![\"Orange](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/OrangeCounty-OliverDamien-09202008-6972-1024x683.jpg\")
Orange County followed a Group 1 racing career with a long career as a clerk of the course. (Photo: Bronwen Healy \u2013 The Image Is Everything) <\/p>\nOrange County followed a Group 1 racing career with a long career as a clerk of the course. (Photo: Bronwen Healy \u2013 The Image Is Everything) <\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
An integral part of Brian Mayfield-Smith\u2019s Melbourne stable when the champion trainer returned after a hiatus from racing, Orange County\u2019s biggest moment on the racetrack came in the Sir Rupert Clarke Stakes.<\/p>\n
Ridden by Damien Oliver, Orange County defeated Bon Hoffa and Turffontein in the 2008 edition.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
But he wasn\u2019t lost to racing, thanks to the keen eye of master horseman Julien Welsh, a constant companion in Orange County\u2019s life up until his death this week at the age of 23.<\/p>\n
\u201cI said to Brian after a race one day, \u2018when you decide to retire him, I\u2019d love to use him as a clerk-of-the-course horse\u2019,\u201d Welsh told The Straight.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen he was racing he was just a beautiful, quiet horse. He to go around to the barriers off the bridle.<\/p>\n
\u201cBrian told me there were a lot of people interested in him, and then he rang me that night, and he said, \u2018I\u2019d rather see him doing a job and being back in the public eye again\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo I got him after that last race, and he came to my house the next day.\u201d<\/p>\n
That started a relationship with Welsh that spanned more than a decade on Melbourne\u2019s city racetracks in their clerk-of-the-course duties.<\/p>\n
He did all the metropolitan tracks \u2026 he was a city horse, and rightly so, after being a Group 1 winner,\u201d Welsh said.<\/p>\n
\u201cA 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople would never forget those horses,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven when I go to the races today, the people who have backed him over the years still ask me about him.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe kids loved him \u2026 he was a favourite.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/orangecountryclerk.jpg\")
Orange County spent a decade as a clerk of the course. (Photo: Supplied)<\/p>\n
Orange County also developed a bond with Winx as the champion mare rewrote the record books with her four successive Cox Plate triumphs.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe took Winx around to the barriers and stayed with Hughie a lot of the time when he was getting to the start,\u201d Welsh said.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy neighbour Kerry Delaney has been looking after him for probably four years,\u201d Welsh said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was in fantastic hands there, but he was right next door to me so I saw him every day. You were never far away.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe had two great careers. He was a good racehorse, and he was a fantastic clerk-of-the-course horse.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust an exceptional horse and they\u2019re very hard\u00a0to\u00a0come\u00a0by.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Orange County followed a Group 1 racing career with a long career as a clerk of the course.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":520632,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4107],"tags":[1071,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-520631","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-racing","8":"tag-racing","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115420095605177176","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/520631","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=520631"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/520631\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/520632"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=520631"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=520631"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=520631"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}