This horse has been in 55 races, but is not alone when it comes to winless starts to a career. Western Australian gelding Royal Glory has taken part in 60 winless races, and Victorian Dollar Bucks sits at 56.
Imagine the headlines: “Poor old Bedouin Bear is the country’s slowest racehorse”. This would be unfair and obviously inaccurate, not least because he has finished second twice and third thrice. In financial terms, he’s earned his keep at the Bellereve Racing and Breeding Stables, to the tune of $62,242 in prizemoney.
Bedouin Bear at ease in the yard.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
“He’s never been far off,” Hansch says. “He goes too hard. And the jockeys, if they try and stop him or slow him down, he puts his head up in the air, and he just bolts. He’s just too headstrong.”
Bear has fronted the stewards some 20 times, according to van Duren, and is no longer allowed to be ridden by apprentice jockeys. The problem is that Bear prefers the softer touch of a female jockey, and there aren’t many senior women available right now.
Bear is eavesdropping, and Hansch notices. “He’s just behind you,” she tells van Duren, who turns around casually and says: “Whaddaya doing, BB?” BB is being well-behaved today. “Normally,” Hansch says, “when you lead him out the yard he’s pulling you around and shoving you and everything. Like a big dog.”
He strongly dislikes being spelled, adds van Duren. “I put him out in the paddock every night, and in the morning he’s standing at the gate ready to come in. But this is his last roll of the dice, so we’ll give him a good spell.”
What? His last prep? Hansch qualifies this is merely the present-day view and predicts Bear could go close and reignite the fire for another farewell tour. He lives to work, apparently. But there’s also a more meaningful reason.
O’Neill, van Duren’s school friend and racing enthusiast, was also one of Bear’s co-owners and hellbent on keeping him going until that elusive maiden win was achieved. When he died suddenly of a heart attack, that goal became the focus for van Duren, Hansch and O’Neill’s wife, Elizabeth (another co-owner). “We’ve been trying to win the race for Mark,” Hansch says. “That’s one of the reasons he’s still around.”
To add another layer of significance, Bear is a rescue. One of a few that Van Duren and Hansch pulled out of Hardwicke Stud several years ago. The pair recount the time they received a call for help from friend Peter Holloway, who was then Hardwicke’s stud manager.
“He was there all through the drought with 30, 40 odd horses at least [and a shortage of feed],” Hansch says.
“The horses were calling out the shed and everything, and he was walking around in tears.
Kate Hansch, Jack Van Duren and Bedouin Bear at their Carwoola stables.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
“[The owner] told Pete to get rid of the horses. There were 13 broodmares, three of them in foal. Twenty-five two-year-old fillies, unnamed. And probably at least five colts. They loaded up the fillies and the mares. There was three other mares that were supposed to go, and Pete refused to put them on the truck because they were days off foaling.
“He said, ‘The truck’s coming tomorrow, whatever horses are left on the place are going on the truck’. He said, ‘If you’re interested in any of these horses, get over here now’.”
They drove the hour north-west to Yass that day.
“Altogether we pulled 15 horses out,” Hansch says.
They kept seven of those. Bear was one, as were some others with whom they have wins, including Papaver Miner.
“The others belonged to other people, and they were poor,” she says. “So when they came back here, we had to feed them all up and get in touch with the owners and sort things out. It wasn’t a very pleasant time.”
On the Body Condition Score, a 1-9 scale used to assess horse health, van Duren says their new rescues rated 1-5. That looked like cow-like coat-hanger hinds, protruding ribs and dull eyes, about 100kg lighter than a healthy two-year-old. They’d never been handled and had to start from scratch.
The conversation veers into the hearing that followed, Peter V’landys’ subsequent introduction of Racing NSW policy to rehabilitate all retired race horses, the requirement for all horses to be put down by a vet.
Van Duren says one of the horses they rescued broke her shoulder and, when a vet arrived and then left again on an hours-long trip seeking euthanasia necessities, he put her down himself, believing it was the kindest thing to do. He got hauled into the stewards and threatened with a $5000 fine.
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They share the complications and hardships of keeping horses healthy – and alive – during droughts, and the kangaroos having their way with the crops next door. And we walk over to visit their stallion Shaft, who is over-excited to eat some licorice. And they discuss Bear’s potential next race. They’re aiming for January 27 at Goulburn, in the Country Boosted Class 1 Handicap. If van Duren is quiet between now and then, it will be his 3000th start as a trainer.
“Once he’s had his fight and he’s in amongst the other horses he goes, ‘Oh, I’ll just run home here’. But when he’s firing, first- and second-up this time, if he’s really, really fit … ”
It could be 56th time lucky.
