Well I'll let you oldies tell the tale.
I was still in Primary School at the beginning of that season and wasn't following horse racing.
I remember Battle Heights. Won the Metrop aged 10. Seemed to be part of the furniture.
Game????
Game was the NZ WFA star when I first develop an interest.
A handsome black gelded son of Faux Tirage, he was a front runner with the courage you could only love and admire......Vo Rogue type without the big leads.
Game by name and game by nature was the racecaller's cry and while it sounds pretty corny now, it was absolutely true.
He was a late bloomer so his record mightn't show how good he was.
I was working with an Aussie at the time who would regularly talk about 'dashing Roy Higgins'.
Roy came over to ride him in an invitation race.....Lester Piggott won the race on the fav Sailing Home.......Piggott hit the mare twice......Game was 2nd but Higgins really laid into him with the stick.....a la Light Fingers......couldn't count the blows.....what a contrast! ........nothing that dashing were my thoughts about Roy Higgins.
He did acknowledge Game's courage who was racing in bandages by them and a little past his best.
Just on Apollo Eleven ......his win in The Auckland Cup was his 4th win in around 40 starts so he wasn't a lot of peoples favourite.......if my memory is right he wasn't being tried as a stayer......more around the mile.
He won the equivalent of a mid level benchmark the week before The Auckland Cup with a huge finish and it all really took off from there.
He was about the 4th fav in the Auckland Cup.
Who would have thought he was going to come here and rain on Gunsynd's parade?