King Of The Stud Business, King Of The Chicken Farm And A King Hit Or Two On The Bookies
Sydney Morning Herald
Friday August 8, 2003
In the early days, big Jack Ingham invested great passion in his battle to beat bookmakers. In more recent years, the owner was content to watch his cerise colours run for Woodlands Stud with barely a dollar on the line.
Jack kept his punting records for years and was extremely proud of the fact he had finished ahead of the bookies for more than 15 seasons in a row. He was a great judge of all aspects of racing, employing form assessors and clockers, and was one of the first punters to buy pictures and videotapes of past races.
Along with one of Ingham's form analysts, Peter Barrett, I spent an afternoon reminiscing with Jack about some of his and brother Bob's memorable betting coups. Jack was feeling poorly but you wouldn't know as he walked down memory lane.
Alvixon was no champion but she gave the Chicken Kings one of their biggest racetrack returns one afternoon at Warwick Farm. She was trained by the Inghams' cousin, Ted Stanton, and ridden by Cliff Clare . Jack gloated how he had tricked Rosehill clocker Horrie Gollan , who was on the Inghams' payroll to report on gallops recorded on early mornings.
Clare recalls the win vividly: ``On the Tuesday morning, Teddy had two fillies work separately over the same distance with plans to run both of them at Warwick Farm the following Saturday.
``Jack suggested we try and trick Horrie and in the first gallop I skimmed along near the fence until the turn, going inside the markers, which couldn't be detected from where Gollan worked, and she ran a cracking time.
``Then we galloped Alvixon and I did completely the opposite, going four and five metres wide down the back of the track and then running outside the markers, which meant she had travelled so much extra distance in the work-out and ran a slower time.
``We knew who was the best of the two fillies but the bookmakers didn't and Alvixon flashed down the outside to win in a photo finish with her stablemate, whose name escapes me, running second.
``I probably got more for winning on Alvixon than I did when I won the 1967 Golden Slipper on Sweet Embrace, which incidentally, I told Jack would win the slipper and was a 40-1 chance."
One of the cleverest plunges masterminded by the Inghams concerned an unraced two-year-old in the spring of 1980, the Vic Thompson-trained Crown Jester, a son of Baguette . Thompson had barrier-trialled Crown Jester at Warwick Farm and the colt purposely finished some 15 lengths from the winner in an 800m heat.
A two-year-old race at Rosehill was selected as his first assignment and punters, on the strength of his trial, overlooked Crown Jester.
Bookmakers opened him at about 16-1 in a below-average event. The Inghams had representatives who rarely attended the races positioned in front of every bookmaker and they swooped at a pre-planned time. Crown Jester was backed into around even money and bolted in.
Crown Jester went on to be syndicated after winning the Todman Slipper Trial for a then record sum and was unluckily beaten by Full On Aces in the 1981 Golden Slipper after encountering a slow track and wide barrier.
Crown Jester sired two future Golden Slipper winners Rory's Jester in 1985 and Guineas, which the Inghams bred and raced, in 1997 .
Former bookmaker and current STC chairman Bruce McHugh also has a punting memory concerning Big Jack at Canterbury years ago when one of Thompson's two-year-olds won on debut, landing a bet of $40,000 to $20,000 by Jack.
As the horses were coming back to the enclosure, McHugh recalls Jack letting off plenty of steam because he didn't have more on the winner. Bob said to his older brother: ``Stop blowing up, Jack. What would you do with the f---ing money anyway?"
Jack Ingham was, in fact, not one to boast of the family's wealth and was a down-to-earth, fun-loving bloke who lived for racing. On and off a racetrack he had time for everyone.
Among his many memorable moments was during the Octagonal era from 1994 to 1997 when the champion won 10 group 1 races and the brothers led him back to the enclosure after all the wins.
Jack couldn't believe the affection punters showed as they brought Occy back to the grandstands, cheering madly and trying desperately to shake hands with and pat the backs of the Chicken Kings.
``The crowds really liked us," Jack told his many friends afterwards, though he thought the masses didn't like the rich. He was so wrong and came to realise this in later years.
MATCHMAKER: There is speculation that Trevor McKee has almost made up his mind about the first stallion partner for Sunline. The whisper is that Danehill's son Rock Of Gibraltar, shuttling to Australia for the first time this year, is the lucky one.
Octagonal has an above average three-year-old filly in training with John Oxx in Ireland in the shape of Dossier, which made it two from two when she resumed from a spell to win in Cork last weekend.
Clang, the sire of Calaway Gal and Clangalang and bred by the Ingham brothers, topped the Magic Million Sales on the Gold Coast last Sunday when a small share in the stallion sold for $87,000.
Widden Stud's colonial-bred sire Shovhog has made a great start to the 2003-04 season by producing two Sydney city three-year-old winners Jewel Peak and Bennett's Green.
© 2003 Sydney Morning Herald
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