Racing lore is filled with famous boilovers and, in Australia, the most famous of them probably belongs to Ajax, who was 18 on the bounce in 1939 when he was rolled in the Rawson S. at odds of 1-40.
The horse that managed it was the fiercely black Queenslander, Spear Chief, a wonderful racehorse that had ventured south to Sydney with a formidable northern record. In Brisbane, Spear Chief had won the QTC Sires’ Produce S., Queensland Guineas, Queensland Derby and Brisbane Cup, the latter a race that he won two years on the trot.
It was an extraordinary record for any horse, and its finer details were even better. By his retirement in 1940, Spear Chief held the two-mile Australian record of 3:19.75.
Ajax, the Australian Champion | Image courtesy of the Les Haigh Family Collection
As such, it should have been no great surprise that the Queenslander rolled the mighty Ajax. And he did it easily, showing a clean set of heels to the Sydney superstar. But still, and even to this day, it was a notorious outrage in 1939 and a curio that forever followed the Queensland horse.
Spear Chief was bred in 1934 at Alma Vale Stud, the old Darling Downs property of Tom Jennings. By the Melbourne Cup winner Spearfelt, he was a son of Sere Vale (Seremond {GB}), who herself was a daughter of Line Gun (Sir Simmer).
Spearfelt after his 1926 Melbourne Cup victory | Image courtesy of the National Library of Australia
In 1913, Jennings had won the Stradbroke H. with the then 2-year-old Line Gun, so this was a deep family in the pastures of Alma Vale. Sewed into the wildly successful sireline of Spearfelt, it was little wonder that Spear Chief proved so good.
As a young colt in March 1936, Spear Chief was the headline act of an 18-yearling consignment by Alma Vale Stud to the sales at the Brisbane Exhibition Grounds. He topped proceedings at 430gns, bought by local trainer W.A. Tucker, or ‘young Billy Tucker’ as he was widely known.
Spear Chief pictured in October 1939 with jockey Maurice McCarten | Image courtesy of The Home journal, National Library of Australia
In fact, Tucker was buying for his father, W.J. Tucker, and Spear Chief was raced in Queensland by Tucker and Brisbane stockbroker J.B. Charlton. The pair had immense success with the black colt until the Tucker half-share was sold in June 1938 to the Sydney-based Joe Harris.
Spear Chief was transferred to Sydney, to the care of Randwick’s star trainer George Price. Price had trained the likes of Windbag, Beau Livre and Gold Rod, and he was a man with a good brain and distinction.
Trainer George Price | Image courtesy of the National Library of Australia
Spear Chief, along with Doncaster winner Gold Rod, earned Price the Trainer’s Premiership by winners and prizemoney in 1939 and, while under the trainer’s care, the Queensland horse won the Brisbane Cup, Cumberland S., QTC King’s Plate and, of course, that infamous Rawson S.
By 1940, Spear Chief was getting along as a racehorse, and injury had cloaked some of his brilliance.
September 1939, four leading figures of the Australasian turf: (l-r) trainer T.R. George, jockey Maurice McCarten, trainer Fred Jones and trainer George Price | Image courtesy of PIX, Sept 9, 1939
He was retired that year and offered to stud, picked up for 2000gns by Killara Stud in the district of Bingara. He served his first season at 50gns and got 30 or so mares, but history shows that he failed to fire as a stallion.
He got handfuls of winners here and there, among them Arrowsmith, who won at Randwick at 100-1, and Binnia Gift, a useful gelding in Melbourne. Spear Chief remained at Killara for the rest of his celebrated life and he died there in January 1950, the victim of a snake bite.
