Racing’s Great Characters - Horses Who Did It Their Way

Kristen Manning

Editor

Last updated: Fri 13 Mar 2026 04:50

Kristen Manning 13 Mar 2026

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Rocket Man's dynamic racing career and unique showmanship captivated fans
Gunsynd and Ethereal charmed audiences with their racing wins and distinct antics
Legacy of legendary gallopers includes both impressive track records and memorable personalities

Tommy Berry celebrates aboard Chautauqua after winning the 2015 Manikato Stakes at Moonee Valley. (Getty)

With the news this week that the Australian-bred, Singapore-based star galloper Rocket Man has died, it brought to mind horses who have captured the attention of racing fans not just because of their talent.

Rocket Man
Gunsynd
Ethereal
Starcraft
Valais's Sons - Heroic And Manfred - Modern Echoes

We enjoyed watching these horses do their thing on the track, but we've also loved witnessing the antics that made them unique; here's a top five (and a few more!) of such special thoroughbreds.

Rocket Man

In Australia it's the mounting yard, in other places the parade ring or the paddock. But for Rocket Man — well it was the show ring.

Rocket Man was rarely seen just walking around — with his neck arched and his ears pricked he pranced, he strutted.

And he won.

20 times from 27 starts in fact, bursting onto the scene in October 2008 with an easy debut win at Kranji.

There was something special there from the beginning, Rocket Man going through the classes winning his next six starts; three at Group 3 level before elite level success in the prestigious Lion City Cup — a race he would win on another three occasions.

His first taste of defeat came at the hands (or should I say hoofs) of another Australian-bred horse in Sacred Kingdom in the 2009 Group 1 Singapore International Sprint, in which Takeover Target was out of the placings.

Travelling with great success, Rocket Man won the 2011 Group 1 Golden Shaheen (having been second the previous year and again in 2012) in Dubai and the 2010 Group 2 Hong Kong Jockey Club Sprint, subsequently finishing a game second to J J the Jet Plane (Ortensia fifth) in the Group 1 Hong Kong International Sprint.

Bred by Dean Fleming, the son of Viscount was a $60,000 2007 Magic Millions purchase for World Wide Bloodstock. His dual stakes-winning dam Macrosa, who also produced the South African Group 1 winner Our Giant, was a half-sister to the dual Group 1 winner Ebony Grosve.

It was after just his eighth start that Rocket Man was found to have suffered a condylar fracture of the off-side cannon bone, racing the rest of his life with screws inserted.

Described by jockey Felix Coetzee (who rode him to victory in Dubai) as "the most tenacious horse I have ever ridden — a horse with boundless energy," Rocket Man spent his retirement years in South Africa, dying this week aged 20.

Gunsynd

A statue (in Apex Park, Goondiwindi), a museum (nearby), a nickname ("the Goondiwindi Grey"), a song (Tex Morton's opening line of We've Cheered Him From the Grandstand), induction into the Australian Racing Hall of Fame, the honour of being named Australian Racehorse of the Year (season 1971/72), named as a Q150 icon, a Group 3 race (the Gunsynd Classic) — all things that ensure that the legend that is Gunsynd lives on in the minds of racing fans.

The $1300 yearling raced by four mates from Goondiwindi, Gunsynd wowed crowds with his 29 victories including his success (at his third attempt in the race) in the W.S Cox Plate and several other races which now have Group 1 status (he raced just a few years before the introduction of the pattern system).

The Epsom Handicap, the Rawson (now Ranvet) Stakes, the Toorak Handicap, the George Adams (now the Champions Mile), the Doncaster Handicap, the Caulfield Stakes, the Futurity Stakes — and a few feature races no longer run; it was quite the record that Gunsynd held.

And as much as he is remembered for those great victories, he is also renowned for his trait of showing off to the crowd — of standing stock still as he was admired and applauded, taking it all in, stoking an ego that might not be so admired if he'd been human!

Over 25,000 people turned up at Doomben for Gunsynd's farewell as he headed to stud; his grey coat still popping up on racecourses via descendants of the champion mare Emancipation, whose dam Ammo Girl was by him.

Ethereal

One of the 13 horses to secure the Caulfield/Melbourne Cup double in the same year, the mare that provided Sheila Laxon with the first of her two First Tuesday in November victories made her Australian debut in the Group 3 Doomben Roses.

She was nice odds when saluting that day and again when she won the Group 1 Queensland Oaks next time out — putting herself on the radar of those wondering who the Melbourne spring carnival players were going to be.

Her victories in the two Cups, neither by big margins, are well remembered by racing fans, with her strong finishes earning her plenty of admirers. The following campaign proved she was capable at weight-for-age when too strong for Universal Prince in the Group 1 Tancred Stakes, Ethereal retiring to stud where she fared well.

The dam of six winners including the Listed winner Seraphim and three stakes placegetters, Ethereal is ancestress of the stakes winners Tomodachi, Supera, Eleonora, Ethereal Star and Pericles (not the Aussie one).

Her racetrack and breeding deeds are impressive but they are not all that Ethereal is remembered for, with fans also recalling the way she would throw out her front legs as she paraded.

We asked Sheila Laxon about that Ethereal quirk.

"She used to yank on the reins and one day I had a sore back so I held the reins so that she couldn't do that. Her reaction was to start strutting. It was so funny that I made a fuss about it and she decided it was a fun antic."

"She did it at the races and at home, it was as though she was saying 'take note, I'm here!'"

"She was her own girl," Sheila continued, "she ran the show."

The now retired imported stakes winner Keats also liked to kick out his legs with an exaggerated walk, his trainer Gavin Bedggood admitting to having "no idea why he did it!" whilst noting that there was the possibility of showing off — "he mainly did it when people were around, both on and off the track."

Starcraft

Heading to Melbourne in late January 2004, ignored by punters despite having won three in a row in Queensland, the burly chestnut who was Starcraft didn't stroll into the Flemington mounting yard ready to contest the Group 3 Debonair Stakes — he burst in.

The writer remembers standing on the fence with a friend as the 30-1 roughie marched with purpose towards the parade ring, his muscles rippling on his glowing coat as he swaggered around the yard... our jaws dropping as we reached for our racebooks to find out who this newcomer was.

Three Australasian Group 1 wins (the AJC Derby, the Mudgway Stakes and the Chipping Norton Stakes) later and Starcraft was in the UK, his reins handed over from Garry Newham to Luca Cumani.

From five northern hemisphere starts, Starcraft was in the Group 1 winners' circle on two occasions, taking out the Prix du Moulin de Longchamp and the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes.

I was lucky enough to be at the latter and the image of Starcraft flouncing around Newmarket remains in my mind. Hot favourite in that race was future star stallion Dubawi having his final start. He was already in the yard, quietly strolling around, as Starcraft put on his big song and dance.

Some of the horses cowered in his presence (I was told Silent Witness had the same effect on his rivals in Hong Kong) but little Dubawi took one look at the bigger horse and, refusing to be dwarfed, pumped himself up and joined in with the strutting!

Valais's Sons - Heroic And Manfred - Modern Echoes

A stallion who kicked off his career in the very early days of Arrowfield Stud before being purchased by Widden Stud, Valais was the first stallion to earn five Australian Champion Sire titles and he certainly passed on talent — as well as quirkiness!

Two of his best sons, Heroic and Manfred, were renowned not only for their extreme talent, but for their habit of treating the starter with disdain.

A sale-topping yearling, Heroic was making a mess of the starts from his two-year-old days but still managed to win races giving his rivals ground. The AJC Derby was a particularly memorable race with Heroic rearing at the start, veering to the outside fence and settling a clear last.

Leader Sir Dighlock drew out the field, at one stage leading by 20 lengths, the first chasing from the 800m being Heroic. As the pacemaker tired, Heroic was left alone at the top of the straight but his two main rivals (the race had been billed as a match between Heroic, Nigger Minstrel and Spearfelt) were chasing and soon it was the three of them engaged in an epic battle to the delight of the crowd; the champ getting the verdict with the margins a head by a head.

In two major races, the All-Aged Stakes and the Cumberland Stakes, Heroic refused to take part at all but won other features before, at the age of five, winning six in a row including the 1926 W.S Cox Plate.

Born a year after Heroic, Manfred faced the starter on 28 occasions but raced only 22 times. The other six — well he just didn't go!

"Only a stick of dynamite could have moved Manfred when he took it into his head to stay at the post," said jockey Frank Dempsey. But, at his brilliant best, Manfred was breathtaking, and he provided Valais with consecutive W.S Cox Plate, Champagne Stakes, Caulfield Stakes and AJC Derby victories, races all also won by Heroic.

No such story is complete without mention of a modern-day horse who channelled the habits of Heroic and Manfred, that horse of course being the quirky grey Chautauqua. Fondly known as "Sharky," he developed a habit of remaining in the barriers as they crashed open; contrary to every equine innate desire to run with the pack! The Hong Kong galloper Pakistan Star developed the same habit and one wonders what conversations the two horses have over the fences at Living Legends!