Cover image courtesy of Kia Ora Stud
Bill Bishop was 92 years old when he died in 2015, the last of four old fellows from the township of Goondiwindi who owned the great grey racehorse, Gunsynd.
Bishop was a local newsagent and, in 1969, he’d been roped into the horse by his friend, local farmer ‘Winks’ McMicking. They dragged in shopkeeper Jim Coorey and publican George Pippos, and the quartet set off for the Brisbane Yearling Sales with $1000 apiece in their pockets.
In the catalogue, the grey colt Gunsynd was a son of the Star Kingdom (Ire) horse Sunset Hue.
He’d been bred at John Clift’s sheep and wheat property, The Dip, which was sat on farming land in Breeza, close to Gunnedah. It was here that the ‘Roman-nosed, sway-backed’ Sunset Hue stood for duties, and the 1967-bred Gunsynd was from Woodie Wonder (Newtown Wonder {GB}), a granddaughter of a full sister to the 1943 Melbourne Cup winner Dark Felt.
Gunsynd painted as the Horse of the Year at the VRC | Image courtesy of the Victoria Racing Club
The yearling Gunsynd had a swollen knee when he was sold, which helped the Goondiwindi foursome get the colt for just $1300. As time would tell, it was a steal, because Gunsynd would retire from the track in 1973 as the then greatest stakes-earner in Australian history.
He won at two, three, four and five years of age, and they were monstrous wins that included that the Epsom H., the Toorak, the Doncaster and Futurity, the Rawson S., Hill S. and the 1972 Cox Plate, among others.
Gunsynd and Roy Higgins return after victory in the 1972 Cox Plate | Image courtesy of Goondiwindi Region
“It changed my life,” said Bill Bishop, speaking to ABC Local two years before his death. “I never imagined that the horse would be as successful as he turned out to be. And it was the only thing to talk about for a while, was our horse. A lot of people followed him and a lot of people won a lot of money on him.”
Initially, Gunsynd was trained in Queensland by Bill Wehlow, with his owners expecting a good race or two from him and not much more. But, as good horses do, the grey colt showed plenty of brass and, in 22 starts for Wehlow, Gunsynd won 12 races.
TJ 'Tommy' Smith
While he didn’t cut the mustard in Baguette’s Golden Slipper, and he managed third in the AJC and Queensland Derbies, he was sharp enough to chase brighter rainbows in the south. So he went to Sydney to the stables of Tommy Smith, where his best races were run and won from 1971 to the autumn of 1973.
Gunsynd became something of a folk hero around Australia with his affable, knockabout ownership from the bush and his bargain-basket price tag, and even when he didn’t win (he was third to Piping Lane in the 1972 Melbourne Cup), he was cheered for the champion that he was.
By the time of his retirement, the horse had cut a path through Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne, and his peculiar galloping style, with his ears always pinned and mouth ajar, was regular fodder for track photographers, who loved his inexpert dash.
Gunsynd as a stallion at Kia Ora Stud with studmaster George Ryder | Image courtesy of The Bulletin, August 1980
Gunsynd headed for stallion duties in 1973 to Kia Ora Stud, syndicated for a value of $270,618. At the time, Kia Ora was owned by George Ryder, and it was a curious twist of circumstance that the farm was later bought by Gunsynd’s breeder, John Clift, and the pair were reunited.
Clift stood Gunsynd alongside Sunset Hue and the wildly brilliant Baguette, and the great grey horse whiled away his good and simple life until April 29, 1983, when he was euthanised with nasal polyps.
In Goondiwindi, the horse wasn’t forgotten. A journalist, visiting the border town just weeks after the horse’s death, found to his astonishment, ‘the Gunsynd Hotel, the Gunsynd Bar, Gunsynd Street, Gunsynd Terrace and the Gunsynd Statue in the Gunsynd Park just beside the Gunsynd River’.
