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Tommy Woodcock, Race Horse Strapper & Trainer (1905-1985)
Image: Photograph - Phar Lap with Tommy Woodcock, Bacchus Marsh, Victoria, Nov 1931
Source: Museum Victoria
Aaron Treve Woodcock, better known to most as 'Tommy' Woodcock, was born at Uralgurra, near Kempsey, New South Wales, in 1905. His father was a coach driver with the firm Cobb & Co, which gave young Tommy first-hand experience with horses from an early age and he developed a natural affinity and appreciation of them. At twelve, he was apprenticed as a jockey under the trainer Barney Quinn, who was based at Randwick Racecourse, in Sydney.
In 1922, at the age of sixteen, he had his first start in a professional race and rode a number of winners at Sydney and country New South Wales race meets over the following few years. Although he was lean enough, it was clear by his late teens that he was growing too tall to continue as a jockey. Instead, he applied his placid nature and natural affinity with horses to the business of caring for them. He would spend the rest of his life rising at four in the morning, mucking out stables, grooming, feeding and later training some of the most pampered animals on the planet, who in turn responded to his gentle and caring manner. It was not that he got on badly with people, but he loved horses and they loved him.
Trainer Harry Telford recognised Tom's particular affinity with Phar Lap and asked him to work as strapper to the horse full-time. Woodcock disagreed with Telford's tough training regime, preferring a gentler approach. He and Phar Lap soon formed such a close relationship that Phar Lap would take food from no one else. 'Bobby', as Tom nicknamed Phar Lap, always came first. In the lead up to big races Woodcock slept outside Phar Lap's stable and would not let him out of his sight. Life must have been difficult for Mrs Woodcock: even when they married, Tom could take no more than four days off. Once, under pressure from his wife, he went to the opera; before long his dawn rising caught up with him and he was drowsy. By nine o'clock Tom had fallen asleep in his seat.
When other commitments prevented Telford from accompanying Phar Lap on the fateful trip to America in 1931, Woodcock was given the honour of accompanying the owner David Davis as Phar Lap's trainer. Woodcock was heart-broken when the horse died suddenly, a fortnight after winning the Agua Caliente Handicap. Returning to Australia, Woodcock gained his Trainer's Licence and spent the rest of his life until the age of 78 training and working with horses. One of his more notable successes was Reckless, who ran second in the 1977 Melbourne Cup.
In 1979 Woodcock donated several of his personal mementoes of Phar Lap to Museum Victoria. He died at Yarrawonga in 1985.
Related Stories:
Phar Lap, Champion Race Horse (1926-1932)
Harry Telford, Race Horse Owner & Trainer (1877-1960)
David Davis, Entrepreneur & Race Horse Owner
Jim Pike, Jockey (1892-1969)
Phar Lap in America, 1932
Phar Lap Collection
Related Resources:
Phar Lap - the Story of Australia's Wonder Horse
Phar Lap Infosheet
References:
Reason, Michael, 2005, Phar Lap: A True Legend, Museum Victoria, Melbourne (revised edition 2009).
Wositzky, J., 1986, Tommy Woodcock 1905-1985, Greenhouse Publications Pty Ltd, Richmond, Victoria.
Woodcock, Tommy, 'Phar Lap Memories', a series of articles published in 25 parts in The Mercury (Hobart), 19 Sep 1936 - 16 Dec 1936.
Items per page: 10 50 (showing 1 - 10) 34 items
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Photograph - Tommy Woodcock, Phar Lap, Agua Caliente, Mar 1932
Photograph, taken in Mexico in March 1932, depicts the race horse Phar Lap and his trainer Tommy Woodcock. This copy, printed in San Francisco, was the property of James Smith, Phar La ...
From: San Francisco, United States Images: 2 -
Photograph - Tommy Woodcock & James Ferguson Smith, Agua Caliente, Mexico, 20 Mar 1932
Photograph, taken in Mexico in March 1932, depicts Phar Lap's trainer Tommy Woodcock and his farrier James Smith. Woodcock is holding a horse shoe, which was removed from Phar Lap after ...
From: San Francisco, United States Images: 1 -
Photograph - Phar Lap & Gerald Telford, 1931
Mounted sepia photograph depicting Gerald Telford, son of trainer Harry Telford, sitting on the back of Phar Lap, on a property at Bacchus Marsh. It was taken just prior to Phar Lap's t ...
Images: 1 -
Tack - Reins, Bridle & Bit, Bosca-Frank Arnold
Alternative Name(s): Harness This brown leather and metal tack was part of a collection of Phar Lap's equipment which had been keep in a suitcase by his strapper Tommy Woodcock as a me ...
Images: 1 -
Girth Strap - Alex Morrison, Phar Lap
This blue woven girth strap was part of a collection of Phar Lap's equipment which had been keep in a suitcase by his strapper Tommy Woodcock as a memorial to his beloved friend. He br ...
Images: 1 -
Photograph - Bill Elliot, Tommy Woodcock & Phar Lap at the Agua Caliente Handicap, Framed, ...
Framed hand coloured photograph of Bill Elliot sitting on the back of Phar Lap after the running of the Agua Caliente Handicap race in March, 1932. Trainer Tommy Woodcock is holding his ...
Images: 1 -
Photograph - Phar Lap, Tommy Woodcock, Mark Friend & Bacchus Marsh Field Manager, circa 19 ...
Black and white photograph of Mark Friend, Tommy Woodcock and the Bacchus Marsh Field Manager standing beside Phar Lap, circa 1930.
Images: 1 -
Photograph - Phar Lap & Tommy Woodcock, 1931
Mounted sepia photograph depicting strapper Tommy Woodcock and the field manager standing next to Phar Lap, on a property at Bacchus Marsh. It was taken just prior to Phar Lap's trip to ...
From: Bacchus Marsh, Australia Images: 4 -
Photograph - Phar Lap, Tommy Woodcock & Gerald Telford, 1931
Mounted sepia photograph depicting strapper Tommy Woodcock, Gerald Telford, son of Harry Telford, as well as two unnamed men, sitting on the grass next to Phar Lap, on a property at Ba ...
From: Bacchus Marsh, Australia Images: 2 -
Photograph - Phar Lap, Trainer Tommy Woodcock & Jockey Bill Elliot, Agua Caliente, 20 Mar ...
Small black and white photograph of trainer Tommy Woodcock, jockey Bill Elliot and Phar Lap at Agua Caliente Race Course in Mexico, on 20 March 1932. By 1931, Phar Lap had won virtuall ...
From: Agua Caliente, Mexico Images: 2
