Vietnam veteran Geoff Grimish will march in the Anzac Day parade on Friday to honour his mates and then hopes Weary can honour one of the Australian army’s most famous figures in the All Aged Stakes at Randwick on Saturday.
Grimish and his wife Mary name their horses with military themes, but rarely have they named one after a person.
“The thing about naming a horse after someone is you don’t want to devalue the name,” Grimish said. “I was very mindful of that.”
Grimish was a gunner in the 102nd Field Battery and earlier had a horse, Gunner Knox, named after one of his mates, but had always wanted to honour Weary Dunlop.
He waited for the right horse and when he bought a French-bred miler last year, then called Sir Patrick Moore, he got the right indications that he had a special one.
“I spoke to Chris [Waller], Guy [Mulcaster] and Richie [Callender] and they all thought he had the potential to be a very good horse,” Grimish said.
“He had form behind [the classy] Moonlight Cloud.
“He seems the right horse to have the name and hopefully he can continue to live up to it. He was actually trained by Harry Dunlop over there [in England], but that had nothing to do with the name.”
Weary had the credentials, he ran in the Racing Post Trophy, a juvenile group 1, was runner-up at group-3 level at Newbury and was fourth to Moonlight Cloud in the Prix De La Porte Maillot at Longchamp at his final start before heading to Australia.
Trainer Waller knew he had a good horse, but a name like Weary brought extra pressure.
“He is such a well-known figure, when I told my dad and mum about Weary they knew who he was named after, that’s a different sort of pressure,” Waller said.
“Geoff and Mary’s horses are always well followed and you get that feeling because people ask about Red Tracer, for instance. It is mainly because they know who it is owned by.
“But this horse has a bit more to live up to than most.”
Weary has only had the four starts in Australia and he has never missed a place. He was runner-up in the Ajax Stakes before winning the Doncaster Prelude and being a brave third in the Doncaster Mile.
“He has been pretty straightforward to train and he has gone out and raced well,” Waller said. “He has taken the steps up so far.”
Waller has been happy with the way he has progressed in his first preparation and was amazed at his effort to keep coming in the Doncaster Mile, despite being four wide throughout on a heavy track.
“He had a tough run in the Doncaster and we haven’t done that much with him since,” Waller said. “We are looking to the next prep with him, but this race was there and even though he has to drop to 1400 metres, it was worth having a go at.
“He will get better next time, but I think he has shown us enough to say he will be competitive on Saturday.”
Grimish has racing interests around the world and is hoping for an Anzac Day special when One Rar, which has been second at his past two runs in Singapore, lines-up at Kranji on Friday night.
“It would be good to have a winner on Anzac Day and he is pretty close they tell me,” Grimish said.
“But if Weary can win on Saturday, it would be great because it would top off our plan and Chris tells me he will get better.”
