Cover image: Gothic (GB) and Jim Pike lead home Amounis and Jim Munro in the 1928 Caulfield S. | Image courtesy of Wikipedia
The name Sol Green is preserved in our racing annals, and that’s because the generous, genius-like, tea-totalling Green was as close to legendry as they came. Self-made, deftly dressed in havana and spatterdashes, he was a big-time bookie, breeder and owner from the 1890s to his death in 1947.
Those were sensational decades for racing. They belonged to the likes of Carbine, Wakeful (Trenton {NZ}), Gloaming (The Welkin {GB}), Phar Lap (NZ) (Night Raid {GB}) and Bernborough.
Throughout, Green had horses like the 1910 Melbourne Cup winner Comedy King (GB), and the extraordinary mare Gladsome (NZ) (Seaton Delaval {GB}). Nevertheless, he claimed the best he ever had was the imported black horse Gothic (GB).
Gallery: Memories of Gothic (GB)
Green purchased Gothic in 1924 as an English yearling, paying 1500gns via Clarence Hailey and sending the horse by sea to Melbourne. The pricetag proved a steal because, from 1927 until 1929, Gothic won over £20,000.
The horse was by Tracery (USA), a very good stallion, and he was a half-brother to the 1927 St James’s Palace S. winner Kincardine (GB). It was a lovely pedigree, one that promised plenty and delivered the same.
Rich in colour and capacity, Gothic stormed Australian racing, winning the Newmarket H. twice, Caulfield S., Futurity S., Memsie S. and Melbourne (Mackinnon) S., each among his 12 stakes wins. He won 13.5 races from 30 total starts and was third in the 1928 Caulfield Cup, consistently running into the such of Limerick (NZ) (Limond {GB}), Mollison (Seremond {GB}) and Amounis (Magpie {GB}).
Throughout his short time on the turf, Gothic was trained by Lou Robertson at Mordialloc. He was a popular horse that seemed to give everything under saddle and when he retired in the autumn of 1929, he was missed.
Trainer Lou Robertson | Image courtesy of the National Library of Australia
Gothic set out for a stallion career at Sol Green’s Underbank Stud. It was a beautiful setup of hill and valley, about 1000 acres at Bacchus Marsh when Green bought it around 1925. By the time Gothic arrived, it was the showpiece of southern breeding.
The horse's very first cover was the imported mare Winter’s Dream (GB) (Golden Myth {Ire}), a 1750gns purchase by Green at the December sales at Newmarket. The union produced Freezia, who became the dam of the three-time Kiwi stakes winner Anand (NZ) (Red Mars {GB}).
Gothic had it all before him, even if he wasn’t ‘a perfect model of a horse, but you cannot expect everything’. He had the best of books in his first season, and it resulted in the Williamstown Cup winner Gothic Gem.
A view of Underbank Stud | Image courtesy of Victorian Collections
However, on October 2, 1930, halfway through a new breeding season, the black horse died from a stomach abscess. It was a huge loss for Sol Green, and his son Bob claimed it “little wonder that Gothic never knew when he was beaten on the racecourse, for the horse made desperate efforts to throw off the crippling effects of the trouble”.
Gothic was buried at Underbank Stud and, just a few weeks later, Phar Lap showed up to rest after his famous Melbourne Cup onslaught. In 1948, Sol Green died at the good age of 79, and Underbank Stud slowly disbanded, a victim of time and urbanisation.
