Former top New Zealand lightweight jockey Noel Eastwood was a little man in a little man's world.
But, when the whips were cracking, he loomed very large.
In his prime, Eastwood was one of the lightest jockeys in Australasia - riding at just 6st 4lb (39.9kg) - and was once described by Australian newspapers as the greatest lightweight jockey in the world.
He entered racing aged 14 when he became apprenticed to his stepfather, Cecil Humphries, at Riccarton and stayed there throughout most of his apprenticeship.
His first win was on Arctic Circle, at Ashburton in 1948.
Eastwood won the 1965 New Zealand Cup on Fieldmaster.
Other big wins in this country included two North Island Challenge Stakes (Weenell and Wood Court Inn), the New Zealand Oaks (Natter), the Manawatu Sires' Produce Stakes (Jetmate), the Churchill Stakes (Game), two Wellington Stakes (Ray Ribbon and Rio), the Desert Gold Stakes (Sarcelle), the Wellesley Stakes (Dear Pal), four Wairarapa Cups (Robin Dayes, Calcutta Sweep, Gay Defoe and Gold Ruth) and two WRC Telegraph Handicaps (Hot Drop and Starlit).
However, Australia was the scene of Eastwood's greatest triumphs.
On his first trip across the Tasman in 1949 he won the Caulfield Cup on Lincoln, trained in Melbourne by L Robertson, to whom he was apprenticed for 12 months.
It was only his sixth winning ride.
His biggest moment in racing was his win on New Zealand galloper My Hero in the 1953 Caulfield Cup.
A rise in stake money that year had given the race much more prominence than it had previously.
My Hero and Eastwood went on to finish an unlucky third to Wodalla and Most Regal in the 1953 Melbourne Cup.
He was renowned as a patient rider, earning the nickname "the fullback" as he invariably let his horses find their feet in a race before charging home.
Win or lose Eastwood was always a character around the tracks, with an infectious smile and a ready quip.
For the last 14 years he lived in the United States, where he died on November 6, aged 70.
He held training licences in Virginia and Ohio.
- NZPA
Racing: Little man cracked a big whip
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