Shelby Sixtysix An Underdog In The Super Stable Era
Trainer Danny Williams has retired his stable star Shelby Sixtysix and is hoping to find the fairytale galloper his forever home.
THE MORNING was freezing, well below zero, and a horse trainer is walking around his stable picking up manure with his hands. The power is out, the pipes are frozen. That’s what sometimes happens during winter for those who train at Goulburn, a regional track two hours from Sydney, known for its bone-jarring cold snaps.
By the time Danny Williams had to drive to the races in Sydney a couple of hours later, there was still no relief. He couldn’t shower, he couldn’t iron his shirt, he couldn’t do anything to make himself feel better. In his own words, it was the most uncomfortable he’d ever felt in his life.
So, why keep doing it?
Trainers are endlessly riding out the lows to chase the highs. A few years ago, Williams told the story about the frigid morning at trackwork because he had just enjoyed the highest of highs: his bush horse Shelby Sixtysix going from a regional also-ran to Group 1 winner on Golden Slipper day within a month.
If they ran the Golden Slipper meeting another 100 times, they might still not find a story like it, the ultimate rags-to-riches tale for a small trainer toppling Australia’s mega yards. It’s hard to undersell just how staggering his rise was.
Shelby Sixtysix was beaten in a race for horses coming from small NSW country stables outside Sydney, like Williams’, and won at the elite level exactly a month later in The Galaxy, a time-honoured Australian handicap sprint. In between, he beat home Nature Strip, at the time the world’s best sprinter who would go on to win at Royal Ascot, in a four-horse Group 2 race.
“We had a fantastic ride,” Williams tells Idol Horse of his $150,000 yearling buy. “Even up until The Galaxy, I hadn’t paid for the horse. We still owed money from when we bought him. (Auction house) Inglis were very helpful and assisted us throughout that period.
“The most exciting thing apart from the wins and the excitement, is the people that were drawn towards him. When we went to Melbourne and Brisbane with the horse, we had people from pool attendants to those picking up manure in the stalls to staff from other stables wanting to take a picture with him. It was amazing. It was very overwhelming to see the love a lot of people had out there for him.
“Going into the TJ (Smith Stakes) when he won the Galaxy, we hadn’t nominated him and it was a $75,000 (late entry fee). There was a gentleman who owned a meatworks packing business just outside of Brisbane and he even offered to pay $75,000 to get him into the race. We couldn’t do that.”
No country in the world gets behind an underdog story like Australia. With a population of almost 27 million and long-haul flights from Europe, the United States and Asia, it takes pride when its athletes perform above expectations on the world stage. Shelby Sixtysix was a horse who racing fans instantly gravitated towards.
As Williams toasted the Group 1 win three years ago in the room dedicated for successful owners at Rosehill Gardens on Golden Slipper day, his eyes and head were seemingly still spinning. Initially, he had no intent to even contest The Galaxy.
“A punter threw the idea at us about running in The Galaxy after the Challenge Stakes,” he says. “I’m going to have $20,000 on him. He said, ‘he won’t get beat’. That threw the idea about running in The Galaxy in our heads.”
But since then, Shelby Sixtysix has never been able to scale the giddying heights of that autumn carnival three years ago. In fact, he hasn’t won another race.
It has come with scathing online criticism, the horse going from a darling on social media to a devil when his form dipped, including a lean run in 2023 when he finished last in four out of his six races. Williams copped abuse, the Goulburn club was harassed and even the regulator, Racing NSW, was caught up in the Shelby Sixtysix saga.
After his last start in the G2 Challenge Stakes in early March this year, in which he was assessed lame in a hind leg, Racing NSW stewards insisted they have a talk with Williams about the eight-year-old’s racing future. Shelby Sixtysix became detached from the field in the run and didn’t finish the race, his first for almost a year after battling feet problems.
“After the first-up run and what transpired with the stewards, which were discussions between us, it was agreed to retire him,” Williams says.
“I’d never had him sounder. Prior to him running (in the Challenge Stakes this year) he had four barrier trials and after all those trials, he was vetted before and after. We had an independent vet look at him, four or five of them. They all said he was sound and couldn’t find anything wrong.”
So, after five wins and almost $900,000 in prizemoney, perhaps the most unlikely Group 1 winner in Australian racing history has run in his last race. But where to next?
Living Legends, the historic property on the outskirts of Melbourne which houses champion Australian thoroughbreds in aftercare, would like to add Shelby Sixtysix to its paddocks full of Melbourne Cup winners, Cox Plate champions and Hong Kong heroes such as Beauty Generation, Designs On Rome and Pakistan Star.
But there’s only one issue: it comes at a cost for the horse’s owners, one which Williams and partner Mandy O’Leary are struggling to come up with.
“We can’t afford what they’ve asked,” Williams says. “They really want to take him, but we need sponsorship.”
For now, Williams is content to visit Shelby Sixtysix in NSW’s Southern Highlands, a short drive from his Goulburn base. Whether he spends his forever days nuzzling legends of the Australian turf, he can only hope ∎
