CON MARASCO talks to SHEILA LAXON.

 

 

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CON: This week sees the running of the 2007 Queensland Oaks- a race which, back in 2001, meant a fair bit to my guest this week. Yes. When Ethereal won the Oaks in 2001, it was the start of a winning streak for the filly that later in spring saw her perform the rare feat of winning both the Caulfield and Melbourne Cups…not to mention the BMW in the following autumn. So let’s reminisce a little and catch up with Ethereal’s amazing trainer and horse woman extraordinaire-Sheila Laxon. Welcome to the page, Sheila…    

SL: Hi, Con.

CON: Your partner, John Symons, will know that I prefer to talk to sheilas on this page…especially ones called Sheila. First of all, let me thank you for your book, “Winning Spirit”. I enjoyed reading it very much. You get the impression reading it that you are indeed part horse.         

SL: Horses certainly have been a pivotal part of my life, Con.

CON: The Queensland Oaks this weekend might just bring back a few great memories for you, Sheila, I’m tipping. Ethereal’s first Group One win was in that Oaks in 2001. You tell us in the book that you didn’t think Ethereal had won when they hit the line. You thought she had run fourth.   

SL: Where the trainers stand up there is a bit off the line. I still thought her run was terrific but when her number came into the frame, I was rapt.  

CON: Not only was it the start of an incredible ride, so to speak for you with ‘Ethel’-as you call her-but also for your Queensland jockey, Scott Seamer, the macadamia nut farmer.

SL: Scott is one in a million; Con. He’s a lovely person and a very clued-up jockey. Once I had told Scott about Ethereal and he had learnt about her, I didn’t have to give him riding instructions after that. He knew exactly what he had to do and where to go. He used to walk the tracks and if you watch all of Ethereal’s wins, you can really see that he always found the best ground for her.   

CON: No doubt about that, Sheila. It was your second Group One and Scott Seamer’s first-at his first Group One ride. Around a year or so later Scott’s Group One tally had risen to about thirteen-I think, including a win in the Melbourne Cup on Ethel. Interestingly, your original plan with her was to have crack at the Adelaide Carnival a month or so earlier, wasn’t it?     

SL: I was on my way to the airport in New Zealand ready to put Ethel on a plane to Adelaide when a secretary from the SAJC called to tell me it was unlikely Ethereal would make the Oaks field. So I turned around and took her home to Elkayel-my stables near Cambridge.  

CON: But, you weren’t fazed. You had a real premonition that the hitch was for a reason, didn’t you?

SL: Ethereal’s return to the racetrack had been delayed initially after she had a bad reaction to an injection just before Christmas, 2000. She came off spelling late and promptly won her maiden and two more races in a row. After the Adelaide Carnival was out of the question, she was expected to have her first Australian start in the Grand Prix in Brisbane. But that plan was thwarted when the plane broke down. Her only hope to get into the Oaks was then to run her in the Doomben Roses in order to hopefully gain enough prize money to be eligible. Jim Byrne had been originally engaged to ride her in the Grand Prix but when he was unavailable for the Roses, after discussions with Peter Vela and his adviser, champion ex-hoop, Brent Thomson, we chose Scott to ride.  Ethereal won the Roses quite convincingly but given the Oaks was only a week later, I was concerned whether she would back up that quickly. She was as bright as button the next day and after a week of ‘hacking’ her around the sugar cane plantations near Caloundra, where I was stabling her at Linda and Alan Jones’ superb training complex, she was ready for her most important race of her career to date.    

CON: And she won it with a withering burst down the outside to arrive in time. So she headed home to be prepared for her tilt at the cups in spring. She had to endure a protest in the Caulfield Cup by Damien Oliver who rode the second placegetter, Sky Heights. Although I must admit I was on Sky Heights that day, I don’t really think you had much to worry about with the objection, did you, Sheila. 

SL: Well, I did worry for a very long twenty minutes until the protest was dismissed-although I hadn’t seen the horses touch at all. I also recalled how Taufan’s Melody had held the race a few years earlier when that horse nearly put Jezabeel and Laurie’s horse Champagne over the fence. So I was going to be a little more than surprised if we did lose the race, Con.   

CON: Then came the big one. That race on the first Tuesday in November. I understand Peter Vela, her owner, wasn’t all that keen to run her in the Melbourne Cup, because as an expert breeder, he didn’t feel it would add much to her stud value.    

SL: That’s right, Con. We both had reservations actually. Peter wanted to run her in the Hong Kong Cup which Ethereal’s mother; Romanee Conti had won in 1993.  After studying the weights, Peter decided against a Honk Kong trip but my concern was whether she would be able to show her best on the wet track that day, let alone win. The track was worse than when she ran at Caulfield but not as heavy as the showers around might have indicated. She ran of course and Scott had her three out and three or four back for most of the race. It seemed an eternity before he ‘went’ on her. When I saw Scott let her go, she came past me and I thought she was going to win easily. When I saw the margin in the finish, it was closer than I expected and a great performance by Give The Slip to hang on like he did.   

CON: And your life changed dramatically that day. The man who ran the stables at Macedon Lodge where Ethereal was prepared-John Symons-became your lifelong partner-in the training business as well and the whole world suddenly knew who Sheila Laxon was-if they didn’t already.

SL: Meeting John was like a dream come true. The celebrity status that came with Ethel’s wins was a bit overwhelming at times but very exciting too.

CON: Ethereal is now at stud after retiring from the track on a winning note-taking out the BMW in Sydney in 2002 in really gutsy fashion-and has thrown three foals-I believe?          

SL: Yes her first by Giant’s Causeway is Group placed in New Zealand and she has one by Van Nistleroy and another by Stravinsky-with whom she is in foal again.  

CON: Your book almost makes me want to go and have a crack at training horses-using all the many tips you mention throughout. One point you mention a few times is that you like to see a horse being saved for a final run. You believe they are better placed to win that way. Have I got that right?

SL: It depends on the horse of course but I do prefer to train horses that can win that way.

CON: You also tell the reader that you can often tell a horse’s ability after their first real gallop…especially if you are the person riding the horse. Is that true? 

SL: Yes.

CON: I get the impression that you train horses a little differently to others. Mostly because you treat them almost as humans and not animals. 

SL: All of them are individuals and I believe you should treat each individual’s need rather than treat them all the same.  

CON: Ethereal was a very intelligent horse, wasn’t she?

SL: Yes. Very. On the day I broke her in, she understood what I was trying to do and when she was racing she knew that she was there to win, even if only narrowly at times.

CON: She was also pretty good at helping you round up the cattle in the hills above the Waikato River when you were combining training and farming.

SL:  Yes. She was brilliant working as a stock horse and she loved doing it. She was actually filmed doing it once.

CON: Your life is so interesting (which is why your book is such a good read) and space doesn’t allow me to talk about the rest of it too much here. But it wasn’t all beer and skittles along the way. You were married twice before John came along-to a farmer in England and then to the great trainer (of Empire Rose fame), Laurie Laxon, who is now ‘killing them’ in Singapore. But two major falls along your journey-one in a race in 1991-and one at track work more recently-would have made life pretty tough for you. Are you all OK now and back in the saddle where you like to be most, Sheila?  

SL: Yes, I am. I’m as good as the doctors could get me which means I can still ride.

CON: Well, Sheila, we all reckon you’ve found a good one in John Symons, who prepared Bel Esprit to win a Blue Diamond for Kevin Sheedy and co. I expect together you can concoct a few more Group One winners from your base near Seymour-perhaps another Melbourne Cup winner.  

SL: Who knows, Con? We’ll always be looking for one, I can assure you of that.

CON: By the way, do you have an Oaks tip for us?

SL: A filly bred in New Zealand-hopefully Sangostino owned by Peter Vela. That would be fitting.

 

 

 

SHEILA LAXON PROFILE:

 

Born: 28^th May (*note TK birthday this week), Pontypridd, Wales.

Apprenticed: I was born in Wales but moved to Kent when I was about four. We lived on a 50-acre small holding near Folkestone where later the Chunnel was built. My first riding experiences came because some kids’ ponies were spelled at our farm during the winter months and we worked them. Throughout my early years I became passionate about horses and my life began to revolve around them. My life was pony club, eventing, show jumping and learning how to break horses and riding in places like Cyprus. Along the way, I became qualified in other jobs like being a secretary, driving semis and double decker buses and being a hostess on the Hovercraft (until I had to dispose of one too many sick bags). I moved onto a farm in Acrise and became a farmer with my first husband Tim, but when we drifted apart I moved to New Zealand which I had visited on holiday. It was there that I met and married Laurie Laxon and had two children. Initially I assisted Laurie by riding his horses (including Empire Rose) but soon became a trainer in my own right in 1997.  There were some great horses along the way including Forlorna who won the Bendigo Cup in 2002, Tapildo, Cheerful and Andrella. I was honoured to be awarded the Racing Personality and Trainer of the Year in both Australia and New Zealand in the Ethereal’s year. I train now in partnership with John Symons at our farm near Seymour.  My autobiography, Winning Spirit was published by Penguin Books in 2003.                     

First winner trained: Clear Majority, Waipa, NZ, September 1997.

First feature winner: Cheerful, Cuddle Stakes, Group Three, May 1999. 

Group Ones: Five.

Favourite horse: Ethereal.

Best horse trained: Ethereal.   

Best horse seen: Makybe Diva.   

Favourite racetrack: Flemington.  

Family: Partner: John Symons; children: John (23) and Lucy (21) and two stepchildren, Craig (35) and Roger (30).   

Idea of perfect happiness: Lying on beach sipping a Pina Colada with John at my side.    

Favourite holiday destination: Port Douglas.

Love of your life: John.

Favourite pastime: Riding horses.

Greatest achievement: Winning the Caulfield/Melbourne Cups double in 2001.   

Favourite food: Lobster.

Favourite drink: Shiraz. 

Favourite film: One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest (I related to it very much during my first rehabilitation in the early ‘90s)

Role model: Jean Jackson, a dealer in showjumpers in England who taught me so much.

Motto in life: Enjoy every day as if it’s your last.