Mick Robins, the oldest living Melbourne Cup winning trainer

The Wimmera Mail-Times

The boy from Broken Hill, Mick Robins, won the Melbourne Cup in 1968 and 1969 with Rain Lover. He details his rise, admiration of Bart Cummings, and how we come to train the champion stallion.

Transcript

00:00 - I left Broken Dawn Dining in '60.

00:02 I came down, I thought I wanted to get qualified better.

00:07 And I knew Bart comes to Sagaday too.

00:12 So I came down and went to see Bart.

00:16 Bart had the best strappers.

00:18 He used to have about one horse to every strapper.

00:23 Them days are a bit different now.

00:27 And then he said, "No, I'm right, mate."

00:31 So I come back in 1962,

00:33 and there's a little fellow called Johnny Salento.

00:37 He used to come over to this little delicatessen

00:41 what Farrandal had.

00:44 And he had a couple, always had a couple of good horses,

00:48 no champions.

00:50 So he said to me one day,

00:52 he said, "Son-in-law's still looking for a job."

00:56 I said, "Yeah."

00:57 So he said, "Graham Hegney wants a man."

01:02 So I go down and see Graham Hegney.

01:06 I thought, "I'll give it a go."

01:09 So I give it a go.

01:10 I was there 12 months,

01:11 and Gavin Gavin won the Melbourne Cup in 1963.

01:16 And I thought, "Gee, this is pretty good."

01:19 Been here 12 months and won the Melbourne Cup.

01:21 Like Graham trained him, but I was looking after him.

01:25 Then came along a horse called Taborn Bronze.

01:28 The Browns, crack metal people,

01:31 were the biggest owners in LA.

01:33 And they bred this horse.

01:36 Brought him into the stables.

01:41 Since sunrise, I couldn't get down there

01:47 and have a look at him quick enough.

01:48 Well, he ended up a champion.

01:51 And it was all through Taborn Bronze

01:54 that I got on the wade as the trainer of Ray Lover.

01:59 He won the Caulfield Cup, a derby.

02:04 He won the first coxsplay he won,

02:07 and then he got offers from America.

02:11 So the Browns decided they'd sell him

02:14 before he won the second coxsplay.

02:16 So they sold him, and he wins the second coxsplay.

02:22 And then he goes to America, the horse,

02:25 and he went all right,

02:28 but he was never the same type of horse.

02:30 So that's when my luck changed.

02:34 They got in touch with Graham Hegney

02:38 and offered him, his wife, daughter,

02:42 and a strapper, someone to look after the horse,

02:46 to come to America for three months.

02:48 I kept the stables while Graham was away

02:50 for the three months.

02:51 Had a couple of runs, got beat, never won one.

02:58 Got beat at Inch one day,

03:01 ran the second and third a couple of times,

03:05 and I hadn't won a race with him

03:07 until Graham, the three months was up,

03:11 he'd come home on the Friday night before the derby day.

03:16 That was a Saturday before the Melbourne Cup.

03:19 So Graham come home on the Friday night,

03:23 and rain lovers in the McKinnon Estates,

03:27 and I always took notice of that,

03:29 coming to see, I used to be out of track every morning,

03:32 I used to always watch what he was doing.

03:36 He used to say the best way to learn is look and listen.

03:40 And he always said, "You've got to run on the Saturday

03:45 before the Melbourne Cup."

03:46 So I had rain lover in the McKinnon Estates on the Saturday,

03:50 and lucky enough, Graham come home on the Friday night,

03:56 and I'm not saying for sure,

03:59 but had rain lover not won on the Saturday,

04:02 I think he might have had a new trainer for the Melbourne Cup.

04:05 He races in the McKinnon Estates,

04:08 and he wins, wins impressively.

04:11 Then he comes out on the Tuesday,

04:14 well, he ran a race record,

04:17 and won the Melbourne Cup by about five lengths on him.

04:20 So that put the nail in the coffin,

04:24 is who's going to train him.

04:26 And Bart had won the Melbourne Cup

04:31 in '65 with light fingers,

04:34 Galilee '66,

04:37 a red-handed '67.

04:39 But he had four runners in the Cup on '68.

04:45 So coming up '68, he'd got four runners,

04:48 and I've got rain lover, or rain lover wins.

04:52 And he was the first one in the mountain,

04:53 you know, one of the first,

04:55 to shake my hand and said, "Good on you, son."

04:59 He's only two years older than me.

05:01 He said, "I should have given you a job that day."

05:04 (laughing)

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