Obituary: Merv Ritchie

By MIKE DILLON

Merv Ritchie, master horseman. Died aged 81.

When senior jockey John Grylls died in the 1980s he left the world without having made one enemy.

Merv Ritchie joined that most exclusive of clubs when he passed away in his sleep, aged 81, on Tuesday morning.

The outstanding horse trainer will be remembered through the 21st century for having created one of New Zealand's finest thoroughbred dynasties.

But for those who knew the Gore-born Ritchie during his reign at the top of the racing tree, his legacy will be as a master horseman.

The business side of horse racing held no interest for Merv Ritchie.

He loved two things, horses and people, in equal portions, and the degree of love and caring he showed towards both made him one of the great thoroughbred identities.

Two icons of the industry who recognised those qualities were Sir James Fletcher and the late Dr Alex McGregor Grant, an Auckland Racing Club president.

Merv Ritchie trained scores of horses for both with remarkable success. Yet he came from a farming, not horse racing, background.

"Dad was taken along to a race meeting in Southland by his father as a young boy," said his son Takanini trainer Frank Ritchie.

"He liked what he saw and before you knew it he was dropped off at Ellerslie in Stan Bagby's stable."

Merv Ritchie stayed at Ellerslie for more than four decades, initially as a successful jumps jockey then as a trainer.

Before the ridiculous decision was made a decade and a half ago to close Ellerslie as a training centre, the feature of every morning training session was listening to a Merv Ritchie joke under the huge tree between the horse tie-ups and the walkway to the track.

It was almost an institution.

Probably the best horse Merv Ritchie trained was the brilliant Yahabeebe, winner of the New Zealand's premier sprint, the Railway Handicap, at Ellerslie in a record time which stood for decades.

Another headliner, for Dr McGregor Grant, was Terrific, probably the best horse never to win a major cups race.

McGregor Grant was desperate to win his own club's feature race, the Auckland Cup, but in 1967 Terrific was beaten a bare nose by Royal Sheen and David Peake.

"Dad had a lot of admiration for both Yahabeebe and Terrific," said Frank Ritchie.

"Terrific was the early bookies favourite for two consecutive Melbourne Cups. He didn't deliver in either and dad always felt he didn't travel well to Australia."

Terrific finished second in the Cox Plate to one of Australia's greats, Tobin Bronze.

Blyton, Lord Metric, Not Again, Rustler, Ganymede and Apollo Eleven were other greats trained by Merv Ritchie.

Merv Ritchie's sons Frank and the late Gary Ritchie became trainers as have his grandsons Shaune and Craig. His granddaughter Julia is a jockey.

The last racing function Merv Ritchie attended was the recent funeral of Herald racing journalist Barry Street. Street will be disappointed to have missed Merv's.