Horses

1.Blue Spec (1890s/1900s)

Until 1984 he was the only galloper from WA to win a Melbourne Cup and when he won the race it was in race record time. Before going to Victoria he had won a Kalgoorlie Cup and a Perth Cup and in 1905 won the Moonee Valley Cup. In 1907 Blue Spec won the 2000m Helena Vale Cup carrying 10 stone, the winning stake was 130 sovereigns.

2.Jolly Beggar (1900s/1910s)

One of the most influencial stallions to stand in Western Australia, this outstanding horse was a champion galloper in his own right. He won the Karrakatta Plate, a WA Derby and a Doncaster Handicap (nowadays all Group I events). Endeavouring to win a Newmarket for the second time, he was weighted as the best horse in the country.

3.Aquanita (1950s/1960s)

One of Western Australia’s best home grown gallopers and a sentimental favourite of the public for 3 generations. He was a cantankerous rogue likely to kick or bite without warning, but he had one redeeming feature, he was a champion. He was bred and raised in Western Australia and raced with distinction against the very best of his generation in his home state and on the east coast.

4.Nicopolis (1960s)

A versatile stallion who won the WATC Sires Produce Stakes as a 2yo before winning the Western Australian Derby over 2400m in his 3yo season and then the state’s foremost sprint race, the Winterbottom Stakes. He won his last seven starts in Western Australia and his first two starts in Victoria in a nine race winning streak. In Victoria he won the 1963 and 1964 Toorak Handicaps at Group One level as well as the JJ Liston Stakes and Victoria Handicap, taking his record to ten wins at black type level. He went on to sire four stakes winners in Clarnico, Double Cop, Fathers’ Day and Nicopal.

5.Placid Ark (1980s)

A phenomenal short course sprinter with an amazing record for a horse purportedly with ‘bad legs’. There will forever be a cloud of controversy over Placid Ark, but his effort in winning the sprinting triple crown in Victoria and amassing prize money of three quarters of a million dollars in 1987 was truly remarkable.

6.Miss Andretti (2000s)

Voted Australian Champion Racehorse in 2007, starting twenty three times at group or listed level in her career to record fourteen wins. This high-class mare won five group one events, all in Victoria, after winning Western Australia’s premier sprint, the Winterbottom Stakes in 2005. After achieving the 2007 Lightning Stakes and Newmarket Handicap Group One double at Flemington, the mare travelled to the Royal Ascot meeting in England to record a dominant win in the King’s Stand Stakes against the best sprinters in Europe. She was retired to stud in 2008 with stakes earnings of $2.8m and has a yearling colt by top-class sprinter Exceed and Excel.

Jockeys

1.Eric Treffone (1930s/1950s)

Rode with distinction from the early 1930’s through to the mid 1950’s and for many years held the record for nine WA Jockey Premierships, only recently eclipsed by Paul Harvey. His notable wins include the 1938 and 1942 Railway Stakes; 1938, 1939 and 1952 Perth Cups; 1938, 1942 and 1952 WA Derbies and the 1944 Karrakatta Plate.

2.Frank 'Tiger' Moore (1940s/1970s)

Winner of the Cox Plate on Aquanita in 1959, he made the WA St Leger his own, winning it nine times as well as the C B COX Stakes eight times. His battles with Frank Treen during the sixties are legendary and it can only be wondered what would have been the record of either, without the competition of the other. He won seven WA Derbies and eight WATC Oaks in a truly remarkable career.

3.John J Miller (1960s/1990s)

‘JJ’ made his mark in the East and Overseas and was considered one of the best ‘money’ riders ever to grace the turf. The winner of jockey premierships in South Australia and Singapore, ‘JJ’ had a string of victories with Galilee in 1966 winning the Caulfield Cup and Melbourne Cup double. He also managed to win eight Derbies in Western Australia as well as two Perth Cups.

4.Paul Harvey (1980s/2000s)

Affectionately nicknamed ‘the pontiff ’ by punters, he has been the dominant rider in Western Australia for the past 15 years and has won twelve jockey premierships since 1995. His most notable wins include the 1998, 2001 and 2004 Railway Stakes; 1998 and 2005 WATC Derbies; 1998 Goodwood Handicap, 2000, 2001, 2004 and 2007 Kingston Town Classics; 2002 Australian Cup and 2004 Victoria Derby.

Trainers

1.George 'King' Towton (1880s/1900s)

A larger than life character from the early days of WA racing, he is the only person to own, train and ride a Perth Cup winner. The trainer of six Perth Cups, four Derbies and at least four Railway Stakes over a ten year period, he was only 53 years old when he died in 1906.

2.Robert Burns Snr (1900s/1950s)

Robert had outstanding success as a trainer from 1903 through to 1950, being leading trainer nine times with almost a monopoly during the 1920s. His forty-seven winners trained in the 1926/27 season was an Australian record for winners trained in a season. He trained a winner in almost every major race on the calendar, achieving four winners at one meeting on three occasions, including an Ascot meeting in December 1926 when he trained Cunningham to win the Railway Stakes, Silver Prince to win the Swan Handicap, Tich to win the All Aged Stakes and Spearage to win the Welter.

3.Albert Jordan (1940s/1980s)

Born in Kalgoorlie in 1913 he trained gallopers in WA for over 40 years and headed the trainer’s list six times between 1950 and 1972. Jordan rarely, if ever, appeared before the stewards. A flamboyant figure around race courses of WA, he became a media personality in later years. He passed away in 2005 aged 93, and his funeral was one of the biggest seen in Perth for many years.

Associates

1.Sir Ernest Lee Steere Snr (Born 1866)

Ernest Augustus Lee-Steere was born in 1866 and elected to the position of Vice Chairman of the Western Australian Turf Club in 1919 and then Chairman in 1920, a position he held for twenty one years until 1941. His horses won many major races, including two Caulfield Cups a Sydney Cup and Perth Cup. His famous ‘all red’ colors were carried to victory by the great Western Australian champion Eurythmic, as well as Second Wind and good race mare Maple. Sir Ernest lost two sons during World War II and had his two Caulfield Cups melted down and donated the gold to the war effort. He died in 1957 aged 91 years and is the father of inaugural Hall of Fame Inductee Sir Ernest Lee-Steere Jnr.

2.P A 'Paddy' Connolly (Born 1867)

Born in NSW in 1867, ‘Paddy’ came to WA looking for gold and found Blue Spec along with countless other horses to make him one of the most successful owners in the history of racing. Although his latter days were steeped in mystery, he was a philanthropist and gave unstintingly to many and varied charities. He owned the winners of seven Perth Cups, seven Karrakatta Plates, five Railway Stakes and four WA Derbies. In 1908, won all of the big four in a record that will surely never be broken.

3.Sheila Gwynne (Born 1908)

The first woman to top the winning owners’ list, she bought Indian Conquest to WA to stand alongside Raconteur, who she bred through a mare by Jolly Beggar. These two horses headed the sires’ list eleven times between them and whilst she was a very outspoken woman, her opinion was always with the good of racing in mind. After her death in 1975, her stud was taken over by her daughter, Sally Oakes.