FINDING a good home for a retired racehorse, like any loved animal which has to be moved on, can be difficult but Moruya trainer Chicka Pearson believes he found the “best home in Australia” for a beloved horse he trained throughout the 1980s.
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Stanton, the 1985 Goulburn Cup winner and previous race-record holder, turns 35 today which is a rare feat for retired thoroughbreds.
“There are not many horses that get over 25 and he is a great old horse,” Pearson said.
The retirement came about after Mogo’s Carol Osling and Alf Uptin found a note on their door urging them to ring Pearson.
“We would come down on the weekends before we lived here full-time and there was note saying to ring Chicka to see if he could put him here,” Osling said.
Stanton, a gelding, had to retire from racing in the late 1980s due to his hooves splitting but it was not until early in 1993 the Mogo couple adopted him.
Pearson said he knew they were “wonderful people” but the couple had not looked after horses or been involved in the horse racing industry.
“I had to find a good home for him because retired racehorses can become a nuisance around the stables,” Pearson said.
Stanton won 18 races throughout his career, including the Nowra Cup, and his final race at Moruya was a thriller.
“The announcer got really excited in his last run, ‘here comes the old fella down the outside’,” Pearson said.
Uptin said he was wild as a colt and had to be gelded, and Pearson recalled a Voyager Cup race at Nowra where an apprentice jockey was thrown off after celebrating his first win.
“I told him to be careful because he was a hard-puller, and the kid made a mistake because it was his first win,” Pearson said.
“He dropped to let him canter back but Stanton ran toward the crowd and jumped a gate.
“It was lucky the gate had slide-on clips because he could have broken both his legs.
“The jockey ended up being heavily winded too.”
Uptin said Stanton’s commanding presence was helpful for Pearson’s future foals.
“He would bring foals here and Stanton would be their mentor and show them how to be a horse,” Uptin said.
“Nobody would eat until he was finished.”
He once escaped across the Princes Highway to a neighbour’s property. He also faced two bouts of colic.
“It was a horrible experience but a learning curve,” Osling said.
“On the last tug Chicka and I got him up and he just went on and had a feed,” Uptin said.
The couple said he was one of the family and “like a big dog”.
“He gets treats everyday, grated carrot, apple cider vinegar, canola oil and gumnuts,” Uptin said.
“He is very well looked after and loves bread too.”
Pearson said he’s “like family” to the couple.
“When they go away they leave me a list and you would think I’m feeding Black Caviar,” he said.
“They look after him very well and in the summer his coat is like any horse I train now.”