30 Years On: Cassidy relives Stradbroke Masterpiece aboard Rough Habit

[Chief Stipe]

www.racenet.com.au

Jimmy Cassidy says the 1992 Stradbroke Handicap is one of the great editions of the race.

He would know, seeing he had the best view of all of it.

The name Rough Habit has become synonymous with the Stradbroke thanks to his weaving, last-to-first booming finish, which saw Cassidy steal victory from the jaws of defeat to go back-to-back and etch his name into the history books.

Three decades on, Cassidy says the now-famous ride is one of his best ever, and remembers the vivid details of the day, with his champion galloper dealt a seemingly impossible hand – 58.5 kgs and barrier 24.

Faced with a wall of tiring horses at the top of the straight, Cassidy elected to weave a passage through the inside and it eventually paid off, knocking off Chris Munce on Barossa Boy in what is regarded as the best-ever Stradbroke ride.

“It was quite funny, I spoke at the Carbine Club luncheon on the Friday with (trainer) John Wheeler, and I tipped him to win the Stradbroke – I just said he has 58.5 kgs, he has to go back-to-back and he has 24 alley, he has everything against him but he will still win,” Cassidy told News Corp.

“Our plan was always to go back, he was a back marker and we had to from the alley. It was a waiting game, that’s all it was. I couldn’t go around them and win, he had to have luck so I rode him for that.”

As it turns out, there was more than luck involved, with Cassidy’s homework on every single runner before the race paying dividends when he needed it most.

“When the horses are tiring, they usually wander out a bit so the luck was on the inside. I thought I would take every inside run, it panned out perfectly,” he said.

“The main thing you are looking for is an uninterrupted run, you can’t afford to get stopped because he had nine stone on his back and he’s coming from 20 lengths off them.

“I knew the horse well and I knew he could run sectionals and his last 600m that day was phenomenal, let alone his last 200m.

“I was looking for runs where I wasn’t going to get stopped and when I switched inside over the last 80m, it was the winning move.

“He gave me everything, it was amazing to be part of something like that, it was one of my great rides to be honest, it would be in my top five of all time.

“It was a full field of 20-0dd runners so I was going to have to be eight or 10 deep to go around them on the corner, it would have taken four or five lengths off him, I thought it’d be impossible to win doing that.

“There were no slouches in the race, Barossa Boy and Schillachi, it was a good Stradbroke so the main thing was an uninterrupted run – it is like any race, let alone a Group 1.”

Munce still cringes 30 years on about the race that got away.

“I did, I thought I was home,” he said. “He (Barossa Boy) was flying that year, when we straightened up I thought we were going all the way.

Jimmy Cassidy would come back to win the Doomben Cup on Rough Habit in 1993. Picture: News Corp Australia.

“Because he (Cassidy) was back to the inside, I didn’t hear him, he came through so quick – that’s just how ‘Roughie’ used to race, the quick sprint at the end of the race.

“Barossa Boy was my first Group 1 winner and I beat Rough Habit in the Doomben 10,000 before the Stradbroke.

“It was across the road at Doomben and it was a handicap back then so when we went back across the road for the Stradbroke, Barossa Boy got re-handicapped and Roughie turned the tables on us.”

In a world with strict whip rules and a changed style of riding, could Cassidy’s win be replicated in 2022?

“If you have the right horse,” Cassidy laughed. “There’s not a lot of horses around of his quality around now.

“I didn’t flog him, I probably only hit him in the last 100m because he was making ground that quick, under the current rules he would still beat them now.

“In big races you can’t afford to get held up, you only get one crack at it – 1400m so you have 81 seconds to make all the right moves.

“It is the difference between a good jockey and an average jockey. Good jockeys make their own luck and poor ones don’t seem to have luck, they find ways of getting held up.”

[Chief Stipe]

 

 

[Chief Stipe]

 

[Doomed]

Certainly one of the great races. Similar effort from Najmaty in the last at Eagle Farm a couple of weeks ago, but she didn't have to go through the field.

[Gammalite]

Incredible Win . Was there that day to marvel at that one. Just a magic moment in time when something like that happens. Rough Habit coming from 'back of Bourke' in the running to get the win . 

It reminded me of Jimmy on KIWI in the Melbourne Cup 10 years before that. 2 of the best from Pumper Jim.