It's Caulfield Cup week, and what better moment to revisit the life and times of one of the greatest - if not the greatest - Caulfield Cup winner of the modern era.
Northerly’s been gone fourteen years and it’s hard to believe. How quickly the march of time moves on.
This year the running of the 150th Caulfield Cup falls on the day which would have been Northerly's 30th birthday.
Let's go back in time to the 17th of October 1996. At Oakland Park Stud near Busselton in Western Australia, the mare North Bell delivered a colt by Serheed.
His breeder Neville Duncan was there when the colt was born without a pulse and worked feverishly to bring the little fellow to life under the anxious gaze of his dam.
Just as he was there to make sure North Bell's foal arrived safely into the world, Neville would be at his side fifteen years later to help ease him out of it, after his beloved “Norton” was struck down by the curse of colic.
Not only born lifeless, North Bell's rather plain bay colt had crooked legs. He was the second foal Neville and Sue Duncan had bred from their daughter of the French sire Bellwater.
North Bell had won four races, but she was no great shakes on the track, however as a broodmare she would prove to be in the silk department!
She produced three stakes-winners with Northerly the headline act supported by Group II winner North Boy and Group III winner Northern Song, while another daughter Boardwalk Bell is the grand-dam of $12million earning Group I winner Overpass, who will be in action this Saturday at Randwick.
Once baby “ Norton” had recovered from his traumatic birth, he was soon frolicking about in the serene surrounds of Oakland Park.
As he grew under the Duncan's devoted care, they began to realise that the youngster “had something” - that indefinable quality that only the expert breeder notices.
He would never be flash to look at. He wouldn't have made any hearts quicken at a yearling sale, but the Duncans knew “ X-factor” when they saw it. Northerly had been bred in partnership with a group of shareholders from Kalgoorlie, and with Fred and Judith Kersley.
Once he was put into work in the stables of Fred, the legendary harness trainer who had switched to thoroughbreds, Northerly’s group of connections became quietly excited.
The name Northerly was an inspired choice, obviously referencing his dam but also conjuring up images of a horse that would run like the wind. It was a grand name.
In the southern hemisphere, northerlies are the winds of summer, blowing in from the endless baking plains of the interior. Often, they are at their strongest preceding an approaching storm.
And that's exactly what Northerly proved to be. He flew the skies across the Nullabor into Melbourne, and arrived like a storm-driven cloudburst of devastating talent!
His debut in Melbourne came in the 2001 G2 Carlyon Cup at Caulfield, at WFA over the mile. He won by four lengths in course record time for his new jockey Greg Childs.
Childs was the pilot of the undisputed champion of the day, Sunline. What a fateful meeting this was!
After carrying 59kg to third place in the Victoria Cup, Northerly headed to Flemington to tackle the big G1 of the southern autumn, the Australian Cup.
Nothing went to plan. Northerly sat three wide for the duration of the 2000m heavyweight contest. It made no difference. When Childs pushed the button, Northerly burst away from the field and cruised in by three lengths. Another course record!
He clocked 1:59.46 seconds and the only horse that has ever gone faster since then is Makybe Diva, who broke his record in 2005 when winning the Australian Cup in 1:58.73 seconds.
Childs fronted the media, who were waiting agog to hear his opinion of this new star on the scene:
“On that run today, to break the track record after racing three-wide, you'd have to say he's already on the way up to Sunline's status. He's not quite Sunline yet, but he's got all the hallmarks of a champion.”
It was what everyone wanted to hear. The rivalry was now official - Sunline v Northerly was the new drawcard in Australian racing!
All turf conversation from that point onwards was centred on the Cox Plate of 2001.
Sunline already had two of them gleaming proudly in her trophy cabinet. The Queen would not give up her WFA crown easily. Sunline was a fighter too, but her method was brutal domination rather than Northerly's relentless last-man-standing style. What a contest it was going to be.
Northerly's famous silks - yellow, black Maltese Cross and quartered cap - had been carried to big race victories by numerous fine Oakland Park bred gallopers, and would be carried again by the Kersley trained Marasco to G1 victory in Melbourne, after Northerly had made them world famous.
The yellow and black silks were part of the reason for Northerly's nickname - “The Fighting Tiger.”
It was race caller Greg Miles who christened him, in a typical moment of inspired genius.
“I think it was the Underwood Stakes and he was fighting tooth and nail with another horse, and I called him as 'fighting like a tiger'” remembered Miles later.
"After that I started calling him The Fighting Tiger. Fred Kersley took me aside one awards night and said 'I really like that Fighting Tiger stuff'.
"It just summed up what Northerly was about."
The old Valley was more than an amphitheatre that spring day in 2021 - it was a Colosseum! The joint was packed and the atmosphere beyond electric.
Punters installed Sunline as a narrow favourite. This was her turf. She'd lead them a merry dance, and Northerly would have to work like never before to beat her this time.
Sunline zoomed them along in her usual style, but when the Cox Plate field turned into the straight, the three year old Viscount would not be dispensed with as easily as the Queen would have wished.
Carrying the famous Ingham cerise silks, the striking black colt was giving a more than passable Octagonal impersonation as he moved up to Sunline, and the crowd roared with excitement.
Northerly had looked to be full bore and feeling the pinch even before the turn. Now suddenly here he was making a line of three!
It was one of the all time great Cox Plate finishes - with Viscount the unwilling burger getting grilled on both sides by two white hot rivals.
Seldom has such post-race drama been seen, but eventually, after three long protests, Northerly was the victor. Norton had done it. He’d run down the great Sunline and won the Cox Plate!
The brutal race took it out of him, but Northerly found form the following spring winning the Craiglee (now Makybe Diva), Underwood and Turnbull Stakes prompting Fred Kersley to announce his champion would contest the Caulfield Cup.
This was huge! Northerly had never raced beyond 2000m in his life. He would have to carry a punishing 58kg to win the Cup. Racing fans could talk of nothing else.
Pedigree students pointed to the fact that Northerly's sire Serheed had got the Cup's third placegetter ( at 60/1) the year before - the bonny West Aussie mare Celestial Show.
History was firmly against Northerly, as were a lot of turf pundits, but such was the faith in his fighting qualities, he was sent out as hot favourite on Caulfield Cup day.
As well as Fields Of Omagh with a mere 53.5kg, the Cup field was stacked with classy stayers who would have a massive weight pull on the champ. They included the Kiwi - bred Distinctly Secret and Tommy Hughe's charismatic Grey Song (they would fill the placings the following year behind Mummify), the grand mare Republic Lass, Freemason, Pentastic, Rain Gauge and Universal Prince, while a posse of tough and talented NZ-ers loomed large - Kaapstad Way ( second in 2000), Hail, Thesecondmortgage, Prized Gem.
Also bred in the shaky isles was the David Hayes trained Helene Vitality, while Tully Thunder, Dash For Cash and the only import, Godolphin's Beekeeper, rounded out a great field.
The last 100m created one of those moments all racing fans treasure. Two great horses duelling out the closing stages of an iconic race. Fields Of Omagh never gave up but Northerly, his held held high, would not admit defeat. Northerly in a photo!
Since that epic Caulfield Cup win, the record shows how brave his effort was, let alone the fact that he came out of it and won another Cox Plate seven days later.
After the 2002 Cox Plate, Northerly returned to WA where he was now the subject of public worship.
He raced on for another season, but injury ultimately curtailed his career and he was officially retired on the 6th of October 2004.
His record stood at 19 wins ( nine of them G1) and 9 placings from 37 starts which earned him $9.34 million.
The peerless turf writer Les Carlyon had penned famous words about Northerly that were often fondly quoted. Let's quote them again.
“He fools you every time he races. He has the body language of a loser and a heart as big as the Nullarbor," wrote Les, who was one of Northerly's biggest fans.
"He invariably looks to be struggling, a shambles of a horse blundering around on memory while his jockey pumps and blusters. Then he gets going.
One instant Northerly looks beaten, the next he looks unbeatable. The closer he gets to the post, the harder he tries. He grinds on. And on. And on."
It was a brilliant description of the effect watching Northerly race had on people. The sheer courage of the horse was compelling.
From where did such greatness come?
Northerly had a truly fascinating pedigree.
Northerly was bred
Northern Dancer 4m x 5m,4m
Raise A Native 3f x 5f
Native Dancer 5f,4m x 7f,6f,6m
Menow 5f, 5m x 5f
Blue Hen Dinner Partner 3f x 5m
Blue Hen Flaming Page 3m x 5f s
His passing in 2012 was sudden and came without warning as Norton was in fine health and only fifteen - quite young for a thoroughbred.
He went down with severe colic in his paddock on May 9th, 2012. Exhaustive efforts were made to save him, but in the evening a grief-stricken Neville and Sue Duncan made the decision to let their beloved champion go peacefully.
He was laid to rest at Oakland Park.
Tributes flowed from the people who knew Northerly best.
“It's a very sad time," said Fred Kersley.
"My expectation was that he would live quite a bit longer; in fact I've been known to say he'd probably outlive me. It's disappointing that we lost him the way we did and as soon as we did. There's certainly a lot of grief about that….I'm just shocked really.”
Kersley said he believed no horse did more for WA racing than Northerly.
“I don't think any other horse made a bigger impact on the racing scene in WA and I acknowledge all the other great horses like Aquanita and Placid Ark; there's been many great horses.
“But he holds his head high, even in that company, because of what he achieved and the way he did it.
“I believe he gave West Australian people a reason to be proud. He rekindled the interest in racing; people from all walks of life took an interest again in racing because of Northerly.
“That's the endearing memory that I have of this horse. You don't expect an animal to do that - but he did."
