Ouroene (AUS)

I came across this story today and felt I should share it, as the horse involved, former Sydney galloper Ouroene deserves a place on this memorial. I am quite sure this will jog a few memories…

“Ouroene had the distinction of having 124 race starts and died a Maiden. Until last year, 19/9/07, she held the world record number of starts for a maiden. Now it is held by Puerto Rican mare Donna Chepa, a 9yo.

I vividly recall Ouroene starting at odds of 200-1 and 500-1 racing Kingston Town in very small fields at weight-for-age. She was a horse who never ran a bad race, and in the jargon of the track was always thereabouts, a horse nobody ever talked badly about and a horse women kissed.

A chestnut foal born in 1975 by top Sydney sprinter Farnworth was eventually named Ouroene. She was owned by Lorraine Chiotis and was trained by her husband George, who had an owner-trainer licence.

She became a crowd favourite in Sydney and endeared herself to the racing public of Australia.

The closest she ever got to winning a race was when she ran two 2nds – one at Randwick in 1977 and the other at Canterbury in 1981. She also ran a further seven 3rd placings and finished up with earnings of $14,605 in prizemoney.

Trainer George Chiotis treated Ouroene like a daughter and two formed an inseparable combination.

Tragedy was to strike in 1986 when George bought her to winter in Brisbane. He had publicly stated she would then go on to the Melbourne Spring Carnival – surely the stuff of a “dreamer”!

Working at Eagle Farm early one morning, Ouroene snapped a fetlock and had to be humanely euthanased.

Of the incident a journalist of the time wrote “Little George Chiotis stood helplessly, head bowed and face wet with tears as a vet mercifully ended her life. Then he knelt, kissed the old mare on a cheek, gave her a final pat, turned and walked away”.

She died with her trainer George Chiotis telling reporters of the time Ouroene out-galloped the champion Luskin Star in a Randwick trackworkout...had shown amazing glimpses of pace before she died, leaving Georgeto treasure her cloths, her saddle and her racing plates. In one race at Canterbury she conceded the leaders 30 lengths and when her jockey, Sorenson, touched her with a whip, flashed home to get within a neck of the place-getters. She could never put the snatches of pace together long enough to win a race, but every morning she would pick up her bridle in her teeth and help herself to be saddled.'

The racing world was in mourning for the little Aussie battler”

"Excerpts from 1988 publishing by Jack Pollard, contributed by reader, thanks"