MV On Track 2018

ON TRACK MAGAZINE 31 The return from his exile could not have been scripted any better: the broke but unbroken jockey who had been given a chance by a grumpy old trainer called Jack Denham, on a monster horse called Might and Power, who was owned by a Sydney fruit shop owner called Nick Moraitis. Might and Power didn’t just win races but broke hearts. His natural instinct was to lead and keep charging forward, sending the rest of the horses behind him into meltdown. After claiming the elusive cups double, though, most pundits believed we’d seen the best of “Mighty” as the 1998 spring carnival rolled around. He struggled to the line in the early stages of his preparation, with the Cox Plate to be his grand final day. Denham had also fallen out spectacularly with Cassidy, as grumpy old trainers and headstrong jockeys seem to do. Indeed, they had clashed in two separate stewards’ inquiries in Sydney: the first over Cassidy’s use of the whip while aboard Filante; the second after his ride on a horse called Banner Headline. Cassidy was suspended and lost the ride on Might and Power to Brian York. With Cassidy out of the saddle, the unthinkable happened: the big horse finished seventh in the George Main Stakes, fading badly in the straight. A virus was blamed. Others claimed that nobody knew the horse better than Pumper. Might and Power just breaks their hearts and he nearly broke mine. -Jack Denham