GALWAY ACT

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 127, 19 August 1927, Page 6

GALWAY ACT

FELL DOWN AND WON STIRRING INCIDENT RECALLED As J. Smith was on his way to saddle up Glentronie for the steeplechase at Caulfield the other day, a friend remarked: “Do you think you could do the ‘Galway act’ with Glentronie to-day, Jack?” The Caulfield trainer simply laughed and shook his head. No, Glentronie is scarcely a Galway, and his trainer, though still youthful in appearance and active, is 31 years older than when he performed that celebrated acrobatic feat at Caulfield. He was riding the favourite, Galway, owned by the Ballarat trainer Alec Taylor, in the V.A.T.C. Steeplechase in July, IS9G, when his mount fell at one of the fences in the straight.

LEAP INTO SADDLE As the horse picked himself up, Smith took a running - leap from the offside, and, leaping on Galway’s quarters, wriggled into the saddle before the next fence was reached, though his feet were not in the stirrup irons. “Galway hit this fence all round, and Smith nearly left, but managed to get back, and, going on,” wrote “Terlinga” in “The Australasian,” “he steadily made up his ground, and just beat Rorke’s Drift from the last fence. Then came a scdne. . . . The cheering broke out all over the course, and lasted until the jockey had weighed in. It was a spontaneous recognition of a wonderfully plucky piece of horsemanship.” Galway was a, bay gelding by Boolka from Titara. Mis sensational Caulfield race was his only start that season. In the following season he ran six times for three wins. Ridden by Alfred Williams, he won the hurdle race at Flemington on New Year’s Day, carrying 11.10, and a month late.r, with the New Zealand jockey, J. Cameron, in the saddle, he carried 12.12, and won a steeplechase at Caulfield with ridiculous ease. He had a multiplicity of riders, for in liis next and last start J. E. Brewer had the mount. This was in the hurdle race on Australian Cup Day at Flemington, in which Galway carried 12.3 into third place.