Thankfully, the form guides for the Bong Bong Picnics on Friday listed him as Mr Anthony Williams.
Otherwise, most of us wouldn't have recognised the incredible comeback of the man known to all as just ‘Tubba', he of the gentle conversation matched with a unique rattling gun laugh, well chortle maybe.
"Just a little size difference", says Tubba. Photos supplied.
And ‘Tubba' is one of the best racing stories of the year.
Think of your phone contacts, how many, other than perhaps ‘Mum', do you have listed as a singular entity. I've got one for ‘The G', sometimes not always eagerly answered if you know what I mean Greg (insert smiling emoji), Gai, is just Gai of course, and then there is Tubba.
Gai may officially have been elevated to "Legend" of the Australian Racing Hall Of Fame over the weekend, something everyone in racing and around it already knew, though she proved in that viral picture swimming with horses off Perth, that even she can't walk on water.
And she couldn’t win another Bong Bong Picnic cup on Friday, she’s won a couple before (Zeppelin and Frenzied), but Tubba reckons he may have cost Gai and Adrian another when Ritzytwenties, was nosed out by former $500,000 yearling California August in the famous picnic Cup, first run in 1887.
Mind you Tubba didn’t win it either, he ran fourth on Titled Tycoon, but he had some excuses: first up for 44 years, aged 62, 63 in eight weeks, just two thirds of the man he used to be at the start of year, having shed near on 40kg to “live the dream.”
Yes, you read that right. In case you missed the story, Mr Anthony Wiliams, Tubba, well let’s just say he untubbed himself, to make one of the all-time great racing comebacks on Friday at the meeting he cherishes most and now has a vision for a national Tubba’s Tours to share his spirt about the fabric of grassroots and picnic racing that underpins our sport.
There isn’t a better man for the job. And yes, we are looking for sponsors and industry support for the cause.
It’s the Saturday morning, after his three rides at Bong Bong Friday, a third and two fourths – “a pass mark” he says, and he’s let himself go on breakfast of bacon the eggs, the former “connoisseur of bad food” tells me.
“What an amazing experience, I feel tremendous, I worked hard and was as fit as I could possible be and I’ll be back at the track (riding work for Rodney Northam) on Monday (and he was),” he said.
“It has been so humbling, the amount of interest and support, friends and people I never knew wanting photos, the camaraderie in the jockey’s room, everything about the day, I couldn’t have asked for anything better other than perhaps a win, but it gave me a sense of achievement to do something I’ve always loved, and I wondered why I’d left it so long,” Williams said.
So long? Yes 1979, when he last rode “under rules” at Woodend in Victoria. They don’t even race there anymore, in 1982 it amalgamated with nearby Kyneton and the track became Macedon Ranges shire land.
“I rode my first winner there, I only rode four (from 19 rides as an apprentice to Pat Bourke),” Williams says and rattles them off proudly with ease.
That was Steiner, at his first ride, then it was Half Fare at Benalla, Latin Lady at Hanging Rock on New Year’s Day for Alan Burton and Billy The Kid at Swan Hill, before Tubba did a Roy Higgins and became “the little fat man that was always inside of me.”
The tortuous routine to shed the massive weight and change wardrobes three times started with eliminating sugar and then huge physical and mental effort, like riding a “spin bike” while watching food shows on the tele.
If you want a LinkedIn chronology of Tubba since then, it includes a lifetime in the industry from NSW Bloodstock to Magic Millions, buying for the early Hong Kong Jockey Club International Sales, to establishing Newgate with Henry Field, to Goff in the UK to Aquis back in Australia, to always Tubba Bloodstock but that doesn’t tells you something but not everything about the involvement and passion for the horse and the sport.
Yes the Point To Point Wins in Victoria (five from 19) once the professional jockey’s dream evaporated, foreman for Cole Diesel’s trainer Greg Mance, working for Sheik Hamdan’s first trainer in the UK Harry Thompson Jones (his best horse Al Bahathri giving its name to a famous Newmarket gallop) , winning a charity race on the famous Aintree course, and the horse that means so much to him Cracking Destiny, still powering on in the UK, at the age of 10 and winning at Muswellbrook earlier this month.
Put to one side the herculean effort to lose the weight to honour a statement (brag) and ride Bong Bong where his inspirations like global champions John Moore and Nicky Henderson have connections to the past, Tubba is looking to the future.
“Racing is facing a dramatic change with so many tracks closing down and I want to be part of addressing that. To me it has neglected what has for so long been the backbone of the industry, the bush racing, the picnic racing, the country racing,” he said.
“I’m eight weeks off being 63, and I’ve never been fitter, I’ve never been lighter for 40 years and I’m absolutely enjoying the riding and I want to do as much as I can whilst I can,” said Tubba.
Enter Tubba’s Tours!
“I’ve bought a four wheel drive with a slide on van and a four horse float,” said Tubba.
“The aim is to get my owner-trainer licence, load the truck up and head north and then west, ending up from Queensland through to Port Headland and Broome in the middle of next year and come back.
“I want to race my horses on all the tracks that might soon be disappearing or have such a rich history to showcase them as to why we should keep them, tis is the essence of our sport,” said Williams.
Next stop for Williams could be Healesville on December 16 - where he may run into 68-year-old legend Debbie Waymouth, who landed another picnic winner on Saturday, Sleeping Tiger.
King Island, now home of the Miners Rest Cup that has kept that meeting on its Tasmanian calendar in January, is on the agenda, but nothing isn’t for the passionate Williams.
“I’d love to come back to Victoria and get to Healesville if that can work out, I’ll look at the conditions and my horses (but wouldn’t a Waymouth-Williams battle headline an iconic Christmas meeting?), but as tough as this has been, now I want to embrace it and go on with it,” he said.
Reviewing his three rides Friday? “Well, I don’t think Gai is sending me a Christmas card for the Cup, but I wanted to sit on its (Ritzytwenties) girth and make it work,” he says like Damien Oliver on tactics.
“My horse’s preparation had probably come to an end, but I thought I looked ok, I was a bit rusty on the first one (Richter) missing the start with the blinkers on but wouldn’t criticise myself on the latter two, but will there be improvement, of course,” he said.
Just like when Tubba filled in for his great mate Jack Styring as a race caller at Yarra Glen, and it would be no surprise to anyone reading this that Tubba and Jack have an indelible link, indeed the last time I saw Tubba personally was at Styring’s funeral.
“Jack was a friend for 45 years, we had a lot to do together over the trip,” he said.
“He loved the whole business like I do, his passion for the grass roots, those 60 Gunbower Cups, he called a race I rode a horse called Tricoline in for Jim Cerchi, and I gave it a sore back, about 600m of the track was turf the rest was red dust.
“He said ‘there’s a fall, a cloud of dust, a puff of smoke, sorry it’s just an optical illusion’” said Williams.
“Typical Jack, a lot of passion no doubt rubber off on me, until I had to fill in for him at Yarra Glen one day when for some reason he never turned up. Let’s just say I found a new respect for race calling, it’s not a job for the faint hearted,” he said.
Nor should be making a comeback at 62, 44 years after your last “rules’ ride.
Perhaps that’s the great thing about this sport, there are rules and then sometimes none. And then people like Tubba. Thankfully.
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