It is not uncommon to see the name Hoysted on the winner's sheet at an Australian racetrack on a Saturday, or any day actually.
It's been happening a long time, since "Father" Fred won a race on Wicket as a 12-year-old amateur rider at Bright back in 1895.
The Hoysted dynasty and the branches of that massive tree spread far and include a Hickmott branch, and with a touch of irony perhaps, a McDonald one, noting that it was Clinton McDonald, son of Margaret (nee Hoysted) who trained Regal Roller, whose name was gifted to the Stakes race smashed at Caulfield by the exciting Uncommon James, trained in partnership by Matt Hoysted.
Perhaps ancestry.com should be my ready reckoner here, but then I'm not sure even that would nail the history of arguably Australia's longest thoroughbred racing family.
But firstly, to Uncommon James, with its thoroughly modern name and the racetrack excitement that now bubbles along with it.
If you are not familiar with the American reality TV star, and yes, I know they are hard to keep with – but let me introduce you to Kristin Cavalleri – try Laguna Beach: The Real Orange Country or The Hills and if you haven't seen them, then you probably didn't know Kristin also has a range of skincare and beauty products and designs jewellery, under the brand name – of course – Uncommon James.
Blame Caitlin Hoysted (nee Lavin), Matt's wife for that and then throw in a few James' she knows.
"My middle name is James and Caitlin's brother's middle name is James and I think the brother-in-law as well is James and a nephew," said Matt Hoysted proving the James name is anything but uncommon in the Lavin clan.
Uncommon James also carries the distinctive Lavin family's butcher stripes colours, those mirroring the jersey worn by Caitlin's father Peter when playing for Brother's Rugby Club in Brisbane.
The then younger Caitlin had raced and trained her Jet Spur mare Pickabee to five racetrack wins before getting approval from Gilgai Farm's Rick Jamieson, you'd recall him as the breeder of Black Caviar and the producer of some of Australia's finest performers, to send Pickabee to the then untested stallion Cable Bay.
Now Uncommon James is that stallion's overdue flag-bearer.
Uncommon James following his Regal Roller Stakes win. Picture: Brett Holburt – Racing Photos
But I digress, which can be easy to do as you work the many tributaries in the very familiar Hoysted family stream.
Matt Hoysted of course has his own pedigree to make it as the racehorse trainer he was always destined to be by bloodlines, if not desire, something he now shares in partnership with Steve O'Dea from a Queensland base and with Uncommon James their spring ticket.
So Matt is the son of Rhonda Hoysted, now O'Dea's stable racing manager as well.
Keep with me here. Rhonda is the eldest daughter of South Australian stalwart John Hickmott, sire of trainers Robert and Michael, so Matt's grandfather, while Melbourne Cup winning trainer Robert is his Uncle of course.
Matt's father is Greg Hoysted, son of Ronald J (but call me Mick) Hoysted who trained a Group 1 star himself in Bold Jet.
We are getting closer. Mick and Hal Hoysted were cousins. Hal was the father of Roger Hoysted (remember Lad of the Manor?), and if you couldn't find a Hoysted around the Wangaratta region in the last century you weren't trying.
It was Roger who enticed John Hickmott into training horses. He bought a horse on Hal's recommendation for $600 called Poised and won 20 races with it and was away.
It's the Hickmott side of the Hoysted family tree he is closer to, but carries the name and the dynasty of father, then Bob and Bon, Wally and his son racecaller Des and a raft of others still in the game.
Trainer Matt Hoysted after Uncommon James won the Regal Roller Stakes. Picture: Photo Vince Caligiuri – Getty Images
"They are a little more distant to me, but obviously I am well aware of them," Hoysted said.
Matt's breeding saw him go through the stables of Lloyd Williams where Uncle Robert was based in the days of Efficient, Zipping and Linton, then assistant trainer to Mike Moroney in the Monoca Consul Glass Harmonium days, to Tony Gollan in Brisbane (and finding Caitlin) before landing the opportunity alongside O'Dea, where they have quickly established a ferocious appetite for winners.
But like "Father" all those years ago, Matt Hoysted is a Wangaratta boy and that is the home base for this legendary Australian racing dynasty.
So, starting with Fred, well because he started it, and now his name grace's Racing Victoria's annual training award for the season, not surprisingly Maher/Eustace the incumbents.
Fred, the son of Fred Senior who came to Australia in the mid 1950s, started at Wangaratta training with his brother Henry (Tib) before eventually going to Mentone in 1932 after a disagreement after a Hoysted horse won at Albury (the right one or wrong one depending on which side of the family you were on).
He'd win 17 Melbourne premierships, seven in succession from 1945-46 to 1951-52 and excelled with jumpers like Redditch (which he named the stables after.)
There were a plethora of top juveniles, he won 20 races in 1952-53 with two-year-olds, but it is Rising Fast which would be his best and that almost year of the Cups double and Cox Plate in 1956.
Father, produced training sons Bon and Bob, that Manikato (and so much more connection) and the former jockey Wally, perhaps more famous for firing a gunshot at Flemington in protest against the use of the whip. (Perhaps lucky he isn't around today).
Wally Hoysted is lead away at Flemington racecourse by a police officer carrying the shotgun he had held. Picture: Bruce Howard
Bob and Bon took over from Fred as he aged, but when Bon died, it was the meticulous Bob who nurtured champions, and would become the voice of fellow trainers, serving as president of the Australian trainer's Association for 12 years.
Manikato's deeds are well documented, not just the five William Reid's but perhaps Les Carlyon drew you a picture of Bob Hoysted's horsemanship as he watched him saddle Sydeston for a Caulfield Cup.
"Every horse he has coaxed to greatness – be it Manikato or Rose Of Kingston or River Rough – has been handled as it was the only horse in the universe. That's the Hoysted way."
When it comes to making one horse right for one day, no-one does it so well, No one has his quirky blend of kindness and obsessiveness. No one fusses to such telling effect," wrote Les.
I couldn't find Les' words for Wally Hoysted, but one could only imagine.
It was at Flemington in February 1966, the Fulham Hurdle – despite over 1000 winners across a 30-year career Wally Hoysted walked onto the track with a double-barreled shotgun.
From a report of the day: "He fired a cartridge in the air and threatened to use the gun on the jockeys if they went out armed with whips in the hurdle race. The stand-off lasted roughly 16 minutes. It ended with Hoysted, a former jockey, being taken away by the police after an official of the Victoria Racing Club gave him a stern talking to."
Hoysted was pre-RSPCA an animal activist. He would drive an old milk truck around Melbourne with the names of Saturday's winners emblazoned across the side and a number, not their SP but the number of times they had been whipped.
"I gave a lot of thought before taking a shotgun to the races," Hoysted was quoted at the time. "I didn't want to make a fool of myself. Horses feel pain like any human."
Not surprisingly Wally Hoysted was the black sheep of the family and disappeared into anonymity after another run-in with Flemington officialdom in 1967 but not before leaving the family name to continue through his son Des, one of Australia's longest serving racecallers, including 22 Melbourne Cups.
Which is all a long way from Matt Hoysted and Uncommon James but shows bloodlines endure.
"I suppose I was never going to be anything else but a horse trainer," he said.
And with Caitlin, those Uncommon James bloodlines will also continue. Pickabee has produced a now Capitalist two-year-old, a Yes Yes Yes yearling, is ready to foal a Dundeel and will head to The Autumn Sun this season.
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