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John Singleton

By K Cummings

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Published: 05Apr2012
Word count: 843
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Membership in the ranks of thoroughbred horse owners does not come with any guarantees of success. Costly mistakes are the misfortune of owners who, despite doing everything in their power to go about it properly, fail to have the combination of luck and a fat wallet required to ride out the vagaries to which temperamental horses can subject their owners

John "Singo" Singleton is certainly a case in point.

Wildly successful in business at a young age, Singleton attempted to translate his business fortune into punting fortune, only to learn that savvy in one area does not necessarily equate to savvy in another, particularly when it's dependent on creatures capable of running like the wind one day, yet seemingly unable to even pass it the next.

Singleton comes from humble origins. He likes to recount tales of listening to races on the radio with his father, who worked in an auto parts factory and punted his wages away at Saturday afternoon race meets.

Young John found himself inexorably drawn to the buzz and excitement generated by Australia's third largest spectator sport. He would one day claim that during those early years, he made it a goal to pursue thoroughbred ownership if success was ever his.

Before the horse ever occupied the stable, however, Singleton was an inveterate punter. He made and lost a significant fortune that he acquired between the ages of 18 and 23 as the result of his lucrative advertising career and his being one of the early adopters of television for generating advertising revenues.

It was said that his gambling addiction involved not just racing, but extended to just about anything on which it was possible to place a wager.

Singleton simultaneously entertained another expensive addiction: multiple marriages, five of them to be precise.

He did manage to resist the urge to gamble for a time, giving it up completely at one point, but the disease needed only a new outlet. That came in the form of horse buying advice from a no less reliable source than renowned jockey Athol George Mulley. It would seem that Mulley's horse judgment being unassailable would be a foregone conclusion, but Singleton's first batch purchased on Mulley's advice proved to be exceedingly poor performers which not even good trainers had managed to make go.

Here, Singleton needed to apply the same persistence that had facilitated his recovery from his previous monetary misdemeanors, and it seemed that that persistence struck pay dirt with Castlereagh Kid. The Kid won his maiden outing, then the racing gods again demonstrated their dominion, and the horse keeled over dead the following week.

Realizing the same value in diversity as that which in business ventures has steered him towards involvement in hotels, sports teams and other high profile concerns, Singleton formed an association with one Gerry Harvey, who eventually persuaded Singleton to take a stake in the Magic Millions that would rake in hundreds of millions for the men.

Singleton very nearly took the Melbourne Cup, even though he had only a fractional interest, with his friend and horse trainer Larry Pickering and their entry that year, Rising Fear. Thinking they had won when Tommy Smith enthusiastically pronounced Rising Fear the winner at the 200 m pole, Singleton started a premature celebration that ended abruptly when Al Talaq crossed the line ahead of his horse.

Singleton rebounded yet again. Older, wiser, and even richer, he learned from his experiences. He enlisted the services of perhaps one of the most astute judges of equine ability, Gai Waterhouse, who trained over 10 Group 1 winners for Singleton. The two teamed up for a legitimate opportunity to take the W. S. Cox Plate with More Joyous, but even the training bona fides of Waterhouse and the steering savvy of jockey Nash Rawiller were not sufficient to overcome favourite So You Think. In fact, they failed to even place, finishing a disappointing fifth, which, if Singleton punting history is any indication, would have cost Singleton $110,000 - 5th place prize money - his customary wager.

These days, and for many years prior, John Singleton has been a staunch advocate for change in the way Australian horse racing is administered. He favours innovations such as merging to a much smaller number all the various competing race clubs, the establishment of a centralized national governing body for the sport, and a small tax on corporate bookmakers that would be used to further support the future of racing.

Despite such practicalities, John "Singo" Singleton will forever be renowned for his flamboyant personality, colourful, expletive laced language and style reminiscent of the big-time punters from horse racing's earlier heyday, such as Hollywood George Edser, George Freeman and Melbourne Mick Bartley.

The final chapter has yet to be written where Singleton is concerned, but one thing's certain: it will be anything other than boring.

To read more about Australian Horse Racing, Jockeys Premiership, Horse Race Tips, Australian Bookmakers, Racecourses and more, go to Pro Group Racing and receive your free E-Book on How to Win at Horse Racing. ==> See all the Cox Plate winners here....

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