Life Behind The Scenes.

The following is an excerpt from an interview of retired Adelaide jockey John Letts, by Melbourne journalist Bryan Martin.

I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.


BRYAN MARTIN: John Letts, in 1972 you came to Flemington for the first time to take a ride in the Melbourne Cup.

JOHN LETTS: I had never been over the border from South Australia. In November 1968 I rode the great Rain Lover in the Adelaide Cup and I was going to ride him in the Melbourne Cup, I thought. Grahame Heagney who trained the horse said after the race, ‘You’ll ride him in the Melbourne Cup.’ A jockey’s dream is to win a Melbourne Cup, mine was to ride in it. And of course we lost the horse to Micky Robins and Jimmy Johnson was Micky’s rider. I had to watch him from Balaclava that day and he won the Melbourne Cup by eight lengths. A year later, just to make me feel good, he won it again. Then I thought this will never happen to me. Sometimes in your life you get one opportunity and it’s gone, and I thought it will never happen. In 1972 I get a phone call from a friend of George Hanlon, a friend of his, to ride the horse because at that stage I had given up more or less riding in a Melbourne Cup. The phone call was on a Wednesday morning, which was six days before the Melbourne Cup, and the phone call went something like, ‘Is that John Letts?’. I said, ‘Yes’ and I was just going to the Gawler races. The guy at the other side said, ‘Have you got a ride in the Melbourne Cup next Tuesday?’ I started to think which ones of my mates go out Tuesday night and drink. I really could have lost the ride in the Melbourne Cup because my answer was, ‘Look, I haven’t taken one at the moment but I am waiting on Bart Cummings, Colin Hayes or Tommy Smith to ring me.’ The guy said, ‘I am ringing up for George Hanlon. He’s got a horse called Piping Lane in the Melbourne Cup.’ I said, ‘What weight has he got?’ He said, ‘48 kilos’. I had to struggle to ride the weight but I thought this is my chance to ride in it. I had never heard of Piping Lane. I said, ‘I will be there next week to ride him in the Melbourne Cup.’

So I went over on Sunday. I will have a look at Flemington on Monday and I slept in. So I thought I better go and have a look Tuesday because I am riding there in the afternoon and I actually slept in again. Then I said to the young girl at the motel, ‘Could you get me a cab to get to the races please?’ She said, ‘You won’t get a cab today,’ and this is the year of 110,000 people. Luckily for me my brother was in Melbourne playing golf. I left a message with him, ‘You better pick me up and take me to the races, I have got a ride in the Melbourne Cup and I can’t get there.’ So he came round and he picked me up. Nothing had gone right at this stage towards this run in the Melbourne Cup. Because on the Saturday night, going back a couple of nights, I went on a TV program and the guy said, ‘You have got a ride in the Melbourne Cup,’ which was a big deal for an Adelaide jockey to get a ride in the Melbourne Cup. He sat me down and he said straight to air, I will ask you a few questions, ‘You are riding in the Melbourne Cup Tuesday, John.’ I said, ‘Yes.’ He said, ‘Are you excited?’ I said, ‘Yes’. He said, ‘Do you know the horse?’ I said, ‘I know everything about him. I have watched all his form, I’ve watched the replays, I’ve seen all the tapes on him, I’ve done everything; I know everything about him.’ He said, ‘What’s his name?’ I said, ‘Palace Lane’. He said, ‘You mean Piping Lane?’ I said, ‘Yes, that’s the one.’

You know the stories that come out of Melbourne Cups. I got to the races. You know Flemington - I had never experienced anything like that in my life. One hundred and ten thousand people and the most I had ridden in front of was 20. We pull in the gate. My brother pulls in. It’s Melbourne Cup day and you drive into the members and you drop people off again and you drive out again like out of a horseshoe. My brother dropped me off and I got out of the car and I will never forget this. I had my suit on, I had a saddle on this arm and I had my race bag in this hand. I went to the members gate - I was that high - and I went to walk through the gate and the guy there, on the one day of the year they get the white coat and sheriff’s badge, said, ‘What do you want?’ I was the size of a pigmy; I had a saddle on this arm; I had a race bag full of gear in this hand; and it was Melbourne Cup day. I said, ‘I am the plumber,’ and I thought I would be smart. And he was smarter. He said, ‘The plumber’s gate down there.’

So I walk into the room and you can imagine you walk into a room as big as this at Flemington. There’s Roy Higgins, Harry White, Pat Hyland and there’s Midge Didham, the Skelton boys - they were all there - and I thought, ‘What am I doing? I’m on a 80:1 or 100:1 chance; I have no chance in the race.’ There is a story out of the Melbourne Cup but just cutting that short, I went out in the mounting yard and I had never met George Hanlon and I didn’t meet the owner before the race. He had four runners, George. I went out in the mounting yard; I got no instructions, nothing. I met Piping Lane 10 minutes before the race. I never seen him again ever.

The sad part of that for me was we had a reunion some 28 years later and I went to Launceston to see him again. I got there the day after he died. It was going to be the reunion, because to me he was my path in life. I never had the chance to thank him because, as you know, after the presentation the horse walks, the jockey walks. I never had the chance to thank him. When I went to get on him in the mounting yard I had never met the connection, no nothing. When I to get legged up I said to the young girl that was leading the horse around, ‘Where do you ride this horse, front, back, side wherever?’ She said, ‘I don’t know but you’d better ride him properly.’

JOHN LETTS: What happened is before I went out to the race, I spoke to Harry White and I said to Harry, ‘Where do you make your run at Flemington?’ because I knew Harry when he and Roy Higgins had come to Adelaide. Harry said, ‘Jump him out of the gate, son, and put him to sleep. When you get to Chikita Lodge get into the race. That’s where we all get serious.’ I thought Chikita Lodge - plan A. Now I didn’t know Chikita Lodge was a racing stable on the outside of Flemington. I thought Chiquita Lodge would be a 30-storey high big tall lodge like a motel with a big sign on the top that said Chiquita Lodge. So I went out into the race and I think plan A - right, I will go to sleep like Harry said, get around to Chiquita Lodge and get into the race. It’s a racing stable at the 1,000 metres at Flemington.

So I get down to the barrier and I’m thinking - there are 24 of us in it. I hadn’t done a lot of studying on the race because I didn’t think I had much chance. I was sitting in the gate and I thought, ‘I ought to have another plan in case the first one doesn’t work. That’s a long way to go before anything happens so I will put that to plan B and I will have plan A.’ I was sitting in the gate alongside Neville Voight who was on a horse called Hay Burner, a stablemate, and 110,000 people out there. I said to Neville, ‘What do you think?’ because I didn’t know Neville; he was from Sydney. He said, ‘Not much.’ I said, ‘Have you got a chance?’ He said, ‘No.’ I said, ‘These are stablemates,’ conversation nerves, I suppose. He said, ‘Nor is yours, no chance.’ And all of a sudden I felt really confident.

I was sitting there and Higgs went alongside me on Gunsynd. He was the only grey horse in the race; he drew 10 and I drew 11. I thought Roy has been around; he’s won a couple of these. Plan A might be that I follow Gunsynd. He’s the only grey in the race and I thought I can’t miss him unless of course the clerk of the course joins in and then there’s a couple of them. So we are sitting in the gate and we’re ready to go. I will never talking to one of the American jockeys and he described to me about the Kentucky Derby how you hit the wall when you jump out of the barrier and you also hit that wall when you turn for home again. I was sitting in the gate there and I thought, ‘Wherever you go, Higgs, I’ll be right on your back, one step behind you.’ We jumped out of the barrier and the wall was there - whoosh. For the first time in his life Gunsynd missed the jump and I was in front of him. I thought, ‘Well if Higgins is going to follow me he’s in for a shock because I actually don’t know where I am going.’

Anyway we went down the straight the first time and I go out the straight and I’m thinking Chicquita Lodge - no, it’s not there at the 2000; it’s not there at the 1600; it’s not there at the 1400; it’s not there at the 1200 - I thought they must have pulled it down last night. We get to the 1000 metres and all of a sudden right alongside me there is the old grey head Gunsynd. I thought, ‘Higgs is off so am I.’ There was about 12 jockeys in the race who were following Higgins. But one of the things that you never ever forget in your life is when Roy went, I went and so did all the others because they were following the champ, they were following Higgs. We turned for home and I was running 11th, and there was 22 in the race.

I thought my first ride in the Melbourne Cup might be my last but I am going to beat half of them home; I have something to remember - I thought that at the top of the straight. Then I got down a bit closer I was 11th, 10th, 9th, eighth, seventh - and when you don’t know the place, I didn’t know Flemington, I thought I know the winning post is right down there and I am starting to pass a few of these blokes. I get down with 100 metres to go and there was a mare in the race called Magnifique and the favourite - Brucey Marsh rode her. A memory that will never leave my mind, and it was what I thought and excuse me for saying this, ‘Fall over you bitch,’ and she slowed up. So I went on and won the Melbourne Cup.

 

Amazing. Cheers Cyc

 

Great article Cyc.

 

Pleasure guys.

 

Nice one Cyc

[video=youtube;L3qrJEKMne0]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3qrJEKMne0[/video]

 

Nice one Cyc, and thanks George for putting it in to pictures...

Letts rode him like Mick Shannon after scoring a goal. Waving his arm around like a wind mill pushing Piping Lane on towards the finishing line... Lovely piece to read that Cyc, cheers...

 

Thanks for the film George, fantastic stuff mate.

 

Great read really enjoyed that cheers cyc!

 

Fab piece Cyc.

Pissed here but Dunno if you're up yet .. watching a piece on Sky on Gary Sobers and his first century in OZ where he got the thumbs up as the best 100 he'd seen from the then Aussie selecter "The Don"...some praise..!!!...I'm only clinging on to be 43 but love these shows.

Really defined West Indian cricket...great input from my second fav bowler of all time mikey holding....Pigeon still my fav...legend.

 

Can't believe these guy's played with no head gear!!...hookingn and pulling!!

 

Don't laugh but David Gower if he wasn't so ****ing lazy could have some of those shots!!...left handers alwats had it easy.

Matty Hayden another fav of mine...what a hitter.

 

Amazing story Cyc, thanks for putting it up. Don't know how I missed it when you first posted it. To think the jockey had never been over the South Australian border before this, what a triumph. A real Australian boilover?

Thank you too, George, for putting-up the video clip as well. Great stuff!