So another season comes to an end and there were those premiership battle narratives to keep plenty interested and space filled, from Bullock over Orman nationally, the friendly fire in the Lloyd/Gibbons Sydney apprentices title, even our old mate King Callow going under on the last day at the Gold Coast but tipping us the winner (Bailey Wheeler and to be a star of the future).
Or Maher and Eustace with 1888 runners nailing the national trainer’s title for the first time yielding 346 winners and some $36m in stakes, usurping Chris Waller and making Darren Weir’s former hold looking like he was running a boutique operation.
Some will have met goals, some surpass or missing targets and many already refocussed on the new season, (when half way through – well end of November actually) - the industry will get around to acknowledge the best of a season which will then be so distantly past.
Racing’s rear view mirror is small one, the big windscreen focussed on the next race, the next day, the next winner, and while it is right to acknowledge success and excellence, it is right to also remember those at the bottom of the totem pole, never to play toward the top of the cashed-up pyramid scheme that is Australia’s record prizemoney.
It survives on foot soldiers, dreamers, hard workers, dare I suggest economic irrationalists. Those in it because mostly they always have been and suddenly the thought of becoming a truck driver doesn’t appeal as much as thinking the next horse they buy on-line or slips through the cracks their way may be another Takeover Target.
Pat Cannon didn’t feature in the premiership lists, well he did if you scrolled well down and found Shultzy winning a benchmark 64 last Thursday doubling his season tally to two. Same horse for both of those, not surprising when the others have been a 15 start maiden (Six Degrees, a 44 rater!) and one fobbed off to Tasmania (Punter) because it wasn’t good enough even for Pat.
For some semantics, Pat was amongst the least winning trainers of the past season, well in a photo with them at best. But he is still some story.
Shultzy probably doesn't figure in any punters "Blackbook" but he is the horse that has kept Cannon's books relatively teetering in the black this season while at the same time he has kept endlessly wondering, whilst at 52, he stays in a game that he has been in since he was 16 and rarely dealt him a decent hand.
But those, especially in the Victorian industry know Cannon's skills and talents, you've no doubt heard of horses like Bomber Bill (trips to Dubai and Hong Kong with him), Toledo, Iglesia, even jumping stars like Some Are Bent, or international headliner Starspangledbanner?
Cannon has worked with all of them across a decent laundry list of trainers when he moved from The Bool starting with Steve Richards at Flemington, on to a stint with peter Hayes, then John Sadler, joining Aquanita with Robert Smerdon and then Russell Cameron, then an “eye-opening” year as Tim Martin’s racing manager, pre Malua days with Troy and Leon Corstens at Romsey before finally taking his own licence in 2011.
There have been just a career tally of 33 winners since, (Maher/Eustace can knock that up in a good month), but Cannon has remained loyal to an industry which has surely tested him. Which is why an old school horseman like Cannon was visibly emotional after Shultzy won. And for a raft of reasons.
“You work your arse off 24/7 but seemingly always are running into speed humps,“ Cannon said.
“It’s the day to day that can be draining, it’s a struggle for sure, not just on the finances but on the body, the wear and tear, owners, non-payers, you see it all the time and of course there have been many times I’m questioned why I am still doing this.”
“That horse has been there every time I needed him money wise, that is what made it so special,” Cannon said.
So there was $20, 625 for that first prizemoney at Bendigo, you can add naughts to that for the real bottom line to Cannon.
“I run the water walker here at Bendigo track from 7am to 12, it helps me with a cut out for the rent and feed but the last six months have been the hardest. If not for a chop out here and there from some mates and that horse, I just might have had enough.”
Shultzy is race by Cannon in partnership with Steve Davis and a large group of his mates. It’s by Helmet, Davis apparently a Hogan’s Hero fan, hence the name – if you know something.
Davis is also the man who invented and produced the old yellow top brush hurdles once used in Victoria, an offshoot of his own Toolern Vale broom company.
Cannon met Davis and some of the owners at the races, he was rehabbing horse for Weir at the time, Humidor the best, when Shutzy was broken in.
“He was very colty, he went to Warrnambool for his debut, Michael Poy rode him and he ran last and said get rid of him. I did a 50/50 deal, got him gelded, Brady Cross was riding him and he’s a good judge and then I started using the hill track at Ballarat and the penny dropped,” he said.
It might have only been pennies since, $155,000 of them over three seasons, but he is the horse that has kept Cannon going despite a move to below expectations move to Bendigo which has eventuated in promised work that never happened and thwarted opportunities on the purchase by a client to set up an agistment and breaking in-property.”
“I’ve been offered jobs with Tony Gollan and don’t get me wrong, I love being around good horses in big stables like I have been in the past, that’s been the biggest thrills, the good horses, but I’ve knocked back young horses because I just don’t have the staff to handle that pressure as well.”
“The biggest kick in the guts was when Weiry got shafted,” he said.
“He had been my saviour at the time, I was looking after 20 for him and had ten of my own, across the staff and rent it worked beautifully, after that it just became so bloody tough and still is.”
Cannon has only had two city winners, a horse called Punt Club, both at The Valley, both for Damian Lane, who came through his times as an employed trainer at Princess Park at Ngambie for Adam Palmer, who let’s say, would hit a major financial hurdle.
“I trained my first winner for Gerry Harvey (a horse called Waterworld), on the Geelong synthetic, I was doing his pre-training and spelling at the time,” Cannon said.
Which is to underline, the extensive experience and knowledge Cannon brings to the game and his trade, if a little filtering passion. Why there was even a TV show on the old TVN where Pat Cannon presented “Gear Changes”, taking the viewers through 20 episodes across all the various gear horses and trainers used.
Next?
Well Shultzy goes to the Challenger Series at The Valley on Saturday week (August 12). Seems appropriate doesn’t it for Cannon. (The new Racing Victotia Challenger Series is for trainers who prepared less than 15 winners in the previous season.)
Cannon is straight through the finals without dropping a set. But it is just another challenge.
And a timely reminder as we kick into the new season, the role players like Cannon play in the rich tapestry of it.
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