Off The Track - Legacy

This article is from the October 2019 Horse Deals magazine.

Over the years Brisbane Royal has been fertile ground for Off The Track stories, as indeed has Adam Oliver and again this year, Adam was the talk of the showing community, when he produced Legacy to win the Highbury Cup for Horses Showing Thoroughbred Qualities and claim the 2019 Royal Queensland Show Hack Championship. Surprisingly this was Adam’s first Brisbane Hack Championship. “He is fat, he actually put on weight at Brisbane and he is really sound and I thought why not just keep going,” said Adam. And keep going they did, all the way to Adelaide where the beautiful black horse claimed the Adelaide Royal Hack Championship. “He is such a nice horse to have around. I enjoy having him with me and working and showing him, which I think is better than being at home in the paddock, waiting for his big moment.”

Legacy, foaled in 2013, is by Lonhro out of the Wallenda (USA) mare, Chinese Girl. Lonhro, his father, Octagonal and grandfather, Zabeel have been a boon to the show horse industry, not to mention the racing industry. Interestingly, Legacy, known on the track briefly as Lucky Jai Jai has Mr Prospector (USA) on both sire and dam lines. Mr Prospector was an outstanding breeding stallion and notable sire of sires. His descendants have dominated the Triple Crown series for decades and his impact as a Thoroughbred sire is felt worldwide. But none of that helped “JJ,” as he is known in the stable. He had two starts at Toowoomba and the Gold Coast for eighth out of nine and sixth out of 12.

“The new owners of Washpool Lodge sent JJ to my husband, Tony to train on the recommendation of Kevin Thomas,” says well know showing identity, Lee Sears. “He only had a couple of starts and did not show much and my husband won’t muck around with them. He told the owners that they were totally wasting their money, as it costs just as much to have a slow horse in work as a fast one and he would rather have a fast one in work. He asked me if I was interested in showing the horse, but he was just too big for me and I did not want to take on the project. And that proved a problem, as people think, if I don’t want him, what’s wrong with him? I tried to explain that I don’t need a big horse and my daughter, Maddy has taken up racehorse training with her father, so she hasn’t the time for him either. I rang a few people, telling them that JJ was a serious horse, but none came to see him.

“Adam had some horses spelling for us and I said to him, when you bring those horses back, have a look at this horse, and the rest is now history. JJ could not have gone to a better place and Adam has done a great job with him. He has put in all the work with him and he deserves the success.”

“I was taking some horses back to Lee and Tony and Lee said, bring a head collar,” explains Adam. “She had sent me a photo of the black Lonhro gelding and I took one look at him and loved him and took him home. That was about 20 months ago. He was just four years old and as you can imagine very green. At home I got Rhys (Stanley) to give him a couple of rides just to assess what we had and it was a case of WOW, he just moved so well. After that, we tipped him out into the paddock to do a bit of growing up. He was brought back in after some months and Rhys gave him some work and then he was turned out again to think about it.

“After I sold St Andrews, I wanted a new project and I brought JJ in and put him into work in January this year. He is a very kind, beautiful natured horse, but he is very exuberant and expressive and sometimes did not know what to do with all that energy and expression. That initially created some issues riding him, but he just got better and better every day. He is the most exciting Thoroughbred I have ever ridden and he has gears that hitherto I have not had access to. I was looking for a different horse, of course a beautiful one, but I was looking for an outstanding mover, that I could work with and improve. And that is exactly what I have got; I am rewarded every day I ride him.

“JJ is fun to have around and he is a bit cheeky; he has only just turned six. I did a couple of ag shows with him and then the Queensland EA Horse of the Year in May where he was declared 2019 EA Queensland Large Hack of the Year. He went to Lismore and won there as well and then come to the EKKA in Brisbane. His success has been a group effort from all of us here at Universal Stables. I want to develop his confidence in the ring, as it sometimes takes him a little time to get used to a new environment and relax, but that will come with miles and experience. You cannot start at the end. The most important thing is to get him confident and confident in me as a rider. That confidence comes from perfecting the basics at home. And when you are out, if things get a little shaky, they can rely on you and you can ride through most situations, but they must be prepared well at home. I think we have only seen about 40% of what he can do.

“I have had some amazing horses and perhaps with experience, the formula of producing them gets better or I get better, or all of the above. With such good movement, it makes the training a little more interesting long term. I think there is a lot of longevity in JJ because of the training possibilities. There is always more to learn, you never get to the point where you can do and know it all. I am looking forward to the long term training and a horse like him is hard to find.

“I think he will become an easy horse to show. There are not many Thoroughbreds I would take interstate in their first season, but he has proven he is well up to the task.

“I am so excited about this horse.”

Written by Anna Sharpley

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