In my 60 years in Harness Racing I have seen many very good horses, but there was just two who I consider COULD have been the greatest of them all. This story is about one of them.
Great Harness horses 1960-1980. The Shooting Star……Idle Raider – By Jim Hogan
As the horses assembled in Adelaide in February 1963, in preparation for the upcoming Inter Dominion series, everyone expected the NZ champ, Cardigan Bay, to be installed as pre post favourite. Already a legend on both sides of the Tasman, he came into the series with 6 wins from his last 7 starts, his most recent being the HP Summer Cup where he came off 24 yards and won easily by 16 yards. The first surprise of the series occurred when the bookmakers only made him EQUAL pp favourite. The horse he shared favouritism with was, exactly 12 months earlier, just a 2.22 class (C6) country class pacer who was almost unknown outside of the NSW western districts and had yet to race at HP! Yet he came into the series with 12 wins from his last 13 starts, was being acclaimed everywhere as Australia’s best pacer, and was now equal favourite for the ID final with Cardigan Bay. That horse’s name was Idle Raider and this is his story.
Idle Raider was owned by Canowindra grazier, Alan Slater, but was raced on lease for most of his career by Pat Ryan, with whom he became synonymous. By Lawn Raider out of Avert, he began racing as an entire, but was soon gelded to try and improve his atrocious barrier manners. It didn’t work out and he was forced to spend most of his racing career trying to win races after giving huge starts to his competitors. On one occasion at HP, on 14-9-63, in a FFA, he began safely and then, for no apparent reason, went into an uncontrollable break which left him 200 yards behind the second last horse. You can’t do that in Metropolitan FFA company and, of course, he finished last. His trainer/driver, Pat Ryan, discovered he had ‘sensitive’ skin and switched to plastic hopples, a new innovation back in the early 1960’s, but it didn’t seem to help much. Despite his habit of giving rivals BIG starts, Idle Raider won 31 of his 64 starts in Australia, some of them being
unbelievable runs! It was this ability to win, after giving HUGE starts to his competitors, that endeared him to harness fans of the period.
Idle Raider won his first start, as a 3yo, at Bathurst on 1-10-60, and at his second, and only other start that season, galloped hopelessly and finished 14th, once again at Bathurst. In these two races he was trained and driven by R. Thompson. When he resumed as a 4yo, on 26-8-61, he was minus a couple of organs and had a new lessee/trainer/driver, Pat Ryan. He raced twice on his first day back, failing to finish in his first race and then running 6th in the second, so having him gelded didn’t appear to have solved his problems. He then raced at Parkes on 14-10-61 and finished 2nd but was disqualified for galloping over the line! It wasn’t a very auspicious beginning for a horse that would be acclaimed Australia’s best in just 2 more years.
I first saw Idle Raider at Bathurst on 11-11-61 but it was by accident as I went there to see ANOTHER horse. The ‘bush telegraph’ was screaming about a horse who had only won 1 race in his 4 starts, but the word was he could be ‘ANYTHING’! That horse was Voice Derby. He ALSO suffered from bad starts but was putting up phenomenal runs and had everybody out west talking. The race was a 2.26 class (C1) event, the second lowest class of race but, purely by chance, it had attracted 3 horses who would feature prominently in ALL the top class events over the next few years and would, at various times, be acclaimed Australia’s best pacer. They were Idle Raider, Voice Derby and Chief Vitesse. The race itself was an incredible spectacle as Idle Raider and Voice Derby both broke and were giving the field an ENORMOUS start, yet once they settled down to a pace they gave an insight into their enormous potential. Chief Vitesse got away reasonably well but Voice Derby
lost at least 100 yards while Idle Raider was another 50-75 yards behind him!! Voice Derby eventually won by 28 yards from Chief Vitesse with Idle Raider 6 yards away 3rd, after having lost about 150 yards, and the rest of the field looked distanced! It was a truly amazing race and I drove home that night convinced I had seen 3 future Cup class performers.
Idle Raider then won his next 2 starts at Bathurst, despite breaking, and then in January 1962 travelled to Maitland for the Inter-City pace series. Winning both his heats, VERY impressively. He put in a real ‘bad one’ in the final, but made up much ground to finish 3rd to Summit Road and Chief Vitesse. He was then beaten in a Cowra FFA by General Scott before winning his next four. First he won at Bathurst by 32 yards and then travelled to headquarters for his first HP start in a qualifier. By an amazing quirk of fate his 2 main rivals in the race were, once again, Voice Derby and Chief Vitesse. By now all three horses were recognised as future stars and nobody, not even the bookies, was sure who was the better. Idle Raider and Voice Derby started equal favourites at 9-4 with Chief Vitesse at 5-2. The race itself made a mockery of that assessment. Idle Raider was only SLOWLY away and that was the end of the section! He beat Voice Derby by 20 yards with
Chief Vitesse 28 yards away 3rd. Despite the fact that he was only ‘jogging’ he broke the race record! A new star had definitely arrived.
A week later he, easily, won again at HP and 8 days later ‘bolted’ in the Rural Cup at Bathurst by 32 yards. Back to HP for his final 4yo run and he ran 2nd to Distraction, who was driven a treat by a man who I consider the most under-rated driver of his era, F.W. (Bill) Wilkins. Back in those days if you saw the money in the ‘ring’ going on a Wilkins driven horse you followed it! Idle Raider’s 4yo season saw 15 starts for 8 wins, and he was now ready to explode upon the harness racing arena.
As a 5yo he had 19 starts for 14 wins. He warmed up with 2 seconds in country FFA’s and then won his next 9 in a row. The first 3 were at HP culminating with the Carnival Handicap Final, on 27-10-62, in record time. Then on the 10-11-62 he easily won a Bathurst FFA before returning 2 weeks later to win off 60 yards, the winning margin was another 24 yards! Back to HP a week later for another easy win and then a month later he started off 24 yards in the Bathurst Xmas Cup and won, unextended, equalling the track record. He then travelled to Melbourne, winning a FFA in track record time and the following week won the A.G. Hunter Cup. In many of these 9 wins he broke and gave away huge starts, but he was just MUCH too good for the opposition.
His next race was in a Bendigo FFA where he put in a real bad start and could only finish 3rd. He went back to Melb. late in January and won his next 2 starts, both FFA’s, one in track record time. Then he travelled to Adelaide for the upcoming Inter-Dominion series.
He had his first start in Adelaide a week before the series began, racing in a FFA against S.A.’s best pacers. As usual he broke, losing almost 100 yards, but still embarrassed the opposition, winning by 30 yards and setting a new track record! Little wonder bookmakers made him equal favourite for the series final with Cardigan Bay. On the first night of heats he began safely, settling down 2nd last in the field, and that was the end of the race. He won easily, once again in track record time. On the second night of heats he broke at the start and settled down about 60 yards behind Cardigan Bay. NO horse in the world could give Cardy THAT much start, but Idle Raider still finished 2nd, only beaten 10 yards. On the final night of heats he was, again, very slowly away, then met a couple of ‘checks’ in running. Despite giving the leaders almost 100 yards start he still got up to win by a 1/2 a head from top class performer, Sheffield Globe. It was a truly
magnificent victory and he returned to the ‘scale’ amid thunderous applause from the appreciative crowd.
In the final he began safely and settled down 2nd last. With 3 laps to go he made his move, 3 wide, to get outside the leader, Waitaki Hanover. In the last lap, with Cardigan Bay challenging 3 wide, he went into top gear but became unbalanced, on one of Wayville’s never ending bends, and crashed to the ground, disrupting the field. The Wayville “saucer” had claimed another victim, just as it had with Fettle and Caduceus in 1958. Cardigan Bay won the race while Cele, driven by Charlie Parsons, finished the race with 2 drivers! Frank Shinn, driving Smokey Eric, was catapulted out of his gig in the crash and landed in Cele’s gig, where he was carried across the finishing line. Unfortunately Idle Raider never seemed to fully recover from that fall.
He was sent for a spell and resumed in a FFA at Parkes which he won. Then he had 2 starts at HP for an 11th and a 2nd, before winning a Kembla FFA, from Australia’s most famous one-eyed pacer, Lazy One. He had 2 more starts at HP, for a 3rd and a 6th, before winning another Kembla FFA. Another 2 starts at headquarters, for a 2nd and a 4th, and then he won a Gosford FFA. It was a cruel twist of fate. Twelve months earlier he was being hailed far and wide as Australia’s best pacer and now he was reduced to picking up ‘easy’ provincial FFA’s!
After his Gosford win he ran unplaced in 3 more HP races, but on the 28-2-64 he won his last Metropolitan event at HP. A discretionary 2.18 (M4) event, he just got up to win by one yard. He had 5 more starts that season, all at HP, for a 2nd and a 3rd. His 6yo season saw 20 starts for 5 wins. He was definitely just a shadow of his former self.
As a 7yo he had 9 starts, in Australia, for 3 wins and a 3rd. He won a Canowindra FFA on 19-9-64, and 3 months later a Bathurst FFA. His final win here was in a Parkes FFA on 2-1-65. He had his last start in Australia at HP on 8-1-65, finishing 6th to Deep Tan. The decision was then made to send him to America.
He didn’t race there until 1966, having 16 starts for 5 wins and 5 placings. In 1967 he had 19 starts for 5 wins and 2 placings and recorded his fastest time of 2-2 2/5. In 1968 he had 8 starts for 2 wins and 3 placings and in 1969 2 more starts for nil result. In total he had 45 starts, in the USA, for 12 wins, not bad considering he was just ‘half’ the horse he once was.
Some horses recover from a bad fall and some don’t. Perhaps they lose their confidence, who knows? Idle Raider isn’t a horse that is remembered by that many people as he was only a ’12 months’ champion, due to his fall. But there is nothing that stirs the imagination more, gets the blood flowing faster, sends an adrenalin rush through the veins or makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand up quicker, than seeing a horse lose 50, 100 or 150 yards at the beginning of a race and still get up to win, time and time again.
There are two runs that, more than most others, give an insight into just how good this horse was. The first was his HP Qualifying win on 9-3-62 when he absolutely embarrassed two VERY good horses, Voice Derby and Chief Vitesse. He was slowly away, giving them a start, but absolutely overwhelmed them, winning by a huge margin in record time. Voice Derby went on to win 2 HP Cups and, for a short time, was considered Australia’s best pacer. Chief Vitesse also won a HP Cup and was the track record holder for 11 3/4 furlongs. These were outstanding horses yet they were not in the same class as Idle Raider!
The second race that I am referring to was the FFA in Adelaide a week before the ID series started. Here we had the BEST pacers from all over Australia and NZ gathered and a FFA was put on for them to have a final hit out before the series began. Idle Raider lost almost 100 yards at the start yet STILL treated the ‘cream of the crop’ with absolute disdain, winning by a HUGE margin and breaking the track record! This was what set him apart from other ‘champions’ of the time. He wasn’t just better than the rest of the top horses, he was a whole quantum leap better! Only Cardigan Bay was capable of beating him and that was helped by a 60 yard ‘start’. At the time it was the subject of much discussion as to who would win if they clashed again on level terms and there were many who thought he could beat Cardy! Given that Cardigan Bay is now a legend around the harness racing world and considered by many, myself included, to be the greatest pacer I have seen,
one can only wonder just how good Idle Raider was at that time. Unfortunately we never found out, as the fall was a particularly bad one and he never got over it.
There is a saying, “The star that shines the brightest shines the shortest” and that encapsulates the career of Idle Raider. For one short period in time he was the best there was and, perhaps, the best we had ever seen. I feel fortunate to have been there during that time.
By Jim Hogan
Approved By Dean Baring www.harnessbred.com
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