On Track Magazine Spring 2021

18 DAVID HAINS KINGSTON TOWN GREATNESS AWARD David Hains is one of the most prolific owners and horse breeders of the 20th century. Born in 1931, Hains graduated from the University of Melbourne to become an engineer but quickly discovered his worth as a businessman, climbing the world wealth rankings through his Portland House Group, Australia’s biggest hedge fund. As a secondary occupation, though, Hains bred horses – and not just any horses. Hains bred multiple Group 1 winners. Lowan Star and Rose of Kingston were two of his best, but the main reason he will forever hold a special place in W.S. Cox Plate history is that he bred the champion who this very award was named after – Kingston Town. “The King” was one of the greatest racehorses we’ve ever seen in Australia. He had 41 starts, won 30 races, and reigned supreme in the W.S. Cox Plate in three consecutive years from 1980-1982, becoming the only horse in history to do so at the time. Of course, the great mare Winx has since come along, equaled, and then surpassed that feat, but at the time, hall of fame trainer T J Smith said he couldn’t split the mighty Tulloch and his newborn King. “The horse himself represented all the courage and all the greatness that you could ever expect from a racehorse,” David Hains once said in an interview. “And for that reason, the feeling of affection for him and respect for him never changed – irrespective of whether he won or lost.” For David Hains and connections of Kingston Town, however, their champion rarely lost. He came into the 1980 Cox Plate as a pronounced 6/4 favourite, or $2.50 in the new, and won by five-and-a-half widening lengths. The elephant in the room leading up to the 1980 Cox Plate was the fact that he had been beaten from four starts in Melbourne, while his Sydney form was faultless, but once T J Smith had ironed out his bad habit to get on his wrong leg, he was near unbeatable. By Ben Caluzzi