“He Just Didn’t Know When To Give Up”: The Derby Time Will Never Forget

“Here comes the ‘Big O’, Octagonal with the last run at them. Filante, Saintly and Octagonal, they come away from Nothin’ Leica Dane. Saintly and Octagonal. Beadman’s throwing everything at Octagonal. Can he get there? Yes, Octagonal wins the Derby.”

Of the thousands of race calls John Tapp crafted over the course of a magnificent broadcasting career, few resonate as much as the AJC Derby of 1996.

It was a golden era for Australian racing: jockeys like Beadman, Dye and Dittman were household names; the ‘Chicken Kings’ Bob and Jack Ingham were spending up big to produce phenomenal racehorses; Bart Cummings was near the peak of his powers as the Gai Waterhouse phenomenon took off; even Australian Prime Ministers fell in love more with the punt than politics.

There was another reason why it was so special: the three-year-old crop of 1995-96.

“It’s the best three-year-old crop of my time,” former racing writer Ken Callander says.

It’s 30 years since Octagonal won the AJC Derby – an incredible fourth Group 1 win in the space of a month – with a lung-busting surge from the rear of the field to mow down Saintly in the shadows of the post. Those that were there to see it will never forget it.

Through the eyes of jockeys Darren Beadman, Larry Cassidy, Mick Dittman and Shane Dye as well as Hall of Fame trainer Gai Waterhouse and legendary commentator and journalist Ken Callander and broadcaster John Tapp, this is the story of the Derby time will never forget.

“Nothin’ Leica Dane was better than him”

If you’d told someone now what Nothin’ Leica Dane did in the spring of 1995, they might have argued you need to be institutionalised. Only debuting in a modest maiden on August 20, less than three months later Gai Waterhouse had prepared him to win the Victoria Derby, beating a luckless Octagonal, and then backing up three days later to finish second to Doriemus on a bottomless track in the Melbourne Cup. In between, Octagonal won the Cox Plate – Australasia’s weight-for-age championship – under Dye. Who would he ride in the Victoria Derby?

Shane Dye (Nothin’ Leica Dane’s jockey): “I know people might not believe this, but he was actually better than Octagonal in the spring. I was riding Octagonal in the spring and Nothin’ Leica Dane came along so quickly. He went from winning his first race on August 20th to winning the Victoria Derby and running second in a Melbourne Cup in his first preparation. If you have a look at after I won the Cox Plate the week before the Derby, Simon Marshall asked me, ‘are you going to ride him in the Derby?’ Straight away, I said, ‘no way. I’m on Nothin’ Leica Dane and he will beat him’. That’s how much confidence I had in Nothin’ Leica Dane then. I understand people will say Octagonal was unlucky in the VRC Derby – and he was. I honestly believe if Octagonal had got to him, Nothin’ Leica Dane still would have beat him. He was just so good then. I thought he was going to be a superstar.”

Gai Waterhouse (Nothin’ Leica Dane’s trainer): “As a yearling, he was big and strong and a real alpha male. I really liked him. I loved him from the moment I saw him at Magic Millions. He was so masculine. Gosh, he was a nice horse. Three-year-olds could run in the Cup back then. The Derby excited people back then more than it does now. Anyone who is a racing tragic or racing buff, they love those races.”

John Tapp (race caller): “Nothin’ Leica Dane was such an underrated horse. His first win was a Sunday at Warwick Farm which I called. I think he started double figures … and 10 weeks later he ran second in the Melbourne Cup to Doriemus.”

“He just seemed to know where the post was all the time”

By the autumn, it wasn’t just the Big O and the Dane ready to star. A slow maturing, gentle Bart Cummings three-year-old – later dubbed ‘the horse from heaven” – had arrived on the scene. Saintly was his name. And then there was Filante, prepared by the wily old Jack Denham. Filante only raced twice as a two-year-old and missed the entire spring three-year-old season. But by 1996, he was ready to rumble in the triple crown: the Canterbury Guineas, Rosehill Guineas and AJC Derby.

Nothin’ Leica Dane drew first blood beating Octagonal and Filante in the Hobartville Stakes before travelling to Melbourne where he was soundly beaten in the Australian Cup.

Shane Dye: “A lot of people think the Melbourne Cup ruined him. That’s a load of rubbish. It didn’t. Nothin’ Leica Dane came back and beat Octagonal fair and square first-up. He was better than him. I rode him trackwork and I rode him first-up and thought, ‘this is just going to win everything’.

“This is where it went astray for Nothin’ Leica Dane: Octagonal stayed in Sydney for the triple crown, which he won, Nothin’ Leica Dane went to Melbourne and started favourite for the Australian Cup and it broke his heart. He was never the same afterwards. He never gave me the same feel in a race.

“I’ve seen it happen to horses before: one race can break their heart. When he came back to Sydney, he was never the same. Octagonal was now better than him.”

Darren Beadman (Octagonal’s rider): “We won the Canterbury Guineas over 1900 metres on him. His style of racing and pattern, Canterbury wasn’t really his track, so I had to put him into the race a bit earlier. I had to get him out of the gates and get him mobile.

“Once I got him into a forward position, it was a matter of doing all the little things right. I had to be close to Filante otherwise he was going to be a bit too sharp for him around Canterbury.

“He drew awkwardly in the Rosehill Guineas, but I was able to whizz across and get into a lovely spot. He had it all before him turning for home. Obviously, Saintly and Filante and Nothin’ Leica Dane, it was a pretty crackerjack field. He just seemed to know where the post was all the time. He would love to get into a fight or a duel with another horse, and he’d just outmuscle them.”

“He backed up into the Mercedes Classic the next week, which wasn’t the normal pattern to go down that path. ‘Hawkesy’ (trainer John Hawkes) and Jack and Bob (Ingham) wanted to go down that path. Saintly came to me that day but (Octagonal) was just a little bit too strong.

“I was a little bit concerned going into the Derby because those three wins weren’t easy wins. He really had to fight for them. I suppose the other horses had to too. I was wondering, ‘how much is left at the bottom of the well? Have these runs taken the edge off him?’”

John Tapp: “You could never question a bloke like John Hawkes, but a lot of people were surprised they ran him in the Mercedes against the older horses. It shows you what a great horseman he was and is.”

“The Derby Of The Century”

As a heaving crowd packed Royal Randwick for the final clash of a stellar group of three-year-olds that season, Beadman and Dye caught each other’s gaze in the mounting yard. The Big O was favourite, a weary Nothin’ Leica Dane shadowing him in betting and then a gap to Filante and Saintly for the 2400-metre stamina test.

John Tapp: “The day itself at Randwick was quite amazing. It was a lovely sunny day. If memory serves me correctly, I think there were 40,000 people there on that day. It was a massive crowd. There is no doubt in my mind that particular crop of three-year-olds was the reason they were there. By that stage, Octagonal had become a little bit of a cult figure.”

Larry Cassidy (Saintly’s jockey): “It was a big build-up from the Rosehill Guineas to that day. They were saying it was going to be the ‘Derby of the century’. They were really high-class horses and always finishing so close together. There was never much between them.”

Gai Waterhouse: “They were a dreamy bunch and the reason it was so great was they kept clashing with each other. Nothin’ Leica Dane didn’t get started until later in his career. I’m not saying the ones we have now aren’t the best of the best, but they were a particularly good year.”

Mick Dittman (Filante’s jockey): “I had so much respect for the other riders and to have four good horses like that in the one season is very rare. Usually, one takes over when you get to the distance races. But they all seemed equal. We were mates off the track, but we were fierce competitors. We all wanted to win badly. Cassidy, Dye and Beadman were all great riders and would have been in any era.”

Larry Cassidy (Saintly’s jockey): “It was a great crop and they always seemed to be fighting out the finish with each other. I just remember Saintly was a big, gentle giant. He was tall and lanky. As a three-year-old he hadn’t really filled into himself. But he was one of the kindest, most beautiful horses you could ever ride.”

“A matter of survival of the fittest and toughest”

By most projections, the AJC Derby went exactly to script. Nothin’ Leica Dane broke quickly to take up a forward position, Filante wasn’t too far away, Saintly in a cosy midfield position one off the fence – with the Big O and Beadman stalking him every step of the way.

Shane Dye: “I drew wide and went forward and sat second. It was a fast run race, which I wanted. I thought he would outstay them because he ran second in a Melbourne Cup to Doriemus.”

Mick Dittman: “I had the box seat and a beautiful run. I knew I had to move before the corner so I could get some clean air, but they were already right on top of me. I would hope they would back off me a bit. At the 200, I was there but I was just struggling to hold on.”

Larry Cassidy: “(Saintly) jumped really well and I drew the middle. I went forward and I had two inside me, meaning I was three wide getting to the winning post. From memory, I started to come back and there was a bit of jostling behind me. As we got to the 2000 metres, I was able to easily slot into the one-off. As they got to about the mile, the speed went into the race and they spread out a bit. I was still running sixth. It packed up coming to the turn. Then I had Octagonal starting to come around me. Filante had gone up to the outside of Nothin’ Leica Dane. I remember I really started picking up strongly hands and heels. But I could see out of the corner of my eye there was Octagonal.”

Darren Beadman: “I was very happy in the run because I was following Saintly and just tracking him the whole way. He dragged me into the race far enough, so I didn’t have to do as much work on him. I was dragged into the race and then it was just a matter of survival of the fittest and toughest. That’s what it was over the last 150 metres of the race.”

“In the top four or five races I’ve ever seen”

Inside the final furlong after the horses had topped the famous Royal Randwick rise – a small incline shortly after the field turns into the straight – Saintly and Octagonal, the widest runner, descended on Filante and Nothin’ Leica Dane to almost form a wall of horses racing through a new pain threshold. The crowd erupted.

Shane Dye: “I was a spent force at the top of the straight. I got to the front and no sooner had I got to the front, I was gone. He was a tired horse. He was a different horse.”

Mick Dittman: “They were all in a line with a furlong to go, and then they were head-to-head. (Filante) was more a miler than a 2400 metre horse. They tried to make him stay for the Derby and it was a good training effort.”

Larry Cassidy: “As we got to the top of the rise, I thought, ‘we’re going to win this’. That’s when I went to the whip. The two inside of me in Nothin’ Leica Dane and Filante were already under pressure. I was one of the last ones to go for the whip. I thought, ‘I’ve got this’. I gave him a few hits, and he surged to the front, but Octagonal wouldn’t lay down, would he? I surged to the front maybe four strides from the line … and he got me the last four strides.”

Darren Beadman: “(Octagonal) just didn’t know when to give up. He was a winner. He was a kind horse. He had great presence about him, and you just knew he was going to give his all. That’s all you could ask. Riding him, it didn’t feel like you had three or four gears underneath you. He was pretty casual in his galloping action and the way he felt. It always seemed you had to do the impossible on him to get past them. I don’t know if he would have won as many races if he was racing in this era because of the whip restrictions. You had to get at him. He thrived on hard riding.”

John Tapp: “I thought he was going to struggle to reach them. He was chasing outstanding Group 1 horses. Only a horse with enormous reserves of courage could have won. He gave his all. Octagonal was a horse that only did what he had to do. By the same token, he didn’t want to get beaten either. He knew exactly where the line was and would throw himself at the line and do just enough to get there. By the time they pull up at Randwick, in most races they’re pretty well in the back straight by the time they come to rest. I put my binoculars back up to have a look at Octagonal and I remember clearly thinking, ‘God, this horse is buggered’. When he came to a dead stop, his head was down, Beadman let him almost walk back to the enclosure. He looked absolutely bottomed out. It took a long time for him to come back and his head was nearly on the ground.”

Ken Callander: “Octagonal was so courageous and fabulous. My impression was it was such a great ride by Darren Beadman. He was so strong and he refused to let the horse get beat. It was an absolutely super race and if you asked me what are the top four or five races I’ve ever seen, I’d had have it in there. It was such a marvellous race.”

Octagonal had won the AJC Derby narrowly from Saintly, his fourth Group 1 win in 28 days. The aggregate margin on those four wins was 1.3 of a length, a series of heads-up, heads-down finishes. The Big O always came out on top.

The best thing was after the memorable AJC Derby, the quartet kept racing – and winning. Octagonal came back and won another four Group 1 races. Saintly edged out Filante in the Cox Plate later that year under Octagonal’s jockey Beadman, who could juggle riding both. Saintly and Beadman won the Melbourne Cup less than a fortnight after that, Larry Cassidy watching on from the Philippines after being delayed upon his return to Australia from Hong Kong for tax purposes. Filante ran second in another Cox Plate in 1997. Nothin’ Leica Dane? He never won another race but was good enough to be fifth in Saintly’s Melbourne Cup.

Stars, all in their own right.

Jack and Bob Ingham were so enamoured with Octagonal they gave Beadman a painting of the horse after the Derby.

“I’ve only got two horses hanging up in my house – Octagonal and Lonhro,” Beadman says.

But perhaps none put it better than Dye about why the Class of ’96 might never be seen again.

“You had more good horses and more good jockeys in those days,” he says.

“And in the end, what makes racing is great horses.” ∎

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