25 December 2018 | Alan Parker
Born on 5th January 1919 Bernie Cushing, in a career shortened by some six years of service with the AIF during the Second World War, was to put together one of the best records as a trainer and driver seen in this State.
He drove some 524 winners (341 in Perth) and trained 570 winners (348 in Perth) including three WA Pacing Cup winners in Robert Sheen, Defiance and Daintys Daughter.
Bernie Cushing was the second of 11 children born to Alexander and Catherine Cushing.
His father was a blacksmith who supported his family working for the WA Railways at Dwellingup making locomotive wheels. Alexander Cushing was physically very strong and never shied away from a fight which was a trait which got him in hot water from time to time.
In 1937, after increasing weight cruelled his promising career as a jockey, the then 18yo Bernie Cushing was working for Charles Coulson in his stables in Perth and years later he recalled having to chase four-year-old Phil Coulson back down to the house out of the reach of the horses.
A year later Bernie Cushing appeared on the WA Trotting Association’s lists of licenced trainers and drivers but any thoughts of a career with horses were put on hold with the outbreak of war.
Bernie Cushing, like so many others of that era, enlisted in the Australian Army in 1939 along with his older brother Bert.
Bernie Cushing was part of the 14,000 strong contingent of Australian troops besieged by German forces commanded by General Erwin Rommell at Tobruk in North Africa in 1941 and famously named the Rats of Tobruk.
He returned to Australia on leave in 1943 where he married Gwen Hackfath before returning to his unit. As a result of his war service Bernie Cushing carried the nickname Colonel for his entire career in trotting but he never got close to that rank in the army.
After his discharge from the Army in 1946 Bernie went to work for leading trainer Frank Kersley as he struggled to put together a stable of competitive horses to support his wife and young family, firstly in Fremantle and later at Wilson and Forrestdale.
Bernie Cushing began training in his own right in late 1946 and among the young stablehands he had at the time were subsequent Hall of Fame inductee Jim Schrader and Kevin Newman.
Newman would move to Sydney after going through the Reinsmans School in Perth and he later became the leading driver at Harold Park. When Cushing’s champion mare Daintys Daughter became the first Western Australian horse to start in a Miracle Mile she was driven by Kevin Newman as Cushing had been suspended by the Victorian stewards.
Bernie drove the first of his 524 winners in February 1946 with Valista for trainer Merv Fimmell and his talent with horses soon began to show through.
Two years after that first win Bernie finished third on the Perth Drivers Premiership behind Frank and Fred Kersley and he repeated the effort the following season.
With his success in the spider came improvements in the number and quality of horses entering his stable and in the 1955/56 season Bernie topped both the Perth Trainers Premiership and Perth Drivers Premiership.
In 1952 a young Cunderdin farmer Jock Coleman bought a mare called Cheeky Arab which he had raced with some success on country tracks. Jock was looking for a city trainer for the mare and approached Frank Kersley.
“Frank didn’t have room for her and he recommended Bernie to me”, Coleman recalled years later.
Coleman arranged to meet Cushing at the Vic Park Hotel and over a beer a remarkable friendship was formed which not only included racing horses but shared holidays and fishing trips.
Cheeky Arab won six in Perth for Coleman and Cushing and a later a well-bred New Zealand mare called Dainty Widow was sent from Cunderdin to the Cushing stables in 1957.
While she failed to prove up to city class Dainty Widow did win three races in the country before being retired to stud.
Bernie Cushing continued to grow in stature as both a trainer and driver and not long after meeting Jock Coleman he was sent a horse called Robert Sheen.
Under Cushing’s care Robert Sheen developed into one of the State’s best horses winning 22 races including the 1955 Christmas Handicap, 1957 WA Pacing Cup and a heat of the 1957 Inter Dominion at Gloucester Park.
Had a hoof injury not surfaced a week prior to the final Robert Sheen may well have won the 1957 Inter Dominion final rather than finishing second to the South Australian champion Radiant Venture.
Cushing took Robert Sheen to Sydney in 1958 and he finished third in a Harold Park Cup with Alan Woodworth at the reins.
The Cushing stable was never as large as some of the industry leaders as Bernie Cushing preferred a hands-on approach with the horses getting more personal attention.
His outstanding horsemanship and ability to get inside the head of his horses saw him win a second WA Pacing Cup with the 13yo stallion Defiance which had killed a stablehand in the Eastern States before being brought to Perth by Bill Barrass.
After Barrass’s death his widow sold the horse to Cushing for 2/6d to avoid the gift tax which was applicable at the time and Defiance remains the oldest horse to win Western Australia’s premier harness race.
In the 1963/64 season the Cushing stable was going through a lean stretch but his good mate Jock Coleman was about to turn that on its head when his mare Dainty Widow gave birth to a filly on 8th November 1963.
After being broken-in by another renowned horseman in Hurtle Webb, the then yearling was sent to Bernie Cushing to be patiently taught how to become a racehorse.
Named Daintys Daughter the filly was returned to Coleman’s Cunderdin farm to ensure her eligibility for the 1967 North Eastern Derby and Country Derby. Coleman’s plan bore some fruit when his filly won the 1967 Country Derby and a heat of the 1967 WA Derby.
Coleman took her to the 1967 Kalgoorlie Round but she was brought back to Perth by Bernie Cushing to be prepared for that year’s Christmas Gift.
While Daintys Daughter won the 1967 Christmas Gift she was given plenty of time by Cushing to mature and the trainer’s patience paid off in 1969 and 1970 when she became the dominant mare in WA trotting.
She not only won the 1970 WA Pacing Cup but a Fremantle Cup, Stratton Cup, State Sprint Championship, Meteor Mile along with setting World Records over both one mile and two miles. In 2010 Daintys Daughter became the first pacing mare in Western Australia to be inducted into the State’s Racing Hall of Fame.
Such was the fame of Daintys Daughter and Bernie Cushing that when mining entrepreneurs Lang Hancock and Peter Wright launched their newspaper The Independent on 27th April 1969 the entire back page was taken up with a full-page colour photograph of the pair at the Cannington track.
While Daintys Daughter was clearly Cushing’s best horse he also won an Easter Cup and Northam Cup with Tanaka, a James Brennan Cup and Pinjarra Cup with Forbes Adios in the early seventies.
Forbes Adios’s Pinjarra Cup win was Cushing’s second win in the race as he had won the inaugural event with Royal Path.
His first feature race win had been in the 1948 Easter Handicap with Dark David which he trained and drove. He later won a Royal Show Cup and a series of Free-For-Alls with Dark David.
Bernie Cushing’s temperament could best be described as placid although he did have a couple of run-ins with stewards when he perceived them to have made a mistake.
One of those run-ins occurred when he lost a 2yo race at Gloucester Park on protest with Sharach which had been heavily supported. Some years later Cushing’s early education of Sharach bore fruit for trainer Frances Taylor when the son of Armbro Del won a WA Pacing Cup.
Cushing’s placid temperament was his greatest asset when it came to his horses and in his later years, after he had retired from racing horses, he was still keenly sought out by other trainers to educate young horses.
Bernie educated a large number of yearlings for trainers Lyle Lindau and Trevor Warwick and breeder Mick Lombardo.
When he retired from training in 1985, Bernie Cushing had trained some 570 winners and his last winner was fittingly with a son of Dainty’s Daughter in Dainty’s Devil at Richmond Raceway on 10th June 1985.
The remarkable friendship between Bernie Cushing and Jock Coleman, which began over a beer in 1952, ended in June 1998 when they died within days of each other.
Enquiries about tickets to the 2019 WA Racing Industry Hall of Fame Induction night on 28th February should be directed to Hall of Fame Coordinator Suzy Jackson on (08) 9445 5371 or suzy.jackson@rwwa.com.au
Approved By Dean Baring www.harnessbred.com
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