If there was ever a Hall of Fame for parenting and dedication to family, Noel and Doris Thurgood would be among the original inductees.
On the weekend, their son, Elvis Russell Jude Thurgood, finally left them, some 41 years after they never left him.
Noel and Doris Thurgood with Ricky back in 2005.
No-one, not even them, called him Elvis, he was always Ricky. The name endures today. His elder brother Derek was nicknamed Rocky (named after Saint Roch – the patron Saint of dogs, invalids and bachelors), and Ricky rhymed with Rocky and so it stuck.
With his riding world in front of him, it fell around him and over him in a tragic race accident at Caulfield on Easter Saturday 1980, one that should have killed him, he was taken off life support, but found something greater in the form of his parents, family, friends and what was to become a huge support group that kept celebrating Ricky’s birthdays until his final one, aged 62.
Yes, he rode 58 winners from 533 rides, yes, his first winner was World Wonder at Caulfield in 1976. That’s for the record only. And Derek, sorry Rocky, has a meticulously kept laminated documentation of every one of them to this day.
But this is a greater story – tragedy and triumph of the human spirit at the same time, shattering and inspirational and with so many unanswered questions and unfulfilled dreams.
There have been 890 jockeys killed on racetracks in Australia, Ricky should have been one them. He wasn’t, and the one constant since has been his father Noel, a tram conductor, and mother Doris, who worked as a Telex operator in the Post-Master General’s office. From Easter Saturday 1980, they became Ricky’s full time, and I mean 24/7 full time carers, when the deeply religious Sri Lankan family took him home from hospital rather than put him into care.
Think of 1980 Australia, Malcolm Fraser was re-elected Prime Minister, Beldale Ball won the Melbourne Cup, Azaria Chamberlain disappeared from Ayers Rock, Alan Jones became only the second Australian to win the Formula 1 World Driver’s Championship, Adam Goodes and Luke Hemsworth were born!
So every day since then, think of this, in the same Caulfield home, dated agelessly, they have devotedly cared every waking and awakened moment for Ricky, turning, feeding, cleaning, dressing, you could not imagine the requirements.
But to them it was never a chore, a test of their religious faith perhaps, but for them never unwavering that perhaps a miracle cure would come their way for Ricky. They tried everything from perhaps charlatans at home to new therapy in America. Why even Mother Teresa passed her blessing on Ricky, but the outcome was always to be medical, not wishful thinking.
“They never ever gave up hope that Ricky would survive and would continue to improve,” said close family friend and former Jockey’s Association boss Des O’Keeffe.
Gaye Gauci, Babs Turner, Michelle Hibbs, David Maher and Scott Stevens with Ricky Thurgood in 1984.
“They always believed it happened for a reason, those were the cards they were dealt and it was their religious faith that carried them through."
“There were thousands of people that came in and out of their lives over the journey – all for Ricky.”
Or as Gai Gauci-Marchant said in her racing.com memory – “they loved him like a Cup favourite”.
It’s something Gary Ellis, or “Uncle” to Ricky, agrees with.
It was Gary who moved out of his family-in-laws Caulfield Bungalow in 1969 to allow the Thurgood family safe passage into Australia with a proof of residency.
To this day, Ellis, a one-time small horse trainer, come country and western singer as well, throw in reformed alcoholic who attributes sobriety to Ricky, remains the closest of family confidants.
It was Ellis who first legged “the most polite boy you’d ever meet” onto a horse and got him onto the first rung of the racing ladder.
“I can honestly look back now and turn to page two after that horrible accident and look at the tragedy and a very different situation of the numerous friendships made and never broken, by the annual masses and birthday celebrations to keep faith in Ricky,” he said.
“I probably go back further than anyone with the Thurgood family, they have always been wonderful people, and it was Ricky who I could honestly say saved my life and to this day I am proud to have had him called me Uncle.”
Gary says he was a 40 pots a day man and a half bottle of after shave lotion to wash them down.
“It cost me everything, my marriage, my recording contracts (with Channel 7). I had a mate who joined Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) – Big George – he went to jail, came out sober and said to me one day when you are sick and tired of being sick and tired, get back to me, and I did.”
It was a worker’s Christmas Party with Noel’s tram conductor mates at The Whistle Stop in Frankston where Ellis, in the horrors through his first week off the drink, went for a walk with Ricky.
“I’ll never forget he said to me ‘Uncle Gary, you are such a different person, please don’t change’ and to this day I have never had a drink again, I could never let that boy down, he saved my life,” Ellis said.
Ricky Thurgood feeds carrots to Prince after therapy session in 1986.
Ellis gave the toast at Ricky’s 21st birthday and regaled the story.
“He was such a lovely boy, I remember I had a broken leg, I was training out at Macclesfield at the time, and he rang and said ‘Uncle’ let me take you to the races, so he came and picked me up and we went to Kilmore. I’ve got a replay of every race he rode in.” Ellis said.
Ellis was at Healesville Picnics with a horse called Spoilt Judge when driving home he heard on radio the news of a serious fall involving Ricky, it was a different era of information and he knew nothing until Doris asked him to come to the Alfred Hospital.
“All we did was pray and pray, we all realised it was pretty serious.”
Ellis is one of those racing people on the edges, he worked for trainer Laurie Grummet, who had a tenuous link to the mighty Ajax and trainer Frank Musgrave, and when Grummet was in town he rented a room with Ellis.
He had Sunday’s off and Ellis filled in, doing the boxes and the feeds and it was he who asked if Ricky wanted to come up to the stables and help out. Young Ricky was hooked. Just about 15 at the time, doing well in school, but then smitten with horses.
“There were plenty of young jockeys about at the time riding ponies and joking about getting bucked off, so I put Ricky on. He was a bit timid but loved it. It was all he wanted to do,” Ellis said.
Doris didn’t want Ricky to become a jockey but when they landed on the much-respected Angus Armanasco as a mentor, the family relented and Ricky was away.
“We did everything together as kids at Angus’,” now retired jockey Brian Werner said.
“I first got there in 1977 and he’d been there 12 months or so, we hit if off, it was tough times, up at 3.30am mucking out boxes, dressing horses, a few hours off and back at it in the afternoon, but we loved it.
“For Ricky and me it was all about the horses, we were like brothers in arms, forged together with our goals and dreams.”
Horse like Slipper winner Full On Aces and stars like Turf Ruler were in the stable. Angus was regarded as king of the kids.
“He was such a relaxed rider, even in his work, nothing would faze him,” Werner said of Ricky.
The accident shattered Werner, who still admits it today and thinks back that he rode until he was 60 (now renovating houses), and escaped with his mind and body intact.
“I still remember going to the hospital the night of the fall and being told it was immediate family only,” he said.
“I heard he wouldn’t make it through the night and I just couldn’t handle it, he was my best mate, we were young kids. I couldn’t handle going to see him, I could see there was going to be no improvement and I turned off from it.”
Ricky Thurgood catches up with Angus Armanasco back in 1998.
Werner spoke to the Thurgood family on Saturday. He knew when he did go back and see him, that his mate Ricky was “talking with his eyes – they’d follow you everywhere it was his form of communication.”
“It’s very sad but I’m glad he went before his parents, what amazing people, who could have looked after him if they hadn’t, it’s an incredible story of love and family.”
Mick Gauci, brother of champion hoop Darren, was another close in the Ricky Thurgood life around those Caulfield days.
“He was the most humble guy and a beautiful person to be around,” Gauci said.
“He was the most polite bloke in the world, he would do anything for you.”
Ricky Thurgood become hooked on horses when he realised he could look into Angus Armanasco stables from his classroom at Caulfield High School.
But a night clubber he wasn’t, not Mick, Ricky that is. The Gauci’s were at Don Channon’s at the time, Mick tried to get Ricky at the famous Silvers Nightclub in Toorak one night and Ricky would never have a drink again.
The words vomiting in a corridor probably sum up the situation.
“Ricky was never going to get into a stink, he had no outside interests and an adorable and adoring family,” Mick said.
Fellow jockey and former trainer Mark Riley was to ride Tara’s Regent in that fateful race at Caulfield. Instead he rode the defending race champ Warri Symbol for Jim Moloney.
“You know it still bothers me today,” Riley said.
“I was two back on the fence when he fell, I still can’t believe it. It knocked everyone around, everybody loved him, he was too nice to be a jockey.
“He was so quiet and unassuming, I still remember those days like it was yesterday when we all knocked around together with Brian Werner at Angus’.”
Chris Symons, funky zookeeper, retired jockey, all around good guy, and passionate jockey’s legacy supporter wasn’t born when Ricky Thurgood had his accident, but became a close friend and family confidant.
“I was asked if I would go and see him (by former RV CEO Bernard Saundry),” Symons said.
“I ended up with a fantastic relationship with the family, but through the likes of Des (O’Keeffe) and then (fellow injured jockeys) Lonaghan Millham, Scott Leckey and Brenton Primmer, we built something very special for all.”
And it flows further, his Funky Farm at Hastings, wheelchair access of course, has hosted Ricky and family and enhanced the friendship.
A return family spread (“like a Christmas dinner”) and a shrine to Ricky alongside it amazed Symons.
“I have no doubt he knew I was there, he smiled, there was a touch on the shoulder, you could tell by the behaviour,” Symons said.
“It’s a remarkable story that puts everything into perspective.”
Ricky Thurgood gets a kiss from sister Debbie prior to flying to the US for treatment.
What shouldn’t be forgotten here is the racing industry support for Ricky and the Thurgood family.
Des O’Keeffe is rightly proud of the work of the then Victoria Racing Club and then Racing Victoria in making sure the Thurgood family could give Ricky “a life”.
“I know this certainty has been an enormous comfort to Noel and Doris, there has never been a shirking of the task,” he said.
“But this family and Ricky retain such a unique position in the history of the industry. He’s loved by all, has been to our charity cricket games and rightly made to be such a part of our family as we are of theirs.”
And as Gai Gauci-Marchant said the best way to remember Ricky Thurgood is – “he smiles through his eyes”.
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