The Skelton name is synonymous with New Zealand thoroughbred racing.
Five brothers - Bill, Frank, Bob, Errol and Max - made their mark as jockeys, and two of them, Bill and Bob, have been inducted into both the New Zealand Racing Hall of Fame and the New Zealand Sports Hall of Fame.
RJ (Bob) Skelton rode 2129 winners in a career spanning four decades. He won the New Zealand jockeys' premiership nine times (brother Bill won seven) and rode the winners of numerous prestigious races including the Melbourne Cup, the Wellington Cup (five times), the New Zealand Cup (three times) and the Auckland Cup (twice).
Skelton was born in Cobden, a small town on the West Coast, in 1934, and his first win was at Greymouth in the 1950-51 season on a filly by the name of Airmine.
The 16-year-old had dreamt of his first winning ride for months beforehand but when it finally came it was something of an anti-climax. Airmine actually crossed the line two lengths behind Final Cast but was awarded the race due to blatant interference on the part of the first horse past the post.
After serving his apprenticeship, Skelton become the stable rider for the Wingatui training partnership of Jim Wilson and Bert Powell during the 1954-55 season and was to be based there for the next 12 years.
By March 1955, the Skelton trio of Bill, who had won his first premiership in the 1952-53 season, Frank and Bob notched their 500th combined winner. A month later, Errol had his first race ride in the Yaldhurst Handicap at Riccarton - Bob, Bill and Frank also had mounts in the race although the best the brothers could do was Frank's fourth place.
By this time, Bob was riding more than his share of winners and he finished the 1954-55 season with 50 wins for second place on the jockeys' premiership, nine behind Grenville Hughes but beating Bill - fourth on 47 wins - for the first time.
Bob claimed the first of his nine premierships in the 1955-56 season when notching up 72 wins, 15 more than Norm Holland and Jock Harris. Bill was fifth-equal on 45.
In 1958, Bob was to begin a partnership with a horse with whom his name will always be associated, a galloper who to this day is regarded as one of the greatest stayers to grace the New Zealand turf.
Skelton's first ride on the then 5-year-old Great Sensation was in the 1958 Riverton Cup. Despite a wet track which was not to the gelding's liking, the combination prevailed by four lengths.
Owing to commitments to other horses, the pair were not reunited until the 1960 Canterbury Gold Cup which the by now 7-year-old Great Sensation won in style. And so to the 1961 Wellington Cup to see if Great Sensation could improve on his third of the previous year.
The field included the likes of Caulfield Cup winner Ilumquh, Melbourne Cup winner Hi-Jinx and top 3-year-old Stipulate, winner of the Great Northern Derby and a fine thoroughbred in the making.
Although an 8-year-old and supposedly past his best, Great Sensation had not started racing until 4, and had been relatively lightly raced. The Mick Brown-trained Wingatui stayer duly prevailed, carrying his big weight of 9st 2lbs to victory by a head from Quite Able in an Australasian record for the two miles of 3min 17.5sec.
Skelton received universal praise for his "perfect ride", with the media saying he clearly out-rode his fellow jockeys.
Towards the end of the season, Skelton, after finishing unplaced on his first ride, won the last five races on the card at Marlborough.
One of Skelton's early wins the following season was on 3-year-old filly Fair Note in the Novice Stakes at Wingatui.
Fair Note was trained at Wingatui by Bob Heasley and owned by Dunedin businessman Stuart Falconer. This pair combined again nine years later to win the 1970 Melbourne Cup on Fair Note's son, Baghdad Note.
Skelton and Great Sensation then teamed up to win their second Wellington Cup. The 9-year-old this time carried an even heftier 9st 6lbs and, despite being only fifth favourite, received a tremendous reception from the Trentham crowd.
He then cruised home, with Skelton on board again, in the weight-for-age Trentham stakes over 11 furlongs to become New Zealand's greatest stakes-earner with 30,342 pounds from 18 wins and 15 placings. Skelton finished that season by winning the jockeys' premiership with 91 wins, a post-war record and the seventh year in a row either he or Bill had taken the title.
Bob and Great Sensation returned to Trentham in 1963 aiming to capture their third successive Wellington Cup. This time the 10-year-old champion was to carry 9st 7lbs and again face Stipulate, winner of the Auckland and New Zealand Cups, both, like the Wellington Cup, over the ultimate staying test of two miles.
The old fellow produced the performance of his distinguished career to comfortably beat Stipulate and claim his third win in Trentham's biggest race.
Skelton said of the race: "Just as it was for me, this was his finest hour."
Australian training great Tommy Smith, who had written Great Sensation off as too old to win the Melbourne Cup after the 8-year-old's win two years earlier, admitted that on his effort that day the Wingatui staying machine would have won 10 out of 10 Melbourne Cups.
Bob was part of a unique occasion at Greymouth in November 1966 when the five Skelton brothers came together for a race meeting staged in honour of them and their parents.
The feature race on the programme was - wait for it - the Skelton Handicap.
Bob, Bill and Max all rode in it but the race went to Wingatui jockey John Dowling. Still, he was Bob's brother-in-law. Bill rode three winners on the day and Bob two. Bob finished that 1966-67 season - his first since his move from Wingatui to Auckland - with 96 wins, again a post-war record.
The 1966-67 season was a notable one for both Bob and Bill.
Bob brought up win No 1000 when Red Sash won at Invercargill in January 1967, the fifth New Zealand rider to do so after Bill Broughton, Jim Ellis, Grenville Hughes and Bill. And Bill rode 124 winners, an all time record and his sixth premiership.
It is worth noting that in the 14 seasons to 1968-69 Bob or Bill won 13 premierships between them. The party was only crashed by Wingatui jockey John Dowling in 1963-64 and, as we know, he was Bob's brother-in-law.
Bob was associated with several champion gallopers besides Great Sensation. He first rode Grey Way (the Washdyke Wonder) to win the Thompson Handicap at Trentham in 1975 and was on board for 11 wins all over New Zealand including the 1977 Easter Handicap at Ellerslie in which Skelton bullocked the grey gelding into a tiny gap to beat a star-studded field in a race which is still recalled as one of the most memorable races in New Zealand thoroughbred history.
He also rode Wingatui wonder mare Show Gate - New Zealand's first two-time winner of the New Zealand Horse of the Year and the galloper commentating great Reon Murtha recently rated behind only the incomparable Sunline as the finest post-war thoroughbred this country has produced.
Show Gate's final race, with Skelton on board, epitomised what made her a champion. Racing in the Trentham Stakes, she faltered at the 1000m mark and turned for home off stride.
However, she gathered herself and ran down a fine galloper in Varnamo.
It turned out that she won despite damaging her sesamoid, an injury which had earlier her caused her to miss her 6-year-old season.
Skelton's elation quickly turned to sympathy as he realised the courageous champion had just won on three legs. It was the end of a stellar career.
Earlier though, Skelton had concluded some unfinished business in Australia. He had been bagged since his first visit in 1954 by the Australian media who did not like his hands, heels and loose-rein style of riding.
In the 1976 Melbourne Cup, Skelton had payback in plenty when he piloted Van der Hum to win the race that stops two nations, the Melbourne Cup.
Van der Hum, a noted wet-track galloper, was one of the fancied runners until the heavens opened up a couple of hours before the 3200m handicap when he became the one they all had to beat to capture Flemington's favourite race 6 - that is, if the race would still be run given the sheets of rain and lightning filling the Melbourne skies.
Skelton and the hardy Kiwi stayer duly prevailed - once the weather finally cleared and the race was given the go-ahead. It was Skelton's most notable two-mile-3200m wins in a career which resulted in him being regarded as the greatest rider at Australasia's ultimate flat staying contest. He eventually rode 20 winners over the supreme distance.
The 41-year-old Skelton said of his redemption: "The racing writers and commentators here have given me a tough time. I may not have a pretty style but I've won the big one today".
Skelton moved to Melbourne in the 1978-79 season and, 10 years after Van der Hum, rode Rising Fear to second in the 1986 Melbourne Cup.
When he retired from riding, he turned to training and again met with success.
He is, without doubt, one of the greats of the New Zealand turf.
