Remembering Alan Acton at The Archer

Cover image courtesy of Magic Millions

Over a century ago, the Englishman Nat Gould, a racing journalist and all-round raconteur, said it wasn’t the clothes that made the man in Australia. He was talking about the dusty citizens of the bush, men who made Australia tick on sheep and cattle.

He could easily have been talking about Alan John Acton though, the Rockhampton cattle king who died in a helicopter crash on April 4. Jeans-clad in a pale Stetson and Craftsman boots, Acton was the working man of northern Queensland.

But he was also a racing man, and this was the tragedy of his death last month for the industry. He owned Outback Barbie, the nippy filly that won four stakes races between 2017 and 2021. By Spirit Of Boom, she was everything that Acton had set out to achieve as an owner-breeder.

Acton was a regular buyer at Magic Millions and he will be remembered this weekend, in particular, as a slotholder in Rockhampton’s richest race, the $775,000 The Archer. His slot has been taken on Sunday by the gelding Surf Dancer (Ire) (Lope De Vega {Ire}), co-trained by Acton’s good friend, Gai Waterhouse.

As far as racing identities go, Acton was genuine, well-liked and he is well-missed. His death was abrupt and shocking for Queensland racing, and the outpouring of grief has given the second edition of The Archer, a race in which Acton was so heavily involved, especial resonance.

For Tony McMahon, a former trainer turned journalist and Rockhampton racing identity, Acton’s involvement in The Archer was critical.

“He was one of those involved in its think-tank, and he got very involved when it came to fruition,” McMahon said, speaking to TDN AusNZ. “They had planned the race for about a year before it got up and rocking in 2022. Last year he got in touch with Gai Waterhouse and they got a horse called Dawn Passage to come up. I remember him saying to me half-way down the straight that he thought he was going to win. Of course, he ended up running third.”

Acton’s ambition was to win a Group 1 event, but winning The Archer would do just as well. Earlier this year, he was again in touch with Waterhouse, who promised him a horse, and she will honour that promise on Sunday.

“Alan was very competitive,” McMahon said. “He didn’t want to run second or third in this race. He wanted to win.”

Acton’s funeral was enormous in Rockhampton a fortnight ago. It was a widespread gesture by the community towards an important local family. Acton was a cattle king, a pastoralist, a grazier… all those terms that have identified generations of beef farmers in this country.

“Alan was a genuine fellow in so many ways,” McMahon said. “If you ran into him anywhere, you’d never think he came from so much affluence. He worked extremely hard but he could mix with anyone. He could spend time with Jo Blow and then be at home with the prime minister, such was the person he was.

“In bygone eras, the graziers were the backbone of racing in central Queensland, and that’s not the case anymore with the young people coming along. So racing has certainly lost a valuable ally in Alan Acton, no question about that.”

David Chester remembers

For much of the year, headlines about Magic Millions swirl around its million-dollar lots and top end of town. However, there is a neat fold of graziers that make up a degree of Magic Millions’ client base, and they’re men like Alan Acton.

David Chester, the company’s sales director, has worked at Magic Millions long enough to get to know these characters, and he was stricken at the news of Acton’s death this month.

“When I started auctioneering, I used to do the brahman sales up in Rockhampton, and I would have met Alan then, although I don’t remember meeting him,” Chester said. “His father was a very keen racing man, as keen as Alan, and his father used to come to our sales in the very early days. He’d never miss a sale back when we were selling at the Brisbane exhibition grounds, which would have been before 1979.”

Chester’s memory is long. He remembers Acton showing up to yearling sales with a steady presence until the January in 2017 when Acton bought Outback Barbie. Consigned by Eureka Stud, the filly was from Pure Purrfection (General Nediym) and she cost $210,000.

Trained by Tony Gollan, Outback Barbie won close to $1.6 million. She won four Listed races, was third to Sunlight (Zoustar) in the R. Listed Magic Millions 2YO Classic and was second in the G2 Silver Shadow S. She was also placed in the R. Listed Magic Millions 3YO Guineas, among other Group races, and perhaps her defining victory was when winning the million-dollar Magic Millions QTIS race.

It seemed to fit that she was not just an Acton success story, but a Magic Millions one too.

“When it came to the sales, Alan was a bit of a loner,” Chester said. “He would pick horses himself with very little input from anyone else. He was a real perfectionist. He would have been one of the smartest graziers about, and he would have been brought up as a child riding horses. He was an excellent stockman and excellent horseman. He would look at a horse like a bushie looks at a horse.”

Acton named his horses after his bush roots. His 2-year-old gelding Bush Diamond (Spirit Of Boom) is racing this week. But Acton didn’t take himself too seriously. When Outback Barbie won her QTIS race, he came to town with Barbie dolls in his pocket, a few of which reappeared at his funeral.

“We get a lot of bushies at Magic Millions throughout the year, unfortunately less and less, but few like Alan,” Chester said. “Alan had the money to buy the very best, and he competed here with the biggest trainers to buy the good fillies that he bought. The cattle guys are a dying breed because they’re more into motorbikes and helicopters now, and Alan might have been the last of the big spenders.”

Outback Barbie is at Yarraman Park, along with a handful of other mares belonging to the Acton estate. Her first foal was an I Am Invincible filly born last August, and she returned to the stallion in October. Acton wanted to succeed in everything he did, which included breeding thoroughbreds.

“He was a real perfectionist,” Chester said. “Everything Alan did was to the highest quality. The way he dressed and the way he spoke… he was a legend of his own time.”

Tony Gollan remembers

For Brisbane trainer Tony Gollan, Acton’s death was equally devastating. Gollan flew to Rockhampton to be a pallbearer at the funeral, flooded with memories of the years he spent with the Acton family.

“I met Alan quite a while before I started racing horses with him,” Gollan said. “He was just a really nice bloke. He was your typical country guy, born in the bush with a cattle-grazing dad. He and his siblings were all involved, and he was a really good family man.

“He was a good client later on for me, but more than that he was an exceptional human being.”

Gollan, himself, is from Toowoomba. His dad was a bushie and there’s a part of him that related well to Acton. When Outback Barbie came into Gollan’s Brisbane yard in 2017, he had little idea how far the bay filly would carry them.

“She meant the world to Alan,” said the trainer. “She’d be the best horse he had with me. Winning that Magic Millions QTIS race was as happy I’ve ever seen a client I’ve trained for. He loved Magic Millions and he’d go there every year in the hope of buying a horse that could get to the carnival.

“Outback Barbie got there as a 2-year-old, 3-year-old and 4-year-old, and even as a 5-year-old. She was in contention every year and it meant a lot to Alan to bring her to Sydney to race, but nothing meant as much to him as getting into Magic Millions Raceday.”

Gollan has two horses in The Archer this Sunday. They are Group 1 winner Vega One (Lope De Vega {Ire}) and the 3-year-old Count Da Beans (Spill The Beans). Neither are in the Acton family slot, but he won’t begrudge Surf Dancer a win in Acton’s memory.

Gallery: Tony Gollan's horses running in The Archer this Sunday

“That’s the sort of guy Alan was,” Gollan said. “I put up a few horses for him this year, but he stuck with Gai and Adrian (Bott) because he was loyal. That was his country mentality, that if you looked after him, he stuck with you.”

The 2023 running of The Archer will occur a little after 4pm (AEST) this Sunday at Callaghan Park, Rockhampton. Waterhouse will be there in tribute to her friend.