John Tapp winces at the word “legendary” but when it comes to race calling it is an appropriate description. For 33 years ‘Tappy’ broadcast over 50,000 races. While he retired from the commentary box in 1998, his voice is still recognised around Australia — and not just by punters.
In his career, John Tapp has been featured on postage stamps, awarded an OAM, written his memoirs, had a half-a-million-dollar race named after him and raised money for charities. He has headed TV and radio sport shows and co-hosted the televised Lotto Draw with Miss World runner-up, Karen Pini.
(“Instead of wanting racing tips people would yell out to me in the middle of Pitt Street: ‘when are you going to pick out my winning numbers, Tappy?’ It went on for seven years!”)
Horses have been instrumental in his meeting countless international celebrities and sportspeople, and he has accrued a swathe of fascinating anecdotes and reminiscences.
John, or “Tappy” as he’s known to so many, remembers meeting Mickey Rooney who visited Randwick Racecourse when the diminutive Hollywood actor was in the region. He had been working in New Zealand on The Adventures of the Black Stallion TV series. He owned several gallopers, spent a lot of time at the tracks in the US and was a stockholder in Santa Anita.
“I had to quickly do some research and then publicly announce Rooney’s arrival to the huge crowd. At 5’3” (160cm) he looked like a little beach ball bouncing around; it was quite apparent he just loved racing.”
“He [Mickey Rooney] looked
like a little beach ball
bouncing around.”
(The horse playing ‘The Black’ in Rooney’s TV series was ‘Doc’s Keepin’ Time’, a quarter horse stallion. Trainer Rex Peterson said: “The studio had already bought three Arabians, but they weren’t movie horses. I bought the stallion just in time for the show. Mickey Rooney got on him on the first week of filming, rode him around the set, got off and then turned him loose in the middle of everyone where he was perfectly behaved. Rooney liked him so much he refused to work with the Arabians.”)
And then there was lady jockey, Robyn Smith, who had become Fred Astaire’s second wife. He had retired from the screen and become an avid horse breeder, owner and punter, and had met Robyn at the races. “He had an unmistakable jaunty walk, as if he were still dancing, and had been immediately smitten with Robyn. I met her when I was a guest caller at the Hollywood Park track.”
Astaire, 81, had married the jockey in 1980 when she was 45 years his junior. He died in 1987. “Robyn admitted in the early days she couldn’t get a ride on the training track,” says John, “but eventually she was riding regular winners on major tracks and in some important stakes races. She played a significant role in having female jockeys recognised. We still exchange text messages and emails.”
“Nothing will ever take the
place of riding Thoroughbreds,
but flying comes close.”
A trailblazer for female jockeys, Robyn Smith-Astaire began her racing career in 1969. When she retired in the early ’80s she took up flying graduating from choppers to jets and becoming a commercial pilot. She claimed, “Nothing will ever take the place of riding Thoroughbreds, but flying comes close.”
‘GO, GO, GO, YOU LITTLE BEAUTY!’
In 1974, John took his voice out of the commentary box and into a recording studio where he sung Little Hondo about ‘Hondo Grattan’ who had become the first horse to win two successive Inter Dominion Pacing championships. It featured the memorable chorus of “Go, go, go, you little beauty!”.
Initially, he was unsure about doing it: “I reminded myself that Lee Marvin had insisted on singing Wand’rin’ Star in Paint Your Wagon, proving you don’t have to be Caruso to make a record.” He gave it a go. A month later it was in the Top 40 charts. “It hovered there for two weeks and quickly disappeared”.
Throughout the years John, now 83, would have watched more than half-a-million Thoroughbred horses race around hundreds of tracks; but there is another breed which has been an integral part of his life and that of his wife, Ann. The Standardbred.
For many years John was an active trainer and harness driver, his wife a knowledgeable horsewoman, stable manager and recreational rider.
“When it comes to soundness Ann has an amazing eye and can tell when a horse isn’t quite right,” comments John when Equestrian Life visited the couple in their home on Sydney’s outskirts. Adds Ann: “I spent much of my adult lifetime with Standardbreds ever since I met John at 2GB Radio where I was in sales. We’ve been married now for forty years.”
Ann recalls the early days when living near the former Harold Park Paceway in inner-city Glebe. “So many horses in local backyards peeking over the gates of little stables which they’d only leave when exercising and competing.”
All very Dickensian.
LOVE OF STANDARDBREDS
When the Tapps had competitive Standardbreds, they lived and worked out of acreage on the outskirts of Sydney. As a trainer and driver, John enjoyed many successes but was sidelined in 1986 when he had a fall and broke his leg in three places. “The late Sam Chisholm, who was the CEO of Channel 9 where I was working, suggested I gave away racing and concentrate on my job!” He did so until the mid-’90s when he resumed training — “We were blessed with having some really nice horses.”
The Tapps talk especially fondly of ‘Chariot King’ who won many major Group One races earning $640,000 for his owner before retiring with an injury. He later took up a career in the show ring, handled by trainer/driver Debbie Holt. Sadly, the chestnut was put down after a fluke paddock accident. “He gave us so many thrills in his career — we’ll never be able to replace him.”
The Standardbred breed was established in the US in the late 1700s. In the pursuit of developing a faster horse, a combination of breeds was crossed including the Narragansett Pacer and Norfolk Trotter (both now extinct), the English Thoroughbred, Canadian Pacer, Hackney and the Morgan. A stallion had to trot a mile in two-and-a-half minutes or faster, leading to the name Standardbred. Within the breed there are both trotters and pacers and certain bloodlines are more likely to produce one than the other.
The Tapps have been an integral part of rehoming Standardbreds in Australia over the years and took an active part in the scheme’s charity work, especially around NSW. Ann assisted in assessing horses’ suitability for placement programs and recalls many going to pony clubbers, pleasure and show riders, and as RDA mounts.
Once upon a time there never existed post-racing opportunities for retired Thoroughbreds and Standardbreds. “There’s now a rampant awareness brought about by all the bad history,” states John.
It’s not squeaky clean and there is still abuse and ignorance within the world of Thoroughbred and harness racing. As he says: “There are people who go to bed plumbers and wake up trainers.” …people lacking knowledge and empathy.
Examples of unethical and distressing treatment of equines can be seen around the world. The illegal “soring” of Tennessee Walking Horses, the brutal handling of performance, working and sport horses and those used for pleasure and recreation.
“Twenty years ago, the public didn’t know about racing horses being mistreated, abandoned and discarded — it was all swept under the carpet.”
‘WALKING THE BOX’
When John finally decided to retire, he didn’t exactly feel abandoned but admits he couldn’t settle. He had thought he’d enjoy spending his days going to the theatre and movies, and playing a game of golf once in a while. “I lasted three weeks then, as they say in racing parlance, I began ‘walking the box’.”
His daughter, Rebecca, told him he was driving Ann mad around the house and suggested he create a website, which she helped him build. Handsome, well-constructed pages with sponsors, subscribers and well-written engaging stories, John Tapp Racing has become a winner. “It’s now a serious commitment than I’m enjoying immensely,” grins John.
Ann is happy, too, that he’s no longer under her feet, and both continue taking pleasure in witnessing and taking part in the rehoming practices around the country. EQ
Standardbred rehoming and off the track resources:
Harness Racing Victoria HERO program.
The Standardbred Pleasure & Performance Horse Association of NSW (SPPHA NSW).
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