Doughty likens Ralphie to Charlie Chaplin

By Glenn Davis

He looks like Charlie Chaplin the way he stands, but it hasn’t stopped the Gary Doughty-trained Ralphie from winning.

The seven-year-old lines up in the Open Handicap over 1100 metres at Ipswich on Friday and Doughty is hopeful the gelding can notch up win number eight.

Ralphie was judged a good thing beaten last start when second to the Sharryn Livingstone-trained Thelwell in a 1000-metre Open at the Sunshine Coast on August 17.

“I think he should be hard to beat on his last run,” Doughty said.

“He got bumped twice at the top of the straight and he would have won if he got into the clear.

“He’s been a consistent horse and his recent runs have been better than what it appears on paper and he’s typical of the Bel Esprit breed.

“He looks like Charlie Chaplin the way he stands as his knees are offset but he’s as sound as a bell.”

Ralphie was bred by Jan Clark, who is the principal at Danndine Stud at Goomburra, south-west of Brisbane, which bred former star sprinters and subsequent stallions Capitalist and Written Tycoon.

Doughty is chasing his second win of the new racing season with Ralphie and has retained jockey Damien Thornton.

The 66-year-old conditioner has been training for around five years after taking over from his wife, former Gold Coast trainer Kelly Doughty.

“Kelly has still got her licence and she does a lot of work around the stables,” Doughty said.

One of the biggest wins for the Doughty’s was with Flamboyer who won the Listed Glasshouse Handicap at the Sunshine Coast in 2016.

Gary Doughty now keeps a small stable in work after culling his numbers to reduce the stable’s overheads.

“We haven’t got a lot racing at the moment and I’ve only got around seven in work but a few babies are coming into the stable soon,” he said.

“We had 10 at the start of the year after we decided to cut back from 20 to help reduce the overheads.”

Doughty was a former Group 1 winning jockey before his riding career ended following a three-horse fall at Ipswich in 2000.

He lost the vision in his right eye in the Ipswich fall and suffered five skull fractures.

Doughty once held a place in turf history as the rider of Australia’s longest priced Group 1 winner when Abaridy won the 1986 Caulfield Guineas at 250-1.

However, the record has since been broken by Lunar Fox who won the Australian Guineas in 2021 at 300-1.