A little more than 24 hours after the passing of Vo Rogue, Australian racing has lost another of its great on-pacers following this morning's sudden death of Northerly.The Western Australian champion, who was born not breathing on 17 October 1996 and had to be massaged back to life by owner/breeder Neville Duncan, was euthanized following complications after a bout of colic.Former top jockey Greg Childs, who had a perfect record on Northerly but was also a rival through his association with Sunl

A little more than 24 hours after the passing of Vo Rogue, Australian racing has lost another of its great on-pacers following this morning's sudden death of Northerly.

The Western Australian champion, who was born not breathing on 17 October 1996 and had to be massaged back to life by owner/breeder Neville Duncan, was euthanized following complications after a bout of colic.

Former top jockey Greg Childs, who had a perfect record on Northerly but was also a rival through his association with Sunline, was saddened to hear of the passing of the gelding who raced 37 times for 19 wins, seven seconds and two third placings and $9,341,850 in stakes.

"I had six rides on Northerly for six wins and two of those wins were the Australian Cup and Caulfield Cup," Childs said on RSN. "They were great days.

"He never travelled like a winner. Sunline, she travelled like a winner and gave you a ping, but Northerly was more dour.

"Patrick Payne did say once, he always looked to be the first one beaten but he was always the last one standing and that's a really good phrase for him."

Northerly and Vo Rogue - who died, aged 28, on Tuesday night - were the only multiple winners of the Australian Cup since it settled as a weight-for-age event in 1987.

But where Vo Rogue's back-to-back Australian Cups (1989/90) were his crowning glory, Northerly also achieved greatness during the Spring Racing Carnival under the tutelage of astute trainer Fred Kersley.

The son of Serheed also won a pair of Cox Plates, in 2001/02, and equalled the Caulfield Cup metric weight-carrying record when he lumped 58kg to victory in the 2002 edition.

He won four additional Group 1 races, starting with the Railway Stakes - at just his sixth start - and including the Underwood Stakes in both his Cox Plate winning years and the 2001 Yalumba Stakes.

Northerly also won the Turnbull Stakes - which has since been upgraded a Group 1 - in 2002 and claimed two St George Stakes (now Peter Young Stakes), a Makybe Diva Stakes and a Feehan Stakes at Group 2 level.

That Feehan Stakes success, in 2001, was the first of several riveting clashes with fellow dual Cox Plate winner Sunline, who never beat him home in a race.

Racing Victoria's General Manager - Racing, Greg Carpenter, a Western Australian, said Northerly's impact on the sport, especially in his home state, could not be underestimated.

"Like Phar Lap and Black Caviar, in Western Australia he was 'a horse for the times', and was responsible for reigniting interest in racing in the west," Carpenter said.
"He turned around the fortunes of the thoroughbred industry in that state, along with his trainer Fred Kersley, who like Peter Moody, gave his time at every turn to promote racing through his champion horse." (www.racingvictoria.net.au)