Not everyone is lucky enough to be able to race a Winx or a Black Caviar — but for Lucy Foran, being able to see her racehorses run gives her as much joy and excitement as owning a turf champion.
Lucy will enjoy that trackside buzz again at Aquis Park at the Gold Coast on Saturday when one of the horses she has a share in, Shamrock Lu, steps out for his 19th start in a Benchmark 80 race over 1100m.
The Halloween Crown five-year-old gelding is drawn wide and trainer Tony Gollan has replaced regular rider Jimmy Byrne with 2kg-claiming apprentice Angela Jones to reduce his impost from 60.5kg.
Jones was in the pigskin when Shamrock Lu ran second to Rainbow Connection (Dragon Miss third) at Eagle Farm in a benchmark 78 race over 1000m on October 29.
“Shamrock Lu has changed my life,” Lucy, who has learned to live her life in a wheelchair since her teens, told HorseBetting.com.au.
“The excitement of race day is hard to describe. It’s a bit like a kid the night before Christmas.”
Like many in the racing industry, Lucy’s story of how she became involved with thoroughbreds is a tear-jerker and highlights the other side of a sport which, despite its critics, can bring so much joy to so many people.
In this instance, it was a chance meeting with prominent Brisbane owner-breeder Bob Wood who had noticed Lucy tagging along to the races and his farm wither her father, Col.
Lucy has had an affinity with horses from a young age, even riding them despite her birth disability,
Her father had a share in a horse with some mates which was trained for them by former top Brisbane jockey, Chris Munce.
Unfortunately, the horses had some issues and despite being gelded never really amounted to much on the race track.
But as it turned out Wood, who established an agistment and breeding property called Oakwood Farm at Haigslea, west of Brisbane, 34 years ago, often ran into Col and his daughter either at the races or when they visited his farm.
After one of those chance meetings a few years ago Wood told Col he had some news for him and that he would call him later.
Lucy takes up the story.
“He rang dad and told him he had some horses he wanted to put some shares in my name as a part-owner,” she said.
“He told dad he wanted me to be involved with the horses because he believed I was going to be the lucky charm for his stable.”
Part of the deal though was that Lucy had to agree to name the horse, which she did using the name Shamrock — a horse her grandfather told her he rode to school and home every day growing up.
But the name Shamrock had already been taken so she used the first two letters of her surname and it was accepted.
“It was probably the last conversation I had with my grandfather Mick, just the two of us when he was dying in the Wesley Hospital.
“He told me the story about his faithful horse Shamrock and how he rode it to school and home every day.
“I wanted to use a name for the horse that meant a lot to me.”
When Lucy’s father first told her that Wood wanted her to be a part-owner of his horses and to name them, her first response was: “I can’t afford that, I’m on the pension.”
But Wood quickly made it clear it was a “gift” from him.
“I told her she could have a share in all my horses and she has looked after and managed things for me ever since,” said Wood.
“She is such a lovely, beautiful person.”
Wood, who went to school and knocked around with Brisbane Broncos co-founder Paul ‘Porky’ Morgan, currently has around 200 horses on his 400-acre Farm, half of them are mares in foal and the other half are spellers.
“Over the years we have sold a lot of horses at the Magic Millions and William Inglis sales,” said Wood, bravely fighting his own battle against dementia.
“One year we sold over $27 million in bloodstock,” he said.
Lucy almost didn’t make it the day Shamrock Lu, or Shammi” won his first race during the Pandemic at the Gold Coast on September 26, 2020.
Wood couldn’t make the trip and neither could her Grandmother Fay who usually went with her, so she almost pulled the pin until her father convinced her not to miss the days.
“Dad convinced me to go and we ended up watching the race on the television from one of the bars (the wheelchair access is very poor, according to Lucy).
“In the straight my dad kept saying Shamrock is going to win ‘he going to win’ — and he did!
“I almost jumped out of my wheelchair and I almost cried I was so happy and excited.”
Lucy’s father recalled a nice little story of the day he took a young Lucy and the rest of the family to races at Caloundra some years ago for a day out.
“I told them (family) all: ‘if Jim Byrne wins the last race, I’ll take everyone out for dinner’ and he came sailing home to win,” he said.
“The kids were yelling out: ‘Thanks Jimmy we’re all going out to dinner’ and Byrne rode over to the fence where they were and shouted: ‘I hope you are going to Maccas’,”.
Ironically, all these years later Byrne is now riding her horse and has been in the saddle in four of his six wins.
Shamrock Lu is a strong chance of bringing up career-win number seven on Saturday on a track where he broke his maiden.
“He is just a such a lovely, gentle horse,” said Lucy, who along with her support crew will make the pilgrimage down to Southport again on Saturday to see her favourite horse chase win number seven.
But if he doesn’t, he’ll still be the gift horse that changed her life.
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