Straight Talk

November 21, 2008

Kersley and the Railway

words by DANNY POWER

TRAINER FRED KERSLEY WITH MARASCO AT MOONEE VALLEY BEFORE THE 2007 TATTS COX PLATE.

photography by COURTESY OF THE MVRC

Fred Kersley knows what it takes to win the Group 1 Carlton Draught Railway Stakes (1600m) at Ascot. When the great Northerly (B g 1996, Serheed (USA) - North Belle, by Bellwater (FR)) won the Railway in 2000, Kersley, a champion harness racing trainer and driver, not only achieved a life-long ambition to train a thoroughbred Group 1 winner, but also started an amazing racing journey for this famous horseman, his family and their wonder horse.

The Railway Stakes win launched Northerly towards the Melbourne autumn carnival in 2001, which culminated in Northerly winning the Group 1 Australian Cup (WFA 2000m). He returned to Melbourne in the spring to win the Group 1 Cox Plate (WFA 2040m) at Moonee Valley (he again won the Cox Plate in 2002, after winning the Caulfield Cup a week earlier).

A year later, Old Comrade (Br g 1997, Old Spice-Belgravia, by Ksar (GB)) completed the same Railway Stakes-Australian Cup double when he beat Northerly in the Australian Cup at Flemington. Northerly won the Australian Cup for the second time in 2003 running a record.

When Northerly retired due to injury in 2004 (the winner of 19 races and $9.3 million in prizemoney), after a failed comeback attempt, Kersley only needed to wait 14 months before producing another exciting headline act for Perth racing, the flashily marked Scenic gelding named after a Melbourne comedian, Marasco (B g 2002, Scenic (IRE)-Bluegrass Belle, by Is It True (USA)).

Marasco is part of Kersley's two-pronged attack on Saturday's $1m Railway Stakes. The 6YO gelding will be joined by the talented Kersley-trained 3YO colt Grand Nirvana (B c 2005, Scenic (IRE)-Paradise Park, by Bletchley Park (IRE)), who like Marasco and Northerly, is raced in partnership by Kersley's wife Judith and breeders Neville and Sue Duncan.

Marasco has suffered a little from being tagged with the label of the "next Northerly", but he has built an imposing record of 13 wins and six placings from only 27 starts. (CLICK HERE read The Thoroughbred's preview of the Railway Stakes)

Grand Nirvana is an exciting prospect, but he has drawn awkwardly in barrier 13, one inside Marasco, whose normal pattern is to race back in the field. The last 3YO to win the Railway Stakes was the brilliant filly Jungle Dawn (Gr f 1983, Jungle Boy (GB)-Chentello, by Martello Towers) in January 1987.

The name Kersley is famous in Perth racing. Kersley's career mirrors that of his grandfather, Fred J Kersley, who also was a champion harness racing trainer and driver who was able to make the successful transition to training gallopers. Fred J Kersley won the Perth thoroughbred trainers' premiership in 1941. The current day Kersley is a third generation "Fred Kersley", as his father Fred also was a leading trainer-driver of harness horses, and also trained gallopers for Perth's stalwart administrator and breeder Sir Ernest Lee Steere.

To cap off the deeds of this amazing racing family, Kersley's daughter Kellie became the first female driver the win the prestigious Miracle Mile at Harold Park in Sydney when she won on the mare Norms Daughter in 1996.

Kersley has trained 10 Group 1 winners - nine won by Northerly - but for it to be 11, Marasco, who has been handicapped on 57.5kg, needs to break a modern weight-carrying record. The last topweight to win the Railway Stakes was Tudor Mak (61kg) in 1967 - and Tudor Mak is the only horse to win the handicap with more than 55kg since 1945.

Below is a complete profile on Fred Kersley's amazing career - one of 150 extensive profiles on trainers and jockeys in the latest edition of Racing In Australia, A Guide to Season 2008-09.

PROFILE: Fred Kersley

Born, January 7, 1939

Although thoroughbred racing and harness racing both involve horses, rarely has a trainer become a household name in each industry. West Australian horseman Fred Kersley is an exception. After rising to be one of the all-time great Australian harness racing trainer-drivers, Kersley turned his hand to training thoroughbreds and produced a champion in dual Cox Plate and Caulfield Cup winner Northerly.

That he was able to achieve excellence in both forms of horse racing might have come as a surprise to many, but his background says otherwise. "It is not known much outside of Western Australia but the family has a history in thoroughbred racing as well as harness racing," Kersley explains.

Kersley's grandfather, FJ Kersley, although best known as a harness racing trainer-driver, won the thoroughbred trainers' premiership in Perth in 1941. His father Fred, also best known in harness racing circles, trained thoroughbreds for the long-time chairman of the West Australian Turf Club, Sir Ernest Lee Steere. And his Uncle Frank, a leading reinsman in Perth, at one stage moved to Victoria and, after working as a harness racing steward for two years, trained thoroughbreds for noted Australian actor Alwyn Kurts.

The young Fred Kersley was just 18 when he drove his first winner, at Perth's Gloucester Park raceway in 1957. Over the next 45 years he drove close to 2400 winners, and in the process became only the third Australian harness racing driver to reach the magical 2000 mark. He collected the first of an unprecedented 15 Perth Drivers' Championships in 1972-73, and also won the Perth Trainers' Premiership on 14 occasions. Both premiership records remain standing today.

In light of those achievements Kersley became only the second harness racing trainer-driver to be inducted into the Western Australian Institute of Sport's Hall of Champions. The first was his Uncle Frank.

Among the many top-class horses he trained was the champion Pure Steel, with whom he won a WA Derby. He lost the pacer to another trainer (Ted Demmler) after finishing second with him in the 1976 Inter Dominion Championship in Adelaide.
Kersley's move into thoroughbred racing in 1989 was born of necessity, rather than desire. "Harness racing in Western Australia was beginning to struggle," he says. "I was training plenty of winners but I was going broke at the same time."

He began preparing gallopers at his Forestdale stables south of Perth, before moving to stables at Ascot. His first win as a thoroughbred trainer came with Little Hero, at Belmont, in July, 1989.

Over the next decade Kersley trained both thoroughbreds and harness horses. His first talented thoroughbred was Time Frame, with whom he won the WA Sires Produce Stakes in 1991. Many years later, under a different trainer, Time Frame won the 1997 Perth Cup.

The world changed for Fred Kersley, thoroughbred trainer, with the arrival in his stables of a three-year-old bay gelding by Serheed, late in 1999. His breeder, Neville Duncan, formed a syndicate to race him. The syndicate included Kersley's wife, Judith.

The gelding, Northerly, finished third at his first outing but at his next start easily won the listed Aquanita Stakes at Ascot, and was immediately spelled. In the spring of 2000 Northerly won a Class Six race at Ascot on November 30, and exactly one month later won the Group 1 Railway Stakes at only his sixth start. That he could take such a giant step in such a short space of time was an early reflection of his extraordinary ability.

Over the next four years Northerly established himself as one of the greatest horses to have raced in Australia. At the same time the quite unassuming Kersley built a reputation as a thoroughbred trainer to more than match his standing as one of the country's greatest harness racing exponents.

In all Northerly won 19 races and more than $9.3 million in prizemoney. His nine Group 1 wins included the 2002 Caulfield Cup, two Cox Plates, in 2001 and 2002, and two Australian Cups, in 2001 and 2003. He was judged Australia's Horse of the Year in 2002-03.

On December 12, 2006, Kersley life took another twist. The trainer copped the full brunt of a kick in the face from an unruly youngster at the Belmont training track. Kersley required extensive surgery to correct a shattered top jaw, and although the scars of the ordeal remain, he made a full recovery.

Kersley maintains a relatively small team of horses at Ascot - usually around 25 - but continues to be successful. In 2007 he won the Group 2 Karrakatta Plate and the Group 3 WA Sires Produce Stakes with Roman Time, the listed Belgravia stakes with last year's Sires Produce Stakes winner Paris Petard, and the Magic Millions with Jestatune; and followed up last season with the smart juveniles Danerip and Grand Nirvana.

But the star of the stable is undoubtedly the Scenic six-year-old Marasco, like Northerly, bred by Neville Duncan, and owned by Duncan and his wife in partnership with Judith Kersley.

Stables: Ascot

First winner: Little Hero, Belmont, 1989

Group 1 wins: 10

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