Tommy Price getting the win at Kellerberrin. Photo by Photography by Jodie Hallows
Merv Cox was just a teenager when he started learning the craft of breaking and educating standardbreds, and 63-years on he’s still enjoying it as much as he did then, with no end in sight for the now 78-year-old.
On Sunday, October 13 Merv made his way up the hill to where it all began and claimed the last race on the card at the Central Wheatbelt Harness Racing Club with debutant, Tommy Price.
The three-year-old gelding by Rock N Roll World USA and out of Made Of Dreams was bred by Allwood Stud Farm, and when Merv got the call from Peter Anderson asking if he would like to have a go with the young horse, it was an offer he couldn’t refuse.
“Peter Anderson had too many at the time and he said would I be interested in taking him, and I think he might have had one run around, because he wasn’t named,
“Peter said he’s no champion, but if we can get him off his knee a bit he will go alright, which he did, he ran a couple of nice trials and won at Kellerberrin at his first start so that was a bit of a thrill.
“I was (confident), put it this way, I was confident but would have been disappointed if he hadn’t won, because of the trials, he’s run two nice trials here (Pinjarra).”
Tommy Price is the half-brother to Straittothehilton, an earner of $157,415 and Torpedo Rock who was just shy of $100,000 in stakes.
Training his first winner on October 8, 1983, with Johnny Company winning at Wyalkatchem, the horse was a handy type in his day, with 13 wins to his name, including 7 in Perth. *
Merv comes from a family of 10 children, and the only one to have an interest at the time in harness racing, he went off and worked for Bryce Stevens in Kellerberrin in 1963, learning as much as he could, before his journey in life eventually saw him settling in Pinjarra.
A man of many talents, he has had plenty of careers over his time, there was once a time he worked for a welding company in Kellerberrin, before he joined the Police Force which saw him travel all around the state, before ultimately left Broome and the Police Force to join Alcoa in Pinjarra in 1980.
Cox, who has resided in Pinjarra for over four decades now has scaled down his breaking and educating operation in more recent times, but mainly works on Allwood Stud/Bob Fowler horses with the odd outside horse thrown in the mix.
“I guess when I first started with Bryce Stevens in Kellerberrin he was an experienced horseman and I always from the time I was through the police force and Alcoa, I always had babies and handling babies, so I always had experience with young horses.
“I really do (love it), because I think at my age, if you don’t do something, you’ll pack it in.
“I enjoy doing it, it beats going shopping with the wife.” He joked.
Merv currently has a stable of seven horses in work, with the majority filled with ‘second preppers’ and one breaker, enough to keep his days occupied.
*Thank you to Alan Parker for the Johnny Company historic information.
