Galleywood, Grand Annual, Warrnambool 1984 & 1986
"Galleywood is back from the dead"
Acrylic on paper
52 x 59.8 cm
Signed; also titled on reverse
Galleywood was Warrnambool-owned, Warrnambool-trained and Warrnambool-ridden.
In 1984, ridden by Peter Delaney, a replacement for regular jockey Terry Murphy, who had been put out of action by a fall earlier in the day, Galleywood fell in front of a grandstand and was perceived to be so badly hurt that the dreaded hessian screen was erected so racegoers would not have to watch what was going to happen next — a bullet in the brain.
This would have been no ordinary tragedy. Galleywood was the people’s horse in the racing-mad district, bred by Annie Wilson, the mother of local jockey Neville “Nifty” Wilson, prepared on the course by popular local trainer Jocka Baillie and usually ridden by Murphy, also a local.
Half the town held its breath and choked back the tears as Delaney cuddled the horse and told the man with the gun: “Shoot me first!”
After a long few minutes, the horse scrambled to its feet and was led away to its stall as the crowd cheered itself, well, hoarse.
Galleywood did not contest the race the next year but the year after that it ran — and won, with racecaller Bryan Martin shouting: “Galleywood is back from the dead.” refer Herald Sun
Item #5480
Price: $2,000.00