Wellington Cup legend
He made his name by winning Australia’s most famous races and his knack of finding controversy but one of Jim Cassidy’s proudest moments came on the opposite side of the Tasman.
Cassidy, who was born and raised in Lower Hutt, has put his name on almost every major cup or trophy in Australasia.
Two Melbourne Cups, a Golden Slipper, a Caulfield Cup and three Australian Derbys, Cassidy - aka the Pumper - as most knew him had an up and down career that was littered with controversy but bursting with success.
From losing everything having to sell his house and pull his daughters out of private school - when he was banned during the infamous jockey tapes scandal, to making friends with Melbourne gangster Tony Mokbel, delivering hilarious one-liners and winning 104 Group I races, Cassidy is a loveable rogue and one of racings last great characters.
But few would pick one of his most special wins.
It wasn’t at Flemington, Moonee Valley, Caulfield or even Randwick. It came at Trentham just a few days before he turned 20.
Saturday’s Wellington Cup marks 35 years since a young Cassidy and a horse brought for just $1000 came charging home from near last to win the 1983 Wellington Cup. That horse was the iconic Kiwi. He was just as much at home rounding up stock on Snow and Anne Lupton’s Waverley farm as he was on the race track.
Nine months later, Cassidy, the Luptons and Kiwi would combine for that famous last to first win in the Melbourne Cup but the Wellington Cup was never forgotten.
"It was my hometown Cup so I remember it like it was yesterday," Cassidy said.
As a child, he would sit in the stand and watch the Wellington Cup every year and run around picking up losing tote tickets.
He fondly remembers watching jockey Maurice Campbell win the 1976 Wellington Cup aboard Guest Star.
At the time he wanted to be an All Black or a jockey.
"When you’re four foot seven you can’t be an All Black. I think I made the right choice," he quipped.
"Mum and Dad used to take us to the races pretty much every weekend they could."
The Wellington Cup win was a proud moment for the entire Cassidy family.
"Especially being a Lower Hutt boy," Cassidy said.
A member of the Hall Of Fame on both sides of the Tasman, one of Cassidy’s proudest moments was the night he was inducted into the Hutt Valley Sporting Legends alongside former All Black Andy Leslie.
"There wouldn’t be a lot of people who did what little Jimbo from Lower Hutt has done," he proudly said of a career that spanned more than three decades.
At the time he thought it was the greatest race outside of the Melbourne Cup to win.
Cassidy, who retired from one of the most talked about career’s Australasian racing has ever seen back in 2015, has been based in Sydney since 1984 but remains a proud Wellingtonian and of course a Kiwi.
Kiwi’s Melbourne Cup victory is still rated as one of the all-time great Cup wins today.
"It was a really special time in my life."
It was not his only famous victory from a seemingly impossible position, he was aboard Kiwi hero Rough Habbit in his legendary Stardbroke victory.
Cassidy’s second Melbourne Cup win was just as satisfying. An all the way win in 1997 aboard Might and Power, who held on to win by a nose despite the secondplaced jockey Greg Hall saluting aboard Doriemus, came just ten months after his return from the jockey tapes suspension.
In 1995, Australian Federal Police, who were conducting a surveillance operation on drug dealer Victor Spink, intercepted calls between him and several top jockeys.
Cassidy was one of them. He was front and back page news and was eventually banned for three years - later reduced to 21 months for exchanging tips for payment.
Jockeys and trainers are banned from tipping in return for money.
His career was in tatters, if not over, and he was facing the darkest days of his life.
Forced to sell just about everything he owned, Cassidy had to take up casual labouring jobs.
"I lost everything. But everyone has tough times, you’ve just to handle it and carry on," Cassidy said with his usual unflappable nature.
Nobody can knock his mental toughness.
"To be able to bounce back and get through it, I’m very proud of that."
In his own words, Cassidy said he was not perfect but he was no cheat either.
He vehemently denies that he ever pulled a horse up and swears he was never involved in race fixing.
They are tags that would taint most jockey’s career forever, but Cassidy’s larger than life personality and ability in the saddle has mostly overcome it.
That’s no surprise, Cassidy has overcome a lot of things and he is proud of it.
He has been faced with many scandals, most notably with his friendship with infamous gangland figure Mokbel.
Cassidy said he meet many good people in racing but also some that had made his life go off track, it was all part of growing up, he says.
The toll on his body was just as tough. Cassidy has broken almost every bone in his body.
He has no regrets, but would he change anything?
"I don’t think like that because you can’t change it."
Cassidy will be in Perth on Saturday but he will be back at the Wellington Cup next year.
Starting with the Auckland Cup in March, Cassidy will team up with former All Blacks wing and fellow Wellingtonian Stu Wilson for a series of sports dinners that will be aptly named Rugby, Racing and Beer.
The events will follow the major racing carnivals at Ellerslie, Trentham, Riccarton and All Black tests on both sides of the Tasman.