WIDGEE TURF
(Racing Photos)
“I grew up around horses, grew up riding them, it was that sort of lifestyle where horses were just a part of everyday life,” said Egan. Despite the honest nature of working life in the area, there has always been money in Mansfield. The town was a service centre for the surrounding mining outposts during the gold rush and fortunes were made and spent on Mansfield’s streets. Recently the town has boomed again as a gateway to the snowfields of Mt Buller and a weekend escape for well-heeled Melburnians, but horses remain a constant. “People would ride in and go to the pub, do their shopping. There’d be horses tied up in the main street. It doesn’t happen as much these days with a few more cars around but stockmen, cowboys and girls, camp drafters they’re all still around,” said Egan. Egan was always going to be a jockey, there were no two ways about it. He started his career in 2005 and despite some tough times and injuries – the latest in August 2022 when a fall at Pakenham nearly cost him the use of his left arm – he couldn’t imagine another life. Egan was in the saddle when Widgee Turf made a winning debut in a Swan Hill three-year-old maiden in August 2016 and stayed in the saddle for much of the horse’s 42-start career, combining for nine wins, eight on metropolitan tracks, and a Group 1 placing in the 2019 Sir Rupert Clarke Stakes. “He was a fierce competitor, he put in 100% every time you went to the races. He was so cruisy and laid back around the stables, but like a great sportsperson, he had that white line fever when you took him to the races,” Egan said.
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