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No champion in any sport has retired on a higher note than Damien Oliver did at Perth’s Ascot racecourse on Saturday.
Renowned for his calmness under pressure, Oliver, at the ripe vintage of 51, produced one of his finest navigational feats – arguably the best of all his 129 group 1 successes – to score on Munhamek in the Damien Oliver Gold Rush at his home circuit.
“One of his ballsiest rides,” Munhamek’s trainer, Nick Ryan, said of a race that was anything but a procession for the retiring jockey.
Munhamek, a $7 chance, jumped from the 14 gate. After finding himself well back in traffic, Oliver steered his way through the field with a series of moves that had onlookers gasping. He remained so cool in transit that he eventually was able to give a victory salute before the finish, a gesture that brought him a $500 fine from stewards.
To tag Oliver the GOAT, the greatest of all time, is a wide stretch – but no other champion, including George Moore, Mick Dittman, Darren Beadman and Jim Cassidy, reached such a pinnacle as Ollie in a farewell finale.
It is difficult to consider a chapter that would top Ollie’s 2002 Melbourne Cup triumph on Media Puzzle a week after his brother, Jason, had been killed in a training track spill. Ollie, looking to the heavens after the post on Media Puzzle, looms large in the pantheon of sporting images.
Damien Oliver salutes after winning the Melbourne Cup on Media Puzzle in 2002.Credit: Angela Wylie
Remember, too, Oliver lost his father, Ray, in a Kalgoorlie race fall in 1975 – a pair of tragedies to make most consider whether the saddle was a sufficiently safe working environment.
But Ollie had rare steel, the eye of the tiger, and mastered his profession over 35 years. Mounted, he stood out in the field. His balance and poise were still so evident in the Gold Rush. Ollie wasn’t riding for luck – a regular observation of jockeys finding themselves in a troublesome position – he was the maestro.
But that was hardly the situation decades ago when, as an apprentice, he was imported to Sydney to ride at Warwick Farm during a jockey’s strike. Indentured apprentices were allowed to participate but Ollie, then with Lee Freedman in Melbourne, came here under the wing of Dr Geoff Chapman, a medico and prominent Rosehill trainer.
During the day, Ollie came down with food poisoning and was shepherded out after the last by The Doc to the car park, where thirsty racegoers were imbibing beer and prawns out of the boot of my station wagon after a hard meeting at The Farm.
The Doc, in “one for the road” mode, joined us and when asked about his patient replied: “Hospitals are the unhealthiest venues in the world, he’s better off in my car”.
The diagnosis proved correct and Ollie progressed to greatness. Even his star jump after Saturday’s spectacular finale had an edge on those of his predecessors.
(Dr. Chapman confirmed Ollie won the 1989 Warwick Stakes for him on Groucho, the rider’s first weight-for-age winner. “He had some bad chicken at the races, I treated him at home on Sunday and put him on the plane the next day back to Lee fit and well,” he explained.)
Frankie Dettori was flashy in full flight but not after he turned 50, while Darren Beadman had shaky landings at the end.
Tuned by decades on a surfboard, Ollie produced a perfect 10 – just like Munhamek.
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