Had it not been for Louis Mihalyka’s fascination with thoroughbred line breeding, Australian racing would have been deprived of the touching scenes that followed Handle The Truth’s win in Saturday’s Kosciuszko.
Louis is the popular founder and managing director of Laurel Oak Bloodstock which operates under a different format to most syndication companies. He still buys yearlings on the request of clients, but in the main offers the style of ownership clients are looking for - be it yearlings, tried horses or breeding stock.
Five years ago Louis found himself involved in the ownership of two retired race mares which Laurel Oak had purchased as yearlings. One of them was Spooked who’d posted one win and eight placings in twelve starts. The other was Assertively who’d been beaten out of sight in each of her three race starts.
A Laurel Oak syndicate owned half of both fillies, with long-time client Glen Fraser holding the other half. In order to put one of his breeding theories to the test, Louis needed to secure Glen’s half of Assertively. A simple business arrangement followed when Louis swapped Laurel Oak’s half share in Spooked for Glen’s half share in Assertively.
A Laurel Oak syndicate owned a share in Star Witness who had retired to Widden Stud after a stellar racing career. Louis knew that Star Witness was out of a Lion Hunter mare and was aware that Lion Hunter’s grand dam was the respected English mare Audrey Joan.
He’d also noted that the grand dam of Assertively was by Prego, a son of Audrey Joan. Sounds obscure to most of us. To a breeding buff like Louis Mihalyka, it’s like a gold miner stumbling upon the mother lode.
Assertively’s first foal failed x/rays as a yearling and was sold at the Inglis Scone sale for $2000. The second was a bay or brown colt who passed most conformation inspections, although his pronounced “parrot mouth” would have deterred fussy buyers in the yearling sale ring. But this special boy was never going near the yearling sale ring.
Louis also played a part in the clever naming of the Star Witness colt. He’d never forgotten a compelling courtroom scene in the popular 1992 movie A Few Good Men when Jack Nicholson used the expression “you can’t handle the truth” during an exchange with Tom Cruise.
Image courtesy Bradley Photographers - Louis with Albert Tory who managed the Shellharbour TAB slot holders syndicate.
The Mihalyka line breeding theory helped to generate a scene at Randwick rarely seen in an industry driven by wealth and access to the world’s best bloodlines.
It was a day of days for twenty seven Laurel Oak loyalists and forty excited slot holders from the Shellharbour TAB agency, most of them getting on in years. It was a long overdue reward for the genuine and caring Louis Mihalyka, who has spent the last thirty two years doing the right thing by those who’ve helped him realise his life’s dream.
For Canberra’s Keith Dryden, it was a magnificent day in the sun after forty five years in the unpredictable business of horse training. Four and a half decades which have brought him hundreds of winners and many golden moments, but nothing to compare with this.
Image courtesy Bradley Photographers - Louis Mihalyka and Keith Dryden - a winning combination.
Keith’s joy was heightened by the fact that he was able to win the Kosciuszko for the man whose loyalty has been unwavering. Only last year the pair celebrated their thirty year association with a well-attended luncheon at Canberra, when they toasted past glories and drank to the dream of future success - never imagining they would soon scale Kosciuszko.
Keith hit a few hurdles in the early stages of Handle The Truth’s education. The gelding suddenly developed the worrying habit of wanting to veer off the track, at the most unlikely times. “Most horses with this tendency usually offend near a gate or gap through which they’ve come onto the track, but not this bloke”, recalls Keith. “He won a jump out by a big margin one morning with the experienced Brendan Ward on board. As he was pulling up in the back straight he suddenly veered towards the outside fence and looked like he was likely to jump it, but thankfully pulled up in the nick of time. Thank goodness he gave all of that nonsense away soon after”.
The only legacy of the gelding’s wayward days is the pacifiers that Keith put on him at the time. “The pacifiers made a big difference and I made the call to leave them on”, said Dryden. “He’s racing tractably and effectively with the pacifiers and has just won The Kosciuszko. Why would I want to take ‘em off”.
Image courtesy Bradley Photographers - Keith Dryden has trained 1500 winners but nothing like this one.
In Saturday’s $1.3 million dollar race, Handle The Truth didn’t jump quite as quickly as he usually does, but within 50 metres was in a perfect spot. He turned for home in fourth place behind Don’t Give A Damn, Notation and Star Boy with Victorem virtually on his back. Noble Boy was angling for a run and the big striding Bobbing was getting across heels after being absolute last on the corner.
Nash Rawiller used his mount’s turn of foot to grab a handy lead inside the 200m mark. Victorem and Noble Boy had their chance to gun him down while Bobbing was just getting warmed up in the closing stages. “He’s the perfect racehorse”, said Keith Dryden. “He’s got natural gate speed and can race handy off a hot pace. To think he went a fraction quicker than the Sydney Stakes winner is pretty encouraging”.
For Rawiller the Kosciuszko victory was the perfect follow up to his Silver Eagle win on The Inevitable a week earlier. Keith Dryden made special mention of Blaike McDougall who’d contributed to Handle The Truth’s preparation even though he knew he wouldn’t be riding the horse in the big one.
McDougall won a BM 78 on Handle The Truth at Rosehill back in July and was on board in two Canberra barrier trial wins last month. With Nash Rawiller required for another runner, Blaike retained the ride when Handle The Truth contested a 3YO+ BM 88 on Epsom day. “Blaike rode him too well on the day”, said Dryden. “He box seated to the turn and looked like getting right through on the fence at the 200m. The opening closed and we finished up in fifth spot only 1.3 lengths from the winner. In hindsight it may have been a good thing, because he got the run under his belt without having a gutbuster. Blaike was confident the horse could win the Kosciuszko”.
Image courtesy Bradley Photographers - Handle The Truth defeats Victorem, Bobbing and Noble Boy.
Even the slightest improvement in Handle the Truth would make him competitive in one of the minor sprints at Flemington during the Melbourne Cup, and that’s the way Keith is headed at the moment.
The four time Canberra premiership winning trainer has tasted Flemington success previously and believes to this day he should have won a Gr 1 down the historic straight sprint course in 2003. “Into The Night ran in the Salinger Stakes with Damien Oliver on board”, recalled Keith. “He got too far back and was in traffic until late when he charged home to finish a half neck second to Ancient Song”.
Into The Night was purchased and syndicated by Louis Mihalyka for $80,000 which exceeded Laurel Oak’s budget at the time. Twenty nine starts later he was one of the bargain buys of his era.
Into The Night was the horse to take his trainer to the major carnivals recording 9 wins and 7 placings for $804,000. He won the Gr 2 BTC Cup, the listed Starlight Stakes and the listed Flemington Hilton International on two occasions. He finished third in a Stradbroke and fourth in a Newmarket Hcp.
Into The Night - Winner of 9 races for Dryden and Laurel Oak. This one was taken after his win in the 2002 Flemington Hilton International.
Despite Into The Night’s success at the top level, Keith’s all-time favourite is Tumble On, winner of 18 races in the late 80’s including a Villiers Stakes and a Randwick Country Cup.
In the following decade he prepared Tumble On’s full brother Roll On By, who wasn’t as good as his sibling but still managed to win 20 races, the majority at Canberra.
Roll On By was the horse to provide Keith with a couple of huge thrills in 1995. He was ridden on two occasions by the iconic jockey Lester Piggott at major Canberra meetings. “Lester won one of those races on Roll On By, but advised me to keep an eye on his front legs going forward”, said the trainer. “He obviously felt something wasn’t quite right with his action on the day. It was such a thrill to hand the colours to a bloke who was regarded by many to be the best jockey in the world”.
Flashback to 1995. Keith Dryden with owner Arthur Menzies and legendary jockey Lester Piggott at Canberra.
Keith has had a hand in developing the talents of young riders like Jay Ford, Rachel Hunt and Karen Dodds who rode many winners for the stable. He pays special tribute to jockeys like Kevin Sweeney, Matthew Cahill, Dale Spriggs and Gary Buchanan with whom he enjoyed great success. In more recent times Nick Heywood has had a good run on Dryden trained horses.
Handle The Truth is unlikely to reach the heights attained by Into The Night, and Lester Piggott will never again grace the saddle of a Dryden trained runner but there are more good times ahead.
Once again there’s a talented horse on the scene. Talented enough to put a sparkle in the eye of his veteran trainer, and to send his breeder scurrying to the pedigree pages in his relentless search for another Audrey Joan.
(Banner image courtesy Bradley Photographers - Nash Rawiller and Handle The Truth in full flight in the Kosciuszko.)