Andy Gath earns entry into Victorian Hall of Fame

Andy Gath who is a member of one of the nation’s most famous harness racing families has been rewarded for his efforts by being inducted into the Victorian Hall of Fame following a ceremony at Melton on Saturday evening. He was inducted along with well known breeding identity John Coffey and the training combination of Noel Alexander and Jayne Davies.

Andy started off by spending 10 months in Reg Trevean’s stables and then decided to start his own stable.

The first horse he won with was a claimer from Queensland called Navy Scotch that cost just $4,000 and remarkably that first win was a metro race at Moonee Valley in October 1990.

Andy learned plenty from the way Navy Scotch responded to his training methods but it was his friendship with Vin Knight that led him to become the strapper for the all powerful Knight camp on interstate trips for Miracle Miles and Inter Dominions.

Tips picked up from Vin and a host of other training luminaries like the Purdons, Binskins and Hancocks were all recorded by Andy in a book that would become a bible for him in succeeding decades.

The numbers increased through the nineties but a champion didn’t arrive until 2001 when Andy struck gold with the great La Coocaracha, who racked up five Group One wins including Rowe Cup in New Zealand and the nation’s oldest trophy for the Australasian Championship.

Four successive Melbourne premierships came next before winning Victoria’s flagship event the A.G. Hunter Cup in 2006 with About To Rock, the family’s first training triumph since Uncle Darky won with Amorous in 1950.

Incredibly no Gath had ever trained an Inter Dominion Trotting champion. That is until Andy prepared Tornado Valley to win the 2019 Grand Final.

And speaking of trotters what an amazing record Andy has in the Great Southern Star, Australia’s answer to Europe’s famed Elitlopp – five wins in 14 appearances.

There was one more gem. La Coocaracha was the trotter of Andy’s lifetime, however, it took 22 years before his pacer of a lifetime arrived – Miracle Mile winner Catch A Wave.

3000 wins achieved in June this year and now closing in on 1000 Melbourne wins with 681 reined home by the special K’s Kerryn and Kate.

The Hall of Fame welcomes Andy Gath.

There is probably no man that has been asked for or given more advice about breeding and yearling sales than John Coffey

 

Originally from Perth John was influenced by the late Chris Hodgson and Roy Annear who encouraged him to forego punting on horses to instead breeding them and this led to John joining the WA Breeders Association.

In the late seventies he made his hobby and passion his employment leaving Ansett for a position at Dalgety Elders Bloodstock.

He commenced a breeding operation called Patrician Park and with two stallions in Crouch and Mystical Prince plus a base of five mares purchased through newspaper ads it wasn’t long before the winners rolled in.

In 1986 John took up a life changing position with Alabar Farms in Victoria at a time when the farm was aggressively promoting itself as “Setting the Standard” by expanding its stallion line-up with the likes of Whats Next and Safely kept.

It was during this time that John bred the brilliant Golden Greek pacer Shattering Class who won an astonishing 52 races in Perth.

John returned to WA in 1994 but when stallion limits were eased in 1996 that attracted more high class stallions and initiated an expansion into NZ which meant that Alan Galloway sent an SOS to John to assist with marketing the 15 Alabar stallions.

On his return John spent an inordinate amount of time engaging with the hundreds of broodmare owners who sent their mares to Alabar stallions and served as manager, studmaster and pedigree consultant to almost three decades.

His knowledge and eye for a horse was soon taken up by Australian Pacing Gold and led to him conducting breeding seminars throughout the country.

John has served as President of the Australian Standardbred Breeders Association as well as the Victorian division and became bloodstock consultant for Northern Rivers Equine in 2020, a stud that actively promotes colonial-bred stallions which aligns with John’s vision.

The almost 50 years of passion has not waned either for in 2023 John became the official breeding and sales consultant for Nutrien Equine.

The Hall of Fame welcomes John Coffey.

In the nineties Noel and Jayne – in concert with young star reinsman Chris Alford – were known as the Green Team and in a seven year period collected five successive Melbourne Training Titles bookended by two second place finishes.

At the time of their greatest triumph with Golden Reign in the 1995 Christchurch Inter Dominion Noel put on record how their partnership worked – “Jayne Davies is the boss around our stables, make no mistake about that. While I might look to be the stable frontman to the general public, they need only to spend a morning down at our stables to see who runs the show.”

His first good horse was Spot On Idol who won the National Stallion Stake in Canberra and in 1981/82 Noel won the first of nine Warragul training premierships helped by a series of “Karamea” pacers.

Winners dried up at the end of the eighties, however, the addition into his life and stables of Jayne Davies was remarkable. Jayne had spent the best part of a ten year apprenticeship with Hall of Famer Dave Wilson and only needed some good owners and horses to make her mark.

Owners Don Collins, Jack Munnerley and John McLeish had the wherewithall to buy high class yearlings and with Noel and Jayne’s polish winners such as Remo Gold, Smartys Image and Golden Reign quickly emerged.

Hall of Famer Golden Reign was amazing and his wins in the Inter Dominion and Victoria Cup were against the best fields ever assembled.

No less incredible was Tailamade Lombo, who on retirement after 49 wins including a record 24 for a mare at Moonee Valley was the richest Australian or New Zealand mare in history with earnings of $1,354,976.

Memories of those glory days were awakened last year when Harperseven was named Australian 2YO Trotting Filly of the Year thanks to her victories in the Super Sires and Sales Classics. Those wins took Noel and Jayne’s total of Melbourne winners to 570.

The Hall of Fame welcomes Noel Alexander and Jayne Davies

Harnesslink acknowledges the Historical backgrounds kindly provided by John Peck

 

By Tony Milanese for Harnesslink