Orange County followed a Group 1 racing career with a long career as a clerk of the course. (Photo: Bronwen Healy – The Image Is Everything)
Orange County, a Group 1 winner who would later establish an important raceday connection with Winx and her jockey Hugh Bowman during an unprecedented sequence of four Cox Plate wins, has died.
An integral part of Brian Mayfield-Smith’s Melbourne stable when the champion trainer returned after a hiatus from racing, Orange County’s biggest moment on the racetrack came in the Sir Rupert Clarke Stakes.
Ridden by Damien Oliver, Orange County defeated Bon Hoffa and Turffontein in the 2008 edition.
He turned out to be the last of more than 30 Group 1 winners that Mayfield-Smith trained before closing his Flemington base and retiring to a farm northeast of Melbourne.
Orange County raced 43 times for nine wins, 11 placings and almost $850,000 in prizemoney before finishing his career on Caulfield Cup day in 2009.
But he wasn’t lost to racing, thanks to the keen eye of master horseman Julien Welsh, a constant companion in Orange County’s life up until his death this week at the age of 23.
“I said to Brian after a race one day, ‘when you decide to retire him, I’d love to use him as a clerk-of-the-course horse’,” Welsh told The Straight.
“When he was racing he was just a beautiful, quiet horse. He to go around to the barriers off the bridle.
“Brian told me there were a lot of people interested in him, and then he rang me that night, and he said, ‘I’d rather see him doing a job and being back in the public eye again’.
“So I got him after that last race, and he came to my house the next day.”
That started a relationship with Welsh that spanned more than a decade on Melbourne’s city racetracks in their clerk-of-the-course duties.
He did all the metropolitan tracks … he was a city horse, and rightly so, after being a Group 1 winner,” Welsh said.
“A lot of people knew him at the races, which was great. He did all the Cox Plates that Winx ran in, Melbourne Cups. He was as an integral part of it.”
Welsh said Orange County took to his new role in an instant, temperament and intelligence making him a natural and he remained a popular horse with racegoers until retirement.
“People would never forget those horses,” he said.
“Even when I go to the races today, the people who have backed him over the years still ask me about him.
“The kids loved him … he was a favourite.”
Orange County spent a decade as a clerk of the course. (Photo: Supplied)
Orange County also developed a bond with Winx as the champion mare rewrote the record books with her four successive Cox Plate triumphs.
“We took Winx around to the barriers and stayed with Hughie a lot of the time when he was getting to the start,” Welsh said.
When Welsh stepped down as a clerk of the course to concentrate on his successful breaking-in and pre-training business, Orange County followed him into retirement.
“My neighbour Kerry Delaney has been looking after him for probably four years,” Welsh said.
“He was in fantastic hands there, but he was right next door to me so I saw him every day. You were never far away.
“He had two great careers. He was a good racehorse, and he was a fantastic clerk-of-the-course horse.
“Just an exceptional horse and they’re very hard to come by.”