LEGENDARY TRAINER'S LEGACY LIVES ON

By Matt Nicholls

14/06/2012

melbourneracing@gmail.com

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WHEN I think of remarkable people in racing, the name Jim Houlahan comes to mind.

This was a man who didn't start to train horses until he was 57 years old – back in 1970 – and still managed to be inducted into the Australian Racing Hall of Fame.

I suppose when you tasted success in eight Australian Hurdles, seven Grand National Hurdles, four Hiskens Steeplechases, four Grand Annual Steeplechases at Warrnambool, three Oakbank Great Eastern Steeplechases, two Australian Steeplechases and one Grand National Steeplechase, you well and truly deserved a spot in racing's elite company.

Houlahan retired from training in 2005 – at the age of 92 – and died on April 4, 2007.

But his legacy lives on.

Since 2006 the J.J. Houlahan Jumps Championship has been run and won by the premier jumps jockey, trainer and horse each season, encompassing the 14 premier jumps races in Victoria and South Australia.

This year the number of races in the series has risen to 18.

Two will be run this Sunday at Bendigo – the Brendan Drechsler Hurdle (3200m) and the Mosstrooper Steeplechase (3600m).

The Mosstrooper Steeplechase is in its second year after it was the feature event for Bendigo's return to jumps racing in 2011 – ending a 72-year exodus for the club.

Previously worth $75,000, the Mosstrooper and the Brendan Drechsler Hurdle – a new race this year – are both worth $100,000 to meet the requirements of the Houlahan championship.

It's fitting that Bendigo is now a part of the prestigious series.

After all, Houlahan was born in Bendigo.

He grew up in the central Victorian city, leaving only because of the war, but managed to leave a legacy for many in the city.

The older generation in Bendigo will remember the drive-in cinema with fond memories. In fact, many Bendigonians may have been conceived at the very place!

That cinema was a Houlahan project.

Most of the work was done by his brother Kevin, but Jim was the brains behind the project, his daughter Fran told Melbourne Racing.

"After the war, dad and Kevin started a building business and moved down to Melbourne. Dad wanted to build the drive-in at Bendigo, so they flipped a coin to see who would go to Bendigo and who would stay in Melbourne," Fran said.

"Kevin won or lost the toss – whichever way you want to look at it – so he went to Bendigo and dad stayed in Melbourne."

The drive-in cinema was popular for two decades until a sit-down theatre was built.

But the most visible landmark in Victoria that can be attributed to Houlahan is Calder Park raceway.

Every Bendigo resident that has been to Melbourne – by car or train – has been past Calder Park.

Situated on the northern outskirts of Melbourne, the raceway was built on the back of Houlahan’s racing success.

But still, that was in Houlahan's entrepreneurial days, well before he became a trainer.

"He bought the land for Calder Park after he won an all-up bet on three of Bill Williamson's horses at Flemington one day," Fran explained.

"Dad won something like 30,000 pounds and the block out on the Calder (highway) was the exact amount of money he won.

"He went out and bought the block and he formed the company to develop it and build Calder Park."

It's fair to say that not only was Houlahan lucky, but he was extremely intelligent.

After being involved in horses all of his life – at gymkhana as a child and later as an owner of thoroughbreds – it was by chance that Houlahan started training racehorses.

"He had a couple of horses and they weren't going super well and dad thought there were a few things that could be done to get the horses to go better," Fran said.

"So he told the trainer and the trainer said to him, 'if you think you know what you're doing why not have a go yourself?'"

So he did.

"Didn't do a bad job for an old fella, did he," Fran remarked.

It turned about to be the best decision Houlahan ever made.

Regarded as the king of jumps racing in Australia before he died, many of Houlahan's feats will never be repeated.

One thing that Houlahan could do that most couldn't was to get horses to win first-up over long distances.

This is what Just Racing's Phil Purser wrote about Houlahan back in 2006 – the year before the legendary trainer died.

"In my lifetime I have only seen two men – Victorian trainers Jim Houlahan and Robbie Laing – who have proven to be worthy of a special mention amongst the Australian training ranks, as being able to produce horses to win first-up over long distances," Purser wrote.

"As they were capable of achieving the feat more than once, it is fair to conclude by the law of logic that they have been proven to be the greatest conditioners of a horse in this country in modern times.

"Jim Houlahan made an art form of producing hurdlers first-up to win over long distances without flat runs."

So while Houlahan is no longer with us, his legacy remains, and I think it would be fitting for the Bendigo Jockey Club to name a jumps race after the great man to remind locals the impact he had on the sport and the fact he was born and bred in the city, a fact not many people in Bendigo know.