course his demolition job on some super horses in the 1968 Miracle Mile.
Image courtesy Peter Collier - The champion was fairly flying on the line when he won The Miracle Mile of 1968.
In Auckland only weeks earlier, he’d been a shock late scratching from the Inter Dominion Grand Final. He’d won all three qualifying heats in spectacular fashion and was at unbackable odds for the final.
His troublesome quarter crack had been visible for some weeks, but had given him no trouble through the series. He’d trotted up perfectly sound on race morning and Aub had no reason to be concerned.
The trainer thought he noticed a funny step or two as he led Halwes to the race night stalls. An hour later the great horse was actually “pointing his off fore toe”, and Wesley’s dream slipped away before his eyes.
The on track siren preceded the shock announcement that Halwes was out of the Grand Final. “He would have won that race on his ear”, was Aub’s lament for the rest of his days. Kevin Newman agreed, as did every experienced trotting man who’d watched him destroy his rivals through the series.
Imagine the frustration of the Halwes camp when First Lee won that Grand Final comfortably. His trainer/driver Kevin Robinson was the first to admit he won the big race by default.
This was the second Inter Dominion disaster for Aub and his co-owner Charlie Williams. The stallion had been to Perth the previous year and actually finished second in each of the first two heats. He was lame the morning after the second heat and for the first time his infamous quarter crack appeared. His campaign was aborted when he was ruled out of the third qualifying heat.
Just a few weeks after Auckland Halwes beat First Lee by a massive twenty yards in the Miracle Mile. His time was 1.58.6 - the fastest ever recorded by a pacer in Australia and a world record on a track measuring less than half a mile. He was just .2 of a second outside Lordship’s Australasian record which had been set on a 5 furlongs track.
Image courtesy Peter Collier- historian - The Tasmanians made a fuss of Halwes whenever Aub paraded him at home between trips to the mainland.
Halwes was rising nine when he time trialled at Harold Park seven months after his Miracle Mile triumph. Accompanied by a galloping pacemaker Koala Proof, Halwes stopped the clock at 1.57.3 taking 1.4 seconds of the “mile against time” record established fourteen years earlier by the brilliant Ribands.
Despite the fact that Halwes won 15 races at Harold Park, Aub Wesley maintained that his champion was never completely at home on the famous circuit. Conversely he always looked comfortable on the smaller Melbourne Showgrounds track where he won half a dozen races.
Aub, in a pose typical of a country man of his generation, squatted on his haunches chewing on a stem of grass as he reminisced about his travels with Toby. He was happy for me to shoot some home movie footage of the old horse, which is still among my souvenirs.
Halwes seemed to understand every word spoken by his former trainer, including one usually reserved for dogs. When Aub shouted “skitch ‘em”, the stallion pinned his ears back, bared his teeth and charged straight at us, skidding to a halt just centimetres from his yard fence.
There was little doubt he would have made a meal of anybody who got between him and his old boss. Aub’s love for the horse was such that he’d arranged for the insertion of a special clause in his will stipulating that Halwes should be “put down” if he died first.
Image courtesy Peter Collier - Aub Wesley grabs a snack during the Auckland Inter Dominion Carnival. Halwes rarely took his eye off his devoted trainer.
The terms of that special clause were never executed, because “Toby” died nine years before the passing of his former trainer.
By the time Halwes retired in 1969 his record stood at 45 wins from 63 starts, and the equivalent of $73,000. That figure will give you some idea of the significance of a $300,000 offer Aub received from the United States the previous year.
Aub Wesley would never have parted with his “horse of a lifetime”, and was now looking forward to standing Halwes on his own property “Fairview” at Hagley.
The great horse did a respectable job with around 120 winners, but nothing even close to his own great ability. Aub died at 91 and those close to him believed he never got over the loss of his “best mate”.
I had several conversations with the late Kevin Newman over the years and he never wavered in his claim that Halwes was the best horse he drove. Most horses can go only once in a race”, said the ten times champion Harold Park trainer. “Good horses can go twice. Halwes could go three times in a race”.
Image courtesy Peter Collier - Kevin Newman parades Halwes before a crowd of 20,000 after his 1968 Miracle Mile win.
Almost thirty four years have passed since my impromptu visit to Hagley. I’ve never forgotten the wonderful few hours spent with a grand old horseman and the champion who took him on a fantastic journey.
Image courtesy Peter Collier - Possibly the last photo ever taken of Aub Wesley. He was attending a country trotting meeting in Tasmania at age 91.
(Banner image courtesy Peter Collier - Halwes had 20 yards to spare over First Lee in The Miracle Mile.)