Levin horseman Dick Limbert with a young Hanavarian filly he is breaking in with the view of a career in dressage.
Levin horseman Dick Limbert with a young Hanavarian filly he is breaking in with the view of a career in dressage.
Levin experienced its own piece of Melbourne Cup magic on Tuesday.
Cheering home winner Verry Elleegant from his television set at home was Dick Limbert, who could possibly lay claim to being the oldest person to have ridden a Melbourne Cup winner.
The spritely 76-year-old was a gifted horseman and educated Verry Elleegant as a young filly, teaching her how to steer and get used to the feeling of having a jockey on her back.
Limbert had educated hundreds of horses during a lifetime of involvement with the majestic animals - but he never forgot Verry Elleegant - and had followed her every race.
"She had an enormous walk. She would walk so freely and I almost had to run to keep up with her," he said.
"She was such a big, elastic filly. She wasn't skinny, just big and rangy and very fluent in the way she walked. There can be the odd one you can battle with, but she was very teachable and quite prepared to learn."
To say Limbert was happy for Verry Elleegant's part-owner and breeder Don Goodwin and his family was an understatement.
"He's a helluva guy. He deserves it, and he appreciates it," he said.
Their meeting was by chance. Limbert was neighbours with Goodwin's daughter, Ange Jacobs. While sharing a Christmas drink over the fence one year, Goodwin asked Limbert if he could break in a horse or two for him.
Levin horseman Dick Limbert.
"Of course I can," he said.
So impressed with her progress, Limbert invited his neighbour to come and watch Verry Elleegant in her work, but she decided to play up and soon as the visitors arrived, leaving him scratching his head.
"She dropped her head and started bucking. I was a little bit embarrassed to be honest," he said.
After graduating from prep school with Limbert, the unnamed dark bay filly was sent to the stable of Nick Bishara in Ardmore, who trained her older full brother Verry Flash.
With a win and a second from her first two starts, the phone rang hot. She was sold, syndicated, and sent to Australia, eventually transferring to the Sydney stable of Chris Waller.
Jockey James McDonald celebrates after riding Verry Elleegant to victory in the Melbourne Cup on Tuesday. Photo / AP
Goodwin and Bishara retained a percentage share in Verry Elleegant as a condition of sale. She continued to race in his red-and-blue colours, too, taken from his old rugby club Suburbs in Auckland.
The rest is history. With 10 group wins and $14.3 million in prizemoney - and a Melbourne Cup to go with a Caulfield Cup - her place is cemented in Australian and New Zealand racing folklore.
Goodwin sent Limbert a text message after the race, telling him he could be very proud.
So, did he back Verry Elleegant? Limbert said he wasn't a betting man, but "if I had've known she was paying $17, I would've. I thought she would only be paying $3 or $4."
Limbert was one of those people who were naturally at home in a saddle and continues to ride horses most days.
From his early teens, horses had been his life. Aside from breaking in horses, he spent 20 years playing polo-cross, had been a studmaster, ridden in rodeos, worked as a farrier, and driven harness horses, too.
His attention was now on the next project, a young Hanoverian filly one day destined for the dressage arena.
Levin horseman Dick Limbert at home with another filly.
Horses had taken him on a wild ride and given him plenty of thrills, but he said nothing could beat the thrill of seeing Verry Elleegant win the Melbourne Cup for friends.
Verry Elleegant was by underrated Whanganui stallion Zed, who at one stage early in his stud career was so unfashionable he was sent to the South Island to serve Clydesdales and hacks. He initially stood for no service fee, although it was now set at $6000.
Meanwhile, the local connection to the Melbourne Cup victory didn't stop there. Chris Waller was a former Manawatū College student who began his training career in Foxton in the 1990s.
