Tributes for a betting ring legend

He was once regarded as Australia’s biggest and best-known harness racing punter. But Tom Hogan, fondly known as “Tara Tom”, was also a genuinely good bloke.

Hogan, 74, this week lost his fight against illness, and an outpouring of tributes reflect the respect, admiration and love he garnered during a 50-plus years association with the sport as a bookmaker, a professional punter and an enthusiastic owner.

Everyone knew him, and when he calmly entered a bookies’ ring on the punt, usually casually stopping to chat quietly with an acquaintance, he’d appear oblivious to suddenly being the centre of attention.

But despite being most open about having “his ups and downs and ending up broke a few times”, he was very clever on the punt and in recent years enjoyed an enviable lifestyle on Queensland’s famous Gold Coast with his longtime partner Sue Murray.

In an interview in early 2019 with well-known Victorian media personality, Paul Campbell, Hogan confessed he virtually “never had a job”.

“I worked with (bookmaker) Bill Hutchinson at first, who was a very good teacher of how to do the form,” Hogan said.

“I was only with him part-time, usually when he was short of staff and bookmaking at the bigger meetings.

“And Gary Ewen got a bookmaker’s licence as well and I worked for him. He too was very good at it.

“They educated me a bit and then I started going to the trials with ‘Hutchy’ and picked up the pieces. By the time I was about 23 or 24 I was hitting my straps as a big punter.”

Hogan had an astute eye and was brilliant on assessing form and his love of the sport and the punt was such that it was never a surprise to see him turn up at country meetings throughout Victoria when he was living in Melbourne. He’d bob up at Boort, St Arnaud, Terang, Charlton and anywhere else “trying to get the exes!”, and on one occasion he was even spotted at a Broken Hill meeting in far west NSW.

One of his favorite annual pilgrimages was to the three-night Mildura Pacing Cup Carnival in the far north-west corner of Victoria.

Apart from causing havoc in the strong betting ring that existed back in the day, Hogan thoroughly enjoyed being part of the carnival’s social scene, including his much-anticipated hosting of the popular karaoke night with Sue after the pacing cup Calcutta.

After many aspiring singers had their moment of glory, Hogan would take to the microphone and belt out more than credible renditions of popular karaoke crowd-pleasers.

As an owner Hogan had many great horses and enjoyed a long and successful association with the late Gavin Lang.

A grand old warrior in Persistency (Safely Kept), raced by Lang, his family, and good mates in Hogan and Craig Dowsett, provided them with many fine victories. Regarded as a crock from his three-year-old season, Persistency ended up winning 27 races, including two Group One races as a nine-year-old, one being a Kilmore Cup.

Lang, who died in 2020, was not only a champion trainer-driver, but an outstanding form analyst. The pair were responsible for many huge betting plunges over the years, back when you could get on to win big.

Hogan described it perfectly during another interview when he said: “We certainly did shake the ring on many occasions.”

And usually afterwards they would be found having fun, enjoying themselves around the jukebox or karaoke machine.

One of Hogan’s charms, though, was never missing the chance to offer authentic and genuine congratulations to a participant on an achievement.

A post by Echuca Harness Racing Club president Shane Gloury said it all: “An icon within harness racing who will be sadly missed, but the game has been better for him being part of it.”

by Terry Gange, for Harnesslink