Ajc Plans A Big Farewell For The Big O
Sydney Morning Herald
Sunday April 6, 1997
Big O doughnuts - no doubt in cerise - at Randwick on Saturday will replace the Rosehill skywriters.
The Australian Jockey Club is pulling out all stops to make the Octagonal farewell in the Queen Elizabeth Stakes more memorable than the Rosehill version on Golden Slipper day, March 22.
But the "O" in the sky, written in smoke over Rosehill minutes after the champion won the Mercedes Classic, won't be possible because of aviation restrictions over the eastern suburbs.
Still, the AJC plans to give away 5,000 "showbags" featuring posters and badges of Octagonal, and cerise hats.
Randwick promises to be a sea of cerise.
A banner competition will be held at the track, as well as a motor cavalcade of Octagonal personalities, including the Ingham brothers, Jack and Bob, trainer John Hawkes and jockeys Darren Beadman and Shane Dye.
Also, there will be a Roy Orbison look-alike warbling the memorable "Big O" hits such as Only The Lonely.
Despite the ballyhoo, Hawkes isn't taking the Queen Elizabeth Stakes as an exhibition gallop.
"Octagonal is going to have to be 100 per cent fit to come out a winner," he said yesterday.
Perhaps after Saturday, the Big O will go on a guest-star circuit. Stud potential - like shuttle-servicing to the northern hemisphere - is still being considered.
Yet Octagonal has something on other great racehorses.
After all, not even Secretariat had a doughnut fashioned after him.
© 1997 Sydney Morning Herald