Racing: Roughie with a winning Habit

In its 75 years the Doomben Cup has proved a nice little earner for some of Australasia's most talented gallopers.

Bernborough famously lumped 10 stone 11lb (68.5kg) to win it in 1946, completing a unique Doomben 10,000-Cup double.

In the 1960s and 70s it was won by the likes of River Seine, Winfreux, Divide And Rule and Tails.

In the 90s there were weight-for-age stars like Danewin, Juggler and Intergaze.

Jack Denham's wonderful galloper Might And Power won it in 1998 to sign off on an all-conquering season in which his five group one triumphs included the Caulfield Cup-Melbourne Cup double.

But if one horse can claim ownership of the race it is Rough Habit.

Like many New Zealanders, Rough Habit developed an affinity for southeast Queensland during the winter months.

Every year, trainer John Wheeler would take old Roughie across the Tasman to get some sun on his back and some money in the bank.

The centrepiece was always the Doomben Cup, then run over 2020m - a cricket pitch short of the Cox Plate journey.

Something about the track, the distance and the time of year seemed to suit this very plain New Zealand gelding, who had more class in his bones than looks and breeding might suggest.

He was the product of parents who couldn't win a race between them. His sire, Roughcast, was put down after breaking a leg and his dam, Certain Habit, was mated to a quarter horse while he was still a foal at foot.

Roughie, who looked like his blaze had been painted on by a blind man, seemed to be well named.

But he could run, and he didn't stop running until he had broken the Australasian stakes-earning record.

Inflation has delivered dollar records to modern performers like Sunline, Northerly and Makybe Diva, but Rough Habit still has his name beside a couple of other benchmarks - a New Zealand post-war weight-carrying record of 71.5kg and the rare feat of winning group one races in five different seasons.

In all, he won 11 group one races, six of them in Brisbane, including his first and last.

He won the Queensland Derby in 1990 to set the pattern, then returned the following year to pick the plums of the Brisbane carnival.

On a bog track he was backed for a fortune and duly won the Stradbroke Handicap by six lengths.

"He could have won by anything that day," Wheeler recalled this week.

A fortnight later he backed up to win the first of his three Doomben Cups by four-and-a-quarter lengths.

They were two commanding performances to complete a string of six straight wins and mark him as an exceptional galloper in any company.

To prove it, he came back in 1992 and won the Stradbroke-Doomben Cup double again, an unprecedented feat.

This time his wins were less clear cut - both were photo-finishes - but the black type looks just as good in the book.

For the second year running he started at odds-on at Doomben and duly delivered the cash, putting his nose in front when it mattered after a stirring battle with Kinjite which Wheeler rated as perhaps his most satisfying win.

It was his fifth group one triumph of the season.

By the time he returned in 1993, Queenslanders looked on him as one of their own.

The Doomben Cup had by then been brought forward to May so that it was run before the Stradbroke.

Rough Habit was well supported at 5-2 and pounced in the last few metres to beat fellow New Zealander Kiwi Golfer by a neck.

They shouted the grandstand down as expatriate Kiwi jockey Jimmy Cassidy brought him back to scale that day, and the sponsor's product flowed well into the night.

Wheeler said at the time that the record would stand for at least 60 years, and there are no signs of him being wrong.

He is back in Queensland this carnival with half a dozen horses, and won a race with Derby hopeful Pentathon at the Gold Coast last weekend.

He also won the Grand Annual Steeple at Warrnambool this month with a horse called Frankoo Verymuch.

But he's got nothing in the yard that comes near Rough Habit.

"I've got very happy memories of him - and I've spent the last decade trying to find another one," he said.

Rough Habit is still going strong.

Rising 19, he is living at Cambridge Thoroughbred Lodge, a display stud in New Zealand where tourists can get a close-up view of the thoroughbred business.

"He is actually ridden out in his colours every couple of days whenever they've got a show on," Wheeler said.

"I call in on him occasionally. He's in a paddock on decent days and in a box at night.

"He's in the lap of luxury, and he deserves to be."