John Single

Membership in the ranks of Thoroughbred horse owners does not come with any guarantee of success. Expensive mistakes are the misfortune of owners who, despite doing everything in their power to get it right, don’t have the combination of luck and a fat wallet to weather the vagaries temperamental horses can take. subdue their owners.

John “Singo” Singleton is certainly a good example.

Being very successful in business at a young age, Singleton attempted to translate his entrepreneurial fortune into a gambling fortune, only to discover that intelligence in one area does not necessarily equate to intelligence in another, particularly when he relies on creatures capable of running like wind. day, but apparently unable to carry it over to the next.

Singleton comes from humble beginnings. He likes to tell stories of listening to races on the radio with his father, who worked in an auto parts factory and spent his salary on Saturday afternoon races.

Young John was inexorably drawn into the buzz and excitement generated by Australia’s third largest spectator sport. One day he would claim that during those early years, he made it his goal to pursue thoroughbred ownership if he ever succeeded.

However, before the horse entered the stable, Singleton was an inveterate gambler. He made and lost a significant fortune that he acquired between the ages of 18 and 23 as a result of his lucrative advertising career and being an early adopter of television to generate advertising revenue.

His gambling addiction was said to not only involve racing, but extended to almost anything that was possible to bet on.

Singleton simultaneously entertained another costly addiction: multiple marriages, five of them to be precise.

He managed to resist the urge to play for a while, giving it up entirely at one point, but the illness just needed a new outlet. That came in the form of horse buying advice from a source no less reliable than renowned Athol jockey George Mulley. It would seem that Mulley’s judgment on horses would be unquestioned, but the first batch of Singletons purchased on Mulley’s advice proved to be extremely poor performers that even good trainers had failed to make work.

Here, Singleton needed to apply the same persistence that had facilitated his recovery from his previous monetary misdemeanors, and it seemed that persistence paid off for the Castlereagh Kid. Kid won his first start, then the racing gods proved their dominance again, and the horse collapsed dead the following week.

Realizing the same value in diversity as in business ventures has led him to become involved in hotels, sports teams, and other high-profile concerns, Singleton formed a partnership with a certain Gerry Harvey, who eventually persuaded Singleton to take a stake. in Magic Millions that would raise hundreds of millions for men.

Singleton came close to taking the Melbourne Cup, despite having only a fractional interest, with his friend and horse trainer Larry Pickering and his entry that year, Rising Fear. Thinking they had won when Tommy Smith enthusiastically declared Rising Fear the winner on the 200m pole, Singleton began a premature celebration that ended abruptly when Al Talaq crossed the line ahead of his horse.

Singleton recovered once more. Older, wiser and even richer, he learned from his experiences. He enlisted the services of perhaps one of the most astute judges of equine ability, Gai Waterhouse, who has trained over 10 Group 1 winners for Singleton. The two teamed up for a legitimate shot at the WS Cox Plate with More Joyous, but even Waterhouse’s bona fide training and jockey Nash Rawiller’s managerial savvy weren’t enough to beat favorite So You Think. In fact, they didn’t even manage a spot, finishing a disappointing fifth, which, if Singleton’s punting history is any indication, would have cost Singleton $110,000, fifth-place prize money, his usual bet.

In these days, and for many years before, John Singleton has been a strong advocate for change in the way Australian horse racing is run. He favors innovations such as the amalgamation into a much smaller number of all the various racing clubs that compete, the establishment of a centralized national governing body for the sport, and a small tax on corporate bookmakers that would be used to further support plus the future of racing.

Despite such practicalities, John “Singo” Singleton will forever be recognized for his flamboyant personality, colorful and expletive-filled language, and style reminiscent of high rollers from the earlier heyday of horse racing, such as Hollywood’s George Edser, George Freeman and Melbourne Mick Bartley. .

The final chapter is yet to be written as far as Singleton is concerned, but one thing is for sure: it won’t be boring at all.

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