Before Hughie, there was Vinnie for Christine Bowman.
Vinnie Roe was the first reason a teenage Christine Walsh, as she was known then, came to Australia for the Melbourne Cup in 2002.
She had been his groom as a three-year-old, where he ran into the great Galileo on a number of occasions, including the Irish Derby. He took her to Rome for the Derby Italiano, where he ran fourth before returning home to win the Irish St Leger, a race he won four times.
“I travelled him all over Europe and he is still my favourite,” Bowman said after Vinnie Roe died this week.
“We went to Rome and France, he was such a great horse.”
Vinnie Roe won the Prix Royal Oak to finish his three-year-old season and master trainer Dermot Weld started to plan for the Melbourne Cup the next year.
“It was so exciting to come over to Australia with him. I didn’t ride him because he could be difficult to ride, so I rode Media Puzzle every morning,” Bowman said. “But I was that convinced that Vinnie was going to win the Melbourne Cup. I was so close to him and on Cup day I said ‘I’m strapping him’. My great friend Paddy Smullen was riding him as well, so we hired someone else to look after Media Puzzle that day!”
“When he won I was happy, but so disappointed, but proud of Vinnie [who ran fourth]. Then, when they were coming back I realised “shit” I could be leading the Melbourne Cup winner back! But I had to stick with my heart.”
Bowman would return to Australia to work at Ron Quinton’s stable on a toss of a coin, where she meet a young gun jockey Hugh Bowman and they would build a life together with a couple of children – Bambi and Paige.
Vinnie Roe would return to Melbourne Cup again a couple of years later when a gallant runner-up in Makybe Diva’s second in 2004 and was eighth in the Race That Stops A Nation the following year in his final start.
Vinnie Roe was 27 when he died of a suspected heart attack, but Bowman will never forget him.
“My Instagram account is still Vinnieroe,” she said. “It was really sad news to hear.”
