Cairns Cup Jockey’s family ties

How Massinghams ensured Holt’s career didn’t halt

Holt was a young kid from Townsville around eight years ago trying to make his way in the metro ranks in Brisbane.

He rode for trainer Steven O’Dea, living with him as well, but it was O’Dea’s stable foreman, Aileen, Massingham’s sister, who kept his emerging career on track.

“When I first went to Brisbane as a kid, Aileen was like my mum, that was how I got associated with the family,” Holt said.

“She used to do all our cleaning and ironing and I never had my licence, so she did all the running around for me. She was like my mum down there, really.

“She is very knowledgeable and been around the horses a long time, as well.”

Holt was the leading apprentice rider in the southeast for a little while, before the weight got the best of him, forcing a semi-retirement. He moved back to Townsville with now wife Georgie, a trainer at Cluden, and after a few years away from race riding, started to make a comeback in March.

Holt was still a bit heavy and was not getting a stack of opportunities on the fast ones.

That was before he was given the chance on what rivals call an “Orange Ferrari” – The Harrovian, trained by Massingham.

In the star’s return to the track after winning the firstever Queensland Northern Crown Series bonus last year, in what was a little bit of a surprise move at the time, Massingham gave Holt the ride, even though he had never been on the horse before.

The leading FNQ trainer did not want to put an apprentice on the “Orange Ferrari” and to eliminate the dead weight, he chucked on a top heavyweight rider.

“He knew I was trying to make a comeback, it gives me a leg up,” Holt recalled.

“The horse is quality, we know that, and he threw me a bone and it got me going again in the comeback.

“It really got my name back out there, if people saw that Boogie (Massingham) thought

I was good enough to ride The Harrovian, they will be thinking that I must have some idea and able to ride (laughs).” Massingham went into bat for his mate.

“The kid is a gun, he can ride as good as any,” he said straight after Holt’s first win back in his comeback on The Harrovian.

The Harrovian is chasing a rare slice of history this afternoon.

The star gelding crossed the line first in the Cairns Amateurs Cup of 2019 to score the first-ever Queensland Northern Crown Series bonus, to go with the Cairns and Townsville Cups last year. The six-year-old secured more than $460,000 while rewriting

THE HORSE IS

QUALITY, WE KNOW THAT, AND HE THREW ME A BONE AND IT GOT ME GOING AGAIN IN THE COMEBACK.

history over the northern carnival.

The Cup campaign this year had never been on the agenda, with the gelding set to cop too much weight to be competitive.

Instead now looking towards a short trip, the 1400m Cairns Newmarket, a weightfor-age race, which gives The Harrovian a chance to add to his already all-time resume in the north.

Some of the racing industry feel the Cairns Newmarket changed to a weight-for-Age race just to suit The Harrovian.

In making its decision on programming the Cairns Cup carnival in 2020, Racing Queensland earlier this year pointed to Mr Attitude, trained by Ricky Vale, and Peacock, who won north Queensland sprint races earlier in the carnival in previous years before being handed big weights by the time they landed at Cannon Park.

Even if the change was made just to suit The Harrovian, let’s enjoy a champion go around this afternoon at our home track with a quality rider on board, in Holt.