Please select a horse below:

• Eurythmic inducted in 2007
• Northerly inducted in 2007
• Jolly Beggar inducted in 2010
• Aquanita inducted in 2010
• Placid Ark inducted in 2010

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Eurythmic (1910s/1920s)

Owned by Sir Ernest Lee-Steere Snr, Eurythmic was trained in Western Australia by J J Kelly and as a 2yo won the Karrakatta Plate and the Sire's Produce both at Ascot. The next season as a 3yo he started 8 times for 7 wins, including the WATC Derby and the Perth Cup (dead heat) as well as the WATC St Leger.

He was then transferred to the stables of Jack Holt at Mordialloc, Victoria after winning 10 of his 14 starts in the West. He had 13 starts as a 4yo winning 12 of them, the first of his 3 Caulfield Stakes and the Caulfield Cup as the shortest priced favourite ever. He was penalised 10 pounds for that win and took 59 kilos into the Melbourne Cup finishing 4th to Poitrel (1920).

Perhaps the stallion's greatest win was in the Sydney Cup of 1921 when carrying 61 kilos he was pole-axed at the 1400m and put back to absolute last. He started a run at the 800m was 8th on the turn and just kept coming to get up by ½ length in what was generally considered the best performance ever seen at Randwick.

It was at weight for age that he excelled with 21 wins and 8 placings from 30 starts and from December 1919 to September 1921 he raced 19 times and won 18 of them. Unfortunately he died within 12 months of starting his stud career back in Western Australia. The general consensus was that the great horse had died of a broken heart.

Principal Wins

Two Years 6 Starts, 3 Wins
WATC Nursery Hcp (5f, 1000m)
WATC Karrakatta Plate (5f, 1000m)
WATC Sires’ Produce Stakes (7f, 1400m)

Three Years 8 Starts, 7 Wins
WATC Grave Hcp (6f, 1200m)
Belmont Park Plate (6 ¼ f, 1250m)
WATC Derby (12f, 2400m)
D’Heat Perth Cup (2m, 3200m)
WATC CB Cox Stakes (12f, 2400m)
WATC Osborne Stakes (12f, 2400m)
WATC St Leger (14f 2800m)

Four Years 13 Starts, 12 Wins
VATC Memsie Stakes(9f 1800m)
VRC October Stakes (12f, 2400m)
VATC Caulfield Stakes (9f, 1800m)
VATC Caulfield Cup (12f, 2400m)
VRC Melbourne Stakes (10f, 2000m)
VRC CB Fisher Plate (12f, 2400m
VRC Essendon Stakes (12f, 2400m)
VRC Governor’s Plate (12f, 2400m)
VRC King’s Plate (2m, 3200m)
AJC Autumn Stakes (12f, 2400m)
AJC Sydney Cup (2m, 3200m)
AJC Cumberland Stakes (2m, 3200m)

Five Years 12 Starts, 7 Wins
VATC Memsie Stakes (9f, 1800m)
VATC Caulfield Stakes (9f, 1800m)
VATC Herbert Power stakes (10f, 2000m)
VRC Melbourne Stakes (10f, 2000m)
VATC St George Stakes (9f, 1800m)
VATC Futurity Stakes (7f, 1400m)
VRC CM Lloyd Stakes (1m, 1600m)

Six Years 8 Starts, 2 Wins
VATC Memsie Stakes (9f, 1800m) VATC Caulfield Stakes (9f, 1800)

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Northerly (2000s)

Northerly is one of the greatest racehorses to grace the Australian turf and arguably the best to have come out of Western Australia.

"The Fighting Tiger" captured the imagination of West Australia and proved himself a champion against some of the best going round.

Highlights of his stellar career include two Australian Cups, two consecutive W.S Cox Plates, the second after doing the impossible and backing up after a gut-wrenching Caulfield Cup win, and total domination of the 2001 and 2002 Melbourne spring carnivals.

Northerly was 2002 - 2003 Australian Champion Racehorse of the Year.

He had 37 starts for 19 victories, seven seconds and two thirds winning stakes of $9,341,850. He contested 16 Group One races winning nine and finishing second four times, also winning five Group Two events.

As a four year-old in 2001 Northerly set course records at Flemington over 2000m, recording 1.59.4 in the Group One Australian Cup and at Caulfield over 1600m, recording 1.35.1 in the Group Two Carlyon Cup.

It was the calibre of the horses that Northerly met and defeated such as Sunline and Fields of Omagh that best illustrated his true ability. For instance, it was Northerly’s defeat of Sunline in the 2001 Feehan Stakes that signalled what a remarkable galloper he was.

In fact he took on the champion mare at Moonee Valley three times and beat the two-time Australian Champion Racehorse of the Year and record stakemoney winner on each occasion.

Damien Oliver who rode Northerly to five wins said it was his will to win that he would remember most. "He was never beaten. Most horses can sustain a run for a furlong and a half (300m), he just kept going. He broke their hearts."

Principal Wins

3yo season
Aquanita Stakes Ascot 1400m

4yo season
RJ Peters Stakes Group 3 Ascot 1500m
Railway Stakes Group I Ascot 1600m
Carlyon Stakes Group 2 Caul 1600m
Australian Cup Group I Flem 2000m

5yo season
Goodwood Stakes Listed Belmont 1300m
Feehan Stakes Group 2 MV 1600m
Underwood Stakes Group 1 Caul 1800m
Yalumba Stakes Group I Caul 2000m
W.S Cox Plate Group I MV 2040
St George Stakes Group 1 Caul 1800m

6yo season
Craiglee Stakes Group 2 Flem 1600m
Underwood Stakes Group I Caul 1800m
Turnbull Stakes Group I Flem 2000m
Caulfield Cup Group I Caul 2400m
W.S Cox Plate Group I Caul 2040m
St George Stakes Group 2 Caul 1800m
Australian Cup Group 1 Flem 2000m

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Jolly Beggar (1900s/1910s)

Second ‘past-the-post’ at his first race start at two years, Jolly Beggar was elevated to first place after it was subsequently established that the winner of the race was in fact three. His two-year-old season culminated with a dead heat in the Karrakatta Plate.

Owned by Mr P.A. Connolly, who did not believe in over-racing horses, Jolly Beggar raced only three times at three years, winning the Western Australian Derby by six lengths and running second to Loch Shiel by a half head in the Perth Cup of that year.

Following a lengthy spell, Jolly Beggar returned at four years to win the Perth Cup and become the first horse to win the Karrakatta Plate (dead-heat), Western Australian Derby and Perth Cup. A feat only emulated by inaugural hall of fame inductee Eurythmic.

At five years, the horse campaigned at the highest level in both South Australia and Victoria, including finishing “under the roses” to run second by a neck in the Newmarket Handicap at Flemington. A race many spectators and his owner thought the horse had won.

At six years, Jolly Beggar won the forty-second renewal of the Doncaster Handicap at Randwick. Controlling the race from the outset, the remarkable black stallion from the west easily put pay to the large field. The Sydney Morning Herald reported, “the way that this Jolly Beggar won in 1913 will be handed down to posterity along with other sensational wins”.

Winning his final race at nine years, Jolly Beggar was retired from racing with a record of 11½ wins and 12½ placings from 40 starts across four States.

Jolly Beggar played a major role in the local breeding industry and at the end of 1934 his progeny had won 513 races and amassed nearly £60,000 in stakes. In eleven years he was leading Western Australian sire on seven occasions. Few horses left such an influential legacy on Western Australian racing.

Principal Wins

2yo season
Karrakatta Plate, Ascot 1000m

3yo season
Western Australian Derby, Ascot 2400m

4yo season
All-Aged Stakes, Ascot 1400m
Perth Cup, Ascot 3200m

6yo season
Doncaster Handicap, Randwick 1600m
All-Aged Stakes, Randwick 1600m

7yo season
St. George Stakes, Caulfield 1800m
C.M. Lloyd Stakes, Flemington 1800m

9yo season
December Stakes, Ascot 1800m

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Aquanita (1950s/1960s)

Flemington trainer Roy Shaw is reported to have once described the champion Western Australian race horse Aquanita to newsmen as a ‘tigerish villain’. In private much harsher words were used, but he had one redeeming feature – this horse was a champion!

This almost black stallion, sold at the Perth yearling sales for 575 guineas, was the champion Western Australian race horse of his generation, recording 28 wins and 18 placings from 69 race starts across four States.

Owned by cousins, Bill and Jack Thomas, Aquanita began his career in Perth, trained by Reg Treffone. At two years, Aquanita won only two races but at three years his ability came to the fore, winning seven races from eight starts, including the Railway Stakes and Easter Handicap.

Recognising the limited opportunities for the horse in Western Australia, Aquanita joined the Flemington stables of Roy Shaw in the spring of 1961. At four years, he won the first of two George Adams Stakes at Flemington, ridden by Ron Hutchinson, and later that season the Doomben 10000 and W.J. Healy Stakes in Brisbane.

At five years, Aquanita again won the George Adams Stakes at Flemington, before returning in the Autumn to add the Futurity Stakes and Alister Clark Stakes, ridden by Roy Higgins to achieve a weight carrying record, to his list of feature race victories.

It was at six years, that the striking stallion from the West had his best season, with champion Western Australian Jockey Frank ‘Tiger’ Moore riding him at seven of his eight wins, including the W.S. Cox Plate at Moonee Valley. Following his Cox Plate win Aquanita ran third to Even Stevens in the Melbourne Cup – a distance at which the horse was clearly unsuited. His other wins for the season included the Craiglee Stakes, Underwood Stakes, L.K.S. Mackinnon Stakes, C.F. Orr Stakes and the Duke of Edinburgh Stakes, a raced staged at Flemington to coincide with the royal visit.

Retired by his owners in the spring of 1963 Aquanita returned to Western Australia to stand at Stud.

Principal Wins

3yo season
Railway Stakes, Ascot 1600m
Lee Steere Stakes, Ascot 1400m
Easter Handicap, Ascot 1600m

4yo season
George Adams Stakes, Flemington 1600m
W.J. Healy Stakes, Eagle Farm 1200m
Doomben 10,000, Doomben 1400m

5yo season
George Adams Stakes, Flemington 1600m
Underwood Stakes, Caulfield 2000m
Futurity Stakes, Caulfield 1400m
Alister Clark Stakes, Moonee Valley 2000m

6yo season
W.S. Cox Plate , Moonee Valley 2000m
Craiglee Stakes, Flemington 2000m
Underwood Stakes, Caulfield 2000m
L.K.S. Mackinnon Stakes, Flemington 2000m
Turnbull Stakes, Flemington 2400m
C.F. Orr Stakes, Caulfield 1600m
St. George Stakes, Caulfield 1800m
Duke of Edinburgh Stakes, Flemington 1600m

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Placid Ark (1980s)

Placid Ark was purchased as a yearling by a syndicate headed by popular Perth hotelier Barry McGrath, on the advice of leading Ascot trainer Wally Mitchell. For many of the syndicate this was their initial foray into racehorse ownership.

After winning one of his only two starts at two years, it was at three years that Placid Ark took all before him. Following his win in the group three Sir Ernest Lee-Steere Classic at Ascot in early January, plans were made for Placid Ark to take on the best sprinters in the nation by contesting the ‘Triple Crown’ in Melbourne.

Ridden by regular rider John Scorse, Placid Ark became the first horse to win the group one treble of the Lightning Stakes, Oakleigh Plate and Newmarket Handicap all in the same season. A feat only since replicated by the great sprinter Schillaci.

Following his Melbourne campaign Placid Ark competed in Sydney where at his first start ‘the opposite way of going’ he won the Canterbury Stakes over 1200 metres in track record time before a narrow defeat in the Galaxy Stakes.

His feats as a three year old saw Placid Ark honoured as Australian Racehorse of the Year for the 1986/87 season. A remarkable achievement for a horse purportedly with ‘bad legs’.

Placid Ark’s career ended prematurely in 1988, recording 14 wins and 3 placings from only 21 starts.

Principal Wins

3yo season
Lightning Stakes [G1], Flemington 1000m
Oakleigh Plate [G1], Caulfield 1100m
Newmarket Handicap [G1], Flemington 1200m
Canterbury Stakes [G2], Canterbury 1200m

4yo season
A.J. Moir Stakes [G2], Moonee Valley 1000m
Linlithgow Stakes [G2], Flemington 1400m
Winterbottom Stakes [G2], Ascot 1400m
Rupert Steele Stakes [G3], Flemington 1200m
Sir Ernest Lee-Steere Classic [G3], Ascot 1400m

5yo season
Bobbie Lewis Quality [G3], Flemington 1200m