His ride, Light Fantastic, was beaten in a narrow photo finish and Newitt didn’t regain his thought processes until he slumped in a chair at his home after the Caulfield meeting. “I spoke to him every day. Dad would never miss or I would never miss making contact. That’s why I was worried that morning,” he said. Newitt looked around at his young family and his riding gear from that day and knew that he had a pressing decision to make in the next two weeks. “I thought Heart Of Dreams was close to a good thing in the Australian Guineas at Flemington in a fortnight’s time, but it was a matter of convincing Mick Price that my mind was in a proper place for such a race. “It hit me that Dad had not only been a dad but a friend, a mentor and a motivator. He would have said, ‘take the ride at Flemington and do it in memory of me, but your life will not stop even after what happened’,” Newitt said.
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