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Normal blokes in extraordinary win
Friday, 30th July 2010
The partnership between Peter Moody and Luke Nolen will be rewarded this weekend with their first combined city premiership.
One of the mounts won and the other was beaten a neck.
It started a partnership that will be rewarded this weekend with their first combined city premiership.
Not long after that meeting, Moody wandered into the jockeys' room, sat down and inquired how the horses went.
"'They went great," was the reply. Then came the stinger: "Luke rode them very well."
Moody checked the name on the colours of the jockey to whom he was talking: Nolen.
"You didn't ride them then, eh?" he asked.
Shaun Nolen shook his head and pointed to the jockey next to him, younger brother Luke.
"Shaun rode for him as an apprentice in Queensland when Pete first started out," Luke Nolen explained.
"He (Moody) always referred to him as Nolen. He just didn't think there were two of us.
"Shaun was just getting licensed at the time when Pete rang me out of the blue and booked me."
There's another twist to the mistaken identity tale, which served only to solidify the trainer-jockey relationship.
Moody put Luke Nolen down for a ride at Kyneton, but a clerical gremlin saw Luke Currie gain the winning ride.
Profusely apologetic, Moody rang with the promise that he owed Nolen a winner.
"Well, the next one won and then the next and the next," Nolen said.
"I'm talking about really nice horses like Sky Cuddle and Niagara Falls winning their maidens. They were pretty easy to ride."
Nolen soon started riding all Moody's horses. One morning the jockey was a no show, so Moody responded by not giving him any rides that weekend.
When Nolen arrived the next morning, Moody greeted him with the quip: "Jump. How high, how high?"
They have never had a formal arrangement, which doesn't worry Nolen. Moody, he said, is a "western Queenslander - his word is his bond."
For all the back-slapping good times - more this season than ever before - there have been the inevitable troughs.
Those in the jockeys' room dungeon at Caulfield still vividly recall the blistering spray Moody delivered to Nolen after a spring Group 1 race.
"It wasn't the only one," Nolen said. "He's given me other Group 1 sprays, but thankfully they don't seem to run together.
"I had to wear it that day. It was a disappointing ride. I don't think I'd won a Group 1 for Pete at that stage and I was probably trying too hard."
One of the many things Nolen admires about Moody is that he gets any angst out of his system quickly and then, to borrow from Prime Minister Julia Gillard, moves forward.
Likewise, Nolen doesn't dwell on poor rides, maintaining the view that "I can't ride them all bad".
It helps that Nolen is so laid-back he's almost horizontal.
Rarely, if ever, does he speak out of turn, generate unwanted headlines or attract attention that could serve as a distraction to the Moody stable.
In many ways he's a quietly spoken country boy who prefers to let his performances do the talking for him.
"I love my job, there's nothing better," Nolen said.
"Pete has propped me up really nicely. It helps when you ride for the best stable in the state. The accolades feel a bit unfair, you know.
"Anyone who had my job would be No. 1."
Is he downplaying his ability? "I just try to keep Peter Moody happy ... that's probably a task in itself," Nolen said.
"We take the business very seriously, but at times we don't take each other too seriously and there's a lot of banter and ribbing."
Nolen has enjoyed a cold drink on a warm day with Moody.
"He's a pretty normal bloke, like me," he said.
Two pretty normal guys have much to celebrate.
ADRIAN DUNN - HERALD SUN
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