Written by Jessica Owers
Cover image courtesy of NZ Racing Desk
Early on Tuesday morning, news began to flicker through that Nick Moraitis, businessman and leviathan owner, had passed away from liver cancer. He’d been diagnosed as recently as May 13, aged 87.
By mid-morning, Moraitis’ passing was carried across news bulletins on commercial radio and in online media the length of the country. It was a statement of the significant, long-time presence of Moraitis, not just in horse racing but in the Australian psyche generally.
Early in his life, the Townsville-born Moraitis made an impact with a wholesale fruit and vegetable stall at the Sydney Markets in Flemington. At one time, he did especially well selling onions and potatoes to Woolworths, and his burgeoning business was snapped up by Chinese interests for a very significant sum.
Nick Moraitis | Image courtesy of Sportpix
For the rest of his life, Moraitis was known as a ‘fruit and veg pioneer’ in Sydney, and his sons, Stephen and Paul Moraitis, to this day own Morco Fresh, a fresh-produce supplier Australia-wide.
Exceeding, excelling
As a businessman, Moraitis had humble beginnings that reached dizzy heights, and it was among those years in dizzy heights that he plunged into racehorse ownership.
Personally, he had a great passion for many sports, rugby league included, but racing was where he felt most at home.
Across 40-plus years, Moraitis had horses like the dual Group 1 winner Fiumicino (NZ), the Zabeel (NZ) gelding that won stakes races from 2007 to 2013. Fiumicino, in Moraitis’ pink, white and grey colours, won the G1 Australian Derby in 2007, backing it up with a strong performance to win the G1 The BMW two years later.
Multiple Group 1 winner Fiumicino | Image courtesy of Sportpix
And there were other horses in the portfolio.
Vision And Power (NZ), bred by Garry Chittick and by the sire Carnegie (Ire), won Moraitis the G1 Doncaster H. and G1 George Ryder S. in 2009, while Love Conquers All was a triple Group 3 winner for her famous owner. Moraitis also had such bloodstock as the half-brother to Fields Of Omagh (Rubiton).
And who could forget Exceed And Excel, a magnificent racehorse jointly owned by Moraitis and Alan Osburg through a career that notched up the G1 Newmarket H. and G1 Dubai Racing Club Cup.
Exceed And Excel | Standing at Darley
Trainer Tim Martin remembers it well.
“Nick and Alan had bought a colt with me by Danehill out of Sky Watch, and that was the year that x-rays were made post sale,” Martin told TDN AusNZ last year, speaking about Exceed And Excel. “The colt they bought failed the x-rays, and seeing this colt I had (Exceed And Excel) was going well, I recommended they take a share in him.”
The rest is a sharp piece of history because Exceed And Excel won close to $1.8 million in prizemoney. But that was chicken feed compared to the $22 million that Moraitis and Osburg sold him for when he was snapped up as a Darley sire.
Tim Martin with Exceed And Excel in 2003 | Image courtesy of Sportpix
“He’s been one of the best stallions in the country and now one of the last of the Danehill line,” Martin said. “I can’t believe how good he has been.”
Might And Power
If Moraitis had only these horses to sing about, it would have been a life well-lived. But anyone who’s anyone knows that Moraitis’ song and story was all about the Zabeel gelding Might And Power (NZ).
The tenacious bay was an extraordinary star during his time on the track, a winner of 11 Group races, no less than seven of them Group 1s.
They included the Caulfield Cup-Melbourne Cup double in 1997, plus the Cox Plate the following year. Might And Power was just the second horse to ever achieve this rare triple after Rising Fast (NZ) (Alonzo {GB}) in 1954.
Nick, Paul and Steve Moraitis bring Might And Power (NZ) and Brian York back to scale after his win in the Mercedes Classic in 1998 | Image courtesy of Sportpix
Might And Power went north to win the G1 Doomben Cup and south to Melbourne for his spring exploits. At home in Sydney, he won the G1 Queen Elizabeth S. and G1 Tancred S. (then known as the Mercedes Classic).
His prizemoney tally was $5.2 million, which was an extraordinary sum for the era, but the horse was worth much more to Moraitis, who always professed a deep bond to the Zabeel gelding.
He had paid just $40,000 for him when approached by Anthony Cummings, then a young trainer who settled on the colt that had just passed in for $35,000 through a sale ring.
“He was a magnificent horse for me,” Moraitis said in the wake of Might And Power’s passing two years ago. “He’s left us with a lot of great memories. I thank God every day for having Might And Power in my life.”
“He’s (Might And Power) left us with a lot of great memories. I thank God every day for having Might And Power in my life.” - Nick Moraitis
It’s not uncommon for a good horse to reduce a man to such words, even a man with a life as rich and varied as Moraitis. When his famous horse died at Living Legends in April 2020, he was publicly upset.
Might And Power retired in November 1998, and had a brief, unceremonious return to racing in the spring of 2000. Speaking to author Helen Thomas for her Might And Power biography, A Horse Called Mighty, Moraitis said he hated that his horse was running ‘stone-cold last’ in anything.
“I said, ‘I’m not going to let Might And Power go through this, not him running last in a race’, and I retired him immediately,” Moraitis said.
Might And Power (NZ) gets a carrot from Nick Moraitis after a gallop at Rosehill in July 2000 | Image courtesy of Sportpix
Years in office
Over his many years in racing, Moraitis mixed it with the highest of industry figures.
He was a long-time Sydney Turf Club (STC) member who served as its director for a decade, eventually supplanted by Dean Fleming in 2008. Moraitis tackled many issues during his tenure, including the nagging conversation about selling Canterbury racecourse. He preached that once a racecourse was sold, it was never got back.
He spoke loudly about things that affected his racing string, like the handicap weights for older horses, and he never shied from being outspoken. Some people called him ‘larger than life’, others ‘rambuctious’, and they were probably all correct.
Speaking to the press in 2009, Moraitis was reflective of his time in the racing game, which wound back only as recently as the last few years.
“The thrills you get out of winning a race, the environment and the people you meet in racing, they’re all unbelievable,” he told the Sydney Morning Herald.
When asked about striking gold with another Might And Power, a question that followed him for over 20 years, he was reticent.
“I got blessed once,” Moraitis said. “You can’t be greedy.”
