Rejuvenated veteran lives to race another day

Phil Duggan is tough but a serious track accident two and a half years ago threatened to end a harness racing career that spans six decades and includes an Inter Dominion finalist, a near death car accident and thousands of rides as a heavyweight jockey.

Duggan, a rough-around-the-edges expert horseman from a famous racing family, was in hospital for six months after the incident and was concerned he would not train again.

“I was dead and a woman walking her dog jump started me,” Duggan said.

“If it wasn’t for her, I might not be here.

“I had just worked a two-year-old and was 200m from the stables when he jumped in the air and took off, tipping me out of the cart.

“He ran to the tie-up area but decided to come back the other way and ran straight over the top of me on the way through.

“I had heaps of injuries – bleeding on the brain and severe spine damage. They put me in an induced coma and I was in a brace for six months.

“It has taken a couple of years to recover but I am back to full capacity now.”

Duggan, 70, said he began working pacers for leading trainer Les Poyser when he was six years old and eventually went on to become a jockey, reinsman and a dual licensed trainer.

“Les Poyser lived three properties down from us and I rode horses for him from six until I started my apprenticeship at 14,” Duggan said.

“A month after I started with him, I was galloping horses in the pine plantation.

“I rode 238 winners as an apprentice jockey. I rode 10 city winners in my first year but I got heavy real quickly and rode most of my career in the bush.

“I rode on pretty much every track in WA and half of the Northern Territory.

“I had a couple of lucky escapes. I had a few falls but I never got any serious injuries.

“I got my reinsman’s licence in 1974 but decided to go back training gallopers until 2000, when I returned to harness racing.”

His best pacer was Nats Nifty, who won $260,000 in stakes. The gelding finished seventh to Jofess in the 2004 Perth Interdominion, after two placings in the heats.

“I got him as a seven-year-old that had won one race at Harvey and he went on to win 26 races,” Duggan said.

“He was a fat little horse that needed to get some weight off.

“The Interdominion final was a highlight. I was a trainer who had less than 200 starters and less than 20 winners – it was almost unheard of.

“Rural Bid was probably the best galloper I trained. I had a few that had more brilliance but he was just so honest and reliable.”

Duggan said he was lucky to have a career after he was involved in a fatal two-car crash near Southern Cross as an apprentice.

A mate he was travelling with died, as did the driver of the other car.

“We were going to the Goldfields for the round. It was terrible because the fella who died was married and had kids,” he said.

“I was gone, on the side of the road, and someone stopped and gave me CPR.

“I am not sure who it was but about 100 people travelling up for the round took credit for it later.

“I was back riding about six weeks after the accident. You recover a lot quicker as a teenager.”

Duggan is well known for his support of trainee jockeys and drivers.

He always makes his horses available to young horsemen coming through the program.

“I gave Damien Oliver quite a few rides when he was starting out,” Duggan said.

“I think it is important to help the kids coming through.”

The Oakford trainer has built his team of pacers back to nine, including a rising two-year-old, and is not ready to retire just yet.

He also has quality gelding Beat The Bank on the comeback trail after a tendon injury. Duggan has won $80,000 with the Bettors Delight pacer and hopes to have him racing mid next year.

“I won’t train gallopers again but I just bought a nine-horse truck from Melbourne, so we are not finished yet.

“I have four horses in at Collie on Sunday and one at Pinjarra on Monday.

“But this will probably be our last run at it. Can’t keep going forever.”

by Rick Lee, for RWWA