The Making Of Dance Hero

My piece on Dance Hero’s retirement (see below, April 1), has been a popular read, I’ve been surprised how many have mentioned that they’ve read and enjoyed it. Which is great – I dashed it off quickly and don’t regard it as Pulitzer Prize material!

There’s no doubt these superior horses develop an ardent fan base. No matter how we dress up racing, horses have always been and always will be the stars of the show. Behind every horse – fast or slow – there is a story. Melburnian Danny Power read my blog and got in touch to recount his personal involvement in Dance Hero’s genesis. Danny’s background is not unlike mine in several respects with stints in the media, in racing management and agency work. I asked Danny if I could run his yarn on the blog and he’s agreed. Read and enjoy ….


I immensely enjoyed your piece on Dance Hero – not only for the insight into this wonderful and underrated horse but also for the fact I have a personal involvement.

I bought Dance Hero’s mother Gypsy Dancer as a yearling in 1997 at the Karaka Select Sale. It was my first foray into yearling buying after leaving the Freedmans’ employ as Racing Manager the year before. I decided to try my luck in the bloodstock game rather than return to journalism.

I bought three yearlings at that sale. Gypsy Dancer for $15,000, a colt by Oregon (later named Millswyn, and a very smart multiple city winner before he broke down) for $35,000 and a colt by Stylish Century (for $18,000) from a couple of fledgling vendors in the backblocks of the complex, Bruce and Maureen Harvey. That colt, named Runaway, went on to be beaten a nose by Mossman in the AAMI Vase and finish fifth to Arena in the Victoria Derby. Unfortunately, a shoulder injury restricted his career, but Bart Cummings rated him very highly.

I went to the sale with a plan. I couldn’t afford to buy a Sir Tristram, so I sought out all the yearlings in the Select Sale that possessed an influence of Sir T through their female line. The three I bought were the only ones I bid on.

Runaway looked nothing like Stylish Century but threw to his tough five-times winning dam Lady Tristana (by Sir Tristram). Millswyn was a cracking sort from the Sir Tristram mare Windrift, while Gypsy Dancer was a sister to a smart Melbourne horse at the time ,Racy Dancer, but also she had the influence of her grandam Tristabelle, one of the few Australian stakeswinning two-year-olds by Sir Tristram. She was also out of the Belle family, which appealed to me.

Gypsy Dancer was smallish, lightly framed, immature, but athletic and a good walker. A time job.

I remember Barrie Griffiths wondering at this thin-boned, insignificant filly when she arrived at his Northwood Park property, Nagambie – her home for the next 12 months.

A close friend of mine, Terry Dickson from Adelaide, bought the filly and I stayed in the ownership. David Hall gave her a try as a late two-year-old. He assessed her as having some ability but suggested she be better served trained out of an Adelaide stable. So off to Adelaide she went. Her first trainer was Jeremy Gask, who was just starting out, but he had trouble keeping condition on her so we moved her to Ray Taylor, on the beach at Goolwa. The outdoor lifestyle suited Gypsy. She trained out of a sandy yard and rarely went to the track. Taylor transformed her – along with a helpful dose of maturity.

She only won twice but her record should have been better. She certainly, with any luck, should have won the Oakbank Country Cup. She retired a winner at Victoria Park and Balaklava.

Terry was just starting out in the breeding game. He had bought a couple of off-the-track fillies, and his quota was full. It was decided Gypsy Dancer might have to go to the sales. Around the same time, another friend/client of mine, Tony Akkari, sought my advice to replace a mare who had died at stud while in the early stages of carrying a Danzero foal (his first dabble into breeding). I offered him Gypsy Dancer. He studied her videos and photos, and agreed to buy her. Arrowfield offered him a return to Danzero, so that is where Gypsy went.

Tony kept me informed about his Danzero colt and I still have those photos of him as a foal and weanling. He was an upstanding, strong, independent fellow from the start. An incredible first foal, even with his roman nose (Lee Freedman says that comes from Danzero’s maternal grandsire, Kaoru Star). Danzero had a significant roman nose as a yearling but his head improved as his body grew into itself.

Like you and George, I was in awe of him when he paraded as a yearling for me at Goodwood Farm. I remember going to Arrowfield after that for a parade and telling (fellow agent) Kieran Moore that he should take the time to go to Goodwood to see the Danzero colt because Arrowfield had nothing to match him. I think he thought I was just an upstart!

Terry and I have often pondered what made a mare like Gypsy Dancer leave a horse like Dance Hero.

Certainly family has something to do with it. The Belle family consistently leaves great horses: Belle du Jour, Grand Armee, Absolute Champion in recent years. Obviously Danzero has something to do with it. The mating produced a wonderful athlete (but two subsequent matings to Danzero for Gypsy Dancer have been unsuccessful. A filly didn’t make it to the races while a colt [small and compact] has won a minor race at Moe). I believe Bart Cummings has a two-year-old full sister named Batroun that is much more like Dance Hero in type than the others – and I believe he has an opinion of her.

Another point worth making is that Gypsy Dancer had natural talent. She may not have had a great desire to be competitive, but there was hardly a race in her 28 starts that at one stage approaching the home turn she didn’t look the winner. She had a cruising speed that allowed her to be “traveling” no matter what the tempo, but she lacked the will to exploit it under pressure. I see some of that come out in Dance Hero when he didn’t get his own way in front.

I hope this hasn’t bored you. It’s a story I haven’t told before.

Danny Power
Senior editor, racing
Geoff Slattery Publishing Pty Ltd