Sentimental weekend for Moroney family

It was a sentimental weekend for the Moroney family as they gathered at Flemington Racecourse in Melbourne on Saturday to witness the inaugural running of the Listed Michael Moroney (1400m), named in honour of the trainer who passed away last year.

While a proud Kiwi, the Melbourne track had been Moroney’s home base for more than a quarter of a century, and his daughter, Aliesha Moroney-Ormsby, said it was only fitting that a race bearing his name was run at the track.

“Chicquita Lodge has been a big part of our lives and for our family,” she said. “Leaving that was quite hard. There is the big sign there that the horses always run past. He loved New Zealand but he equally loved being over here (Melbourne) as well, so to have it at Flemington made absolute sense.”

Moroney-Ormsby said that before his passing, her father had shared a desire for a race to bear his name, and she was touched to see that dream come to fruition on Saturday.

“Funnily enough, we joked about it before he passed,” she said. “He was like ‘I would love to be like Bart (Cummings) and have a race named after me’, but we thought it was on the hopes and dreams list and not the reality list. To see his final wish actually come to reality is pretty amazing for the family.”

Moroney-Ormsby, who operates Riverrock Farm in Waikato with her husband, Chad Ormsby, was glad to share the day with her family, as well as Anthony Feroce, Moroney’s long-time racing manager, who had been such an integral part of his success.

“It is a pretty big achievement, not just for him but to so many people who have played a big part,” she said. “My Mum, Jane, came over, she helped out at Ballymore with my Dad. His grandkids were there and his sister Sue and brother Paul, and my cousin Melissa. Anthony, his racing manager, and partner Karen was there as well.

“It was a pretty big day for everyone because it is a big team effort to get those sorts of accolades, and to see that come forward into the race is pretty special.”

Moroney-Ormsby said it was a bittersweet return to Melbourne, with the city feeling a little emptier without her father’s presence, but Saturday became a poignant day to remember him.

“I was a bit apprehensive about coming back to Melbourne because I haven’t been back since his celebration of life, and Melbourne has been such a great place for us because we would always come and see Dad, and we went out of our way to do that,” she said. “I have had no other reason to come to Melbourne.

“They had the Chairman’s speech, and we were hosted in the Chairman’s Lounge by the VRC (Victoria Racing Club), which was awesome, and all the flowers on the table were in Ballymore colours.

“When I looked up at the big screen and saw his face and memorial up there it started to hit home a bit. When I got up to speak, I was a bit of a blubbering mess. It was a lot harder than I thought it would be.”

While emotions were already high, they were only enhanced when Kiwi filly Lara Antipova won the race.

The recently crowned Champion New Zealand juvenile of last season is trained by New Zealander Mark Walker, who spent several years training alongside Moroney at Matamata, and raced by John Galvin’s Fortuna Racing Syndicate, with Galvin a long-time friend of Moroney.

“We talked about who we would want to win it and we said if a Kiwi had a connection that is going to be pretty cool,” Moroney-Ormsby said.

“What set me off was when John Galvin, who I have worked with before, came over and he spoke about how much the race really meant to him because John, Paul and my Dad went way back and used to drink together when they were younger. To have that Kiwi connection was great.

“Also, the jockey, Mark (Zahra), was the last one to have ridden in Dad’s name officially, so that was a fitting connection as well.”

Moroney-Ormsby has enjoyed spending some time in Melbourne over the last few days honouring her father, reminiscing on her time in the city with him, and making new memories with her family.

“I used to love coming over here and going to the track with Dad,” she said. “I have a lot of good memories out at that Flemington hut with the trainers and seeing the comradery and banter.

“He used to always stop and have a cheeky pie on the way home, which was not part of his diet. Things like that you laugh about now.

“We had some great memories with him when he was unwell because we really made the effort to go and do stuff with Dad and for the first time we were like tourists. We went to the wineries and things like that, which we wouldn’t normally have done.

“We have a lot of good memories over here with Dad, including all the big races that he has won. It felt like a home away from home, but it probably doesn’t feel quite like that anymore with him gone.”

Moroney’s legacy is set to continue at Riverrock Farm next week when the family hosts their first Angus bull sale.

Moroney funded the establishment of the Angus stud at their farm to give his grandchildren a tangible investment, and Moroney-Ormsby said her family are enjoying the new venture, which provides them a different pace to their main income at Riverrock Farm – racehorses and ready-to-run horses.

“We really love it,” she said. “Dad bought the cattle for the kids. He was buying them shares on the stock market and then he thought it was good for them to go out there and see something grow and have to be a part of it. He actually started the stud for us, and we have got some pretty cool bulls. It is a nice slow to our hectic, because they don’t go anywhere near that fast (as racehorses).”

The open day and bull walk for the sale will take place at Riverrock Farm next Wednesday, September 23, at 3pm, where they will showcase the five bulls that will go under the virtual hammer from 7pm on September 29 on bidr.

Reflecting on the weekend, Moroney-Ormsby was glad to celebrate the memory of her father, and she hopes the race becomes a coveted contest on the racing calendar, with the victors having plenty of volume in the trophy to toast to their success.

“It is a big trophy too,” she said. “We were laughing because he would love somebody to be drinking some Pinot out of that and then we saw the trophy and said that would be about three bottles of Pinot.

“It was a pretty special day, and the wish for the family is that the race becomes something that people are really proud to win, and that they hopefully stop and have a moment to reflect on the person that it is about, in terms of Dad. Hopefully a lot of them still remember him.

“I know the thing that would make him the most proud is that if the race can be won by a lot of good horses but also helps kick off the careers of jockeys and trainers, because you need those things (big race wins) to help careers get started.”