Trainer’s ‘lucky life’ a racing adventure
RACING: Clifford Park is a sadder place this week following the passing of Jim Bannon.
The long-time Toowoomba trainer died peacefully last week, aged 76, and was farewelled at a private service on Tuesday.
Racing and life will carry on, but for those who knew Jim — and for those who weren’t lucky enough to know him — it will never be quite the same. It can’t be.
Jim proudly took with him a piece of racing old school and history that is irreplaceable.
Jim ran away, when he was just 14 years old, from his family home in Smithtown for the bright lights of Sydney where the 31kg teenager aimed to become apprenticed to legendary trainer TJ Smith.
“I left home when I was 14,” Jim said in The Chronicle back in 2015 when recalling his life journey.
“I didn’t go home that day. I caught the train to Sydney instead. The first mum saw of me in Sydney was on the Movietone News one day leading horses around.”
Well-known Sydney racing identity “Clarence The Clocker” (Arthur Davies) introduced Jim to Smith and his life working with thoroughbreds had officially begun.
Jim soon became too heavy to live his dream of becoming a jockey, but he remained a loyal employee of Smith who entrusted him with the care of some of Australia’s best horses.
One of his prized jobs was strapping Travel Boy who was stabled alongside the mighty Tulloch.
“Travel Boy was no slouch himself. He won a Sires, two Derbies and ran in the Melbourne Cup as a three-yearold,” said Jim who still had a crop of hair he souvenired from the tail of Tulloch.
After 10 years rubbing shoulders with Sydney racing’s elite trainers, jockeys and owners Jim made his way to Brisbane in 1966.
There he worked with trainers Fred Best and Jack Clayton before deciding to again try his luck in Sydney.
But his planned trip down the Newell Highway included a stopover in Toowoomba which changed Jim’s life forever.
“I was going back to Smith in Sydney but on the way I dropped in to have a look at Clifford Park,” Jim said.
“It was a great racing centre at the time and I just took a liking to the place.
“I think Richie (Stephenson) arrived in Toowoomba about five or six months after me and the competition was pretty tough.”
Jim Atkins, Pat Lee, Hiram Philp, Kevin Webb, Frank Reen, Jack Booshand, John Wallace, along with Gordon and Billy Neale were some of Clifford Park’s leading trainers during Jim’s early Toowoomba days.
Jim’s stable stars over the years included Mayne Kingdom, Lomas, Mayne Fusilier, Boroloola Lass and Reality Boy.
Jim also enjoyed a lengthy association with owner Keith Beavis and his former apprentice jockey Terry Lynch, who raced the “Just” horses with the stable.
“I haven’t done anything else in life but work with horses,” Jim said.
“I’ve been lucky enough to have done a lot of things most people think about.
“I could have retired five years ago, but what would I do?
“Horses give you a reason to get out of bed every day.”