Malaysian businessman and race horse owner Dato’ Tan Chin Nam passed away on Monday aged 92.
A great friend of the late, great Bart Cummings, Dato’ Tan owned many champion horses to have raced in Australia.
He formed a formidable team with Cummings and partnered with the ‘Cups King’ for four of his 12 Melbourne Cup victories.
Dato’ Tan’s chequered racing colours have been etched into racing folklore and into the minds of many horse racing enthusiasts throughout the last half a century and we’ve picked out the best Dato’ Tan Chin Nam horses to have raced in Australia.
Think Big
Dato’ Tan Chin Nam’s first really good horse with Bart was Think Big.
Think Big would won his first Melbourne Cup in 1974, beating another one of Bart’s horses, and favourite that year Leilani in the process.
The following year he included Malaysia’s first Prime Minister, Tunku Adbul Rahman into the horse, which echoed Dato’ Tan’s mantra that horse racing was better when shared with family and friends. Think Big started the 1975 Melbourne Cup at 33-1 after his second last effort in the MacKinnon Stakes on the Saturday.
Despite the weight of 58kg, he won the race and it was Bart’s first and only back-to-back win in the Cup.
Saintly
The horse from heaven and was Arguably the best horse that Dato’ Tan owned.
The chestnut gelding finished outside of the placings only twice in his racing career.
He was named Australia’s champion racehorse in 1996 when he won the Australian Cup, Cox Plate and Melbourne Cup.
A tendon injury would bring the champion’s career to an end when he was in his prime but not before he gave Dato’ Nam and Bart one hell of a ride!
Allez Wonder
Allez Wonder was not the best racehorse that either Dato Tan Chin Nam or Bart Cummings were involved in however the mare did win the Group 1 Toorak Handicap in 2009.
This was also a notable win as it was the first group 1 success for Michelle Payne.
Allez Wonder shocked everyone, including the owner, and saluted in the mile race at Caulfield at a huge 41-1.
God’s Own
Dato’ Tan was exuberant when his 3 year old colt, God’s Own, produced one of the most thrilling finishes in the Caulfield Guineas in recent times in 2005.
In a performance that needs to be seen to be believed, the colt weaved its way through traffic to overrun Paratroopers in the dying stages of the race.
It would be the horse’s only Group 1 victory and would fall just shy of $1 million in prize money when he was retired.
Faint Perfume
Faint Perfume was a very good three-year-old and didn’t really kick on as an older horse.
She was narrowly beaten in the Thousand Guineas over the mile before winning the Wakeful by 3 lengths and then the Crown Oaks in the Spring.
She returned in the Autumn to win the Vinery Stud Stakes and then couldn’t quite complete the Oaks double when second to Once Were Wild in the AJC Oaks.
Roman Emperor
Roman Emperor took out the AJC Derby in 2009 and went on to finished second behind stablemate Viewed in the Caulfield Cup later that year.
A ripper of a call from Ladbrokes’ own Mark Shean can be heard below.
Viewed
After finishing last in the traditional Bart Cummings Melbourne Cup lead up race, The Mackinnon Stakes, Viewed was sent out a 40-1 shot in the 2008 Melbourne Cup.
In the closest finish in Melbourne Cup history, edged out the Luca Cumani trained Bauer.
It was so close that the electronic timing devices in the saddle clothes had Bauer finishing one-hundredth of a second faster than Viewed.
He would win one other race, the 2009 Caulfield Cup, and finished his career with over $6 million in prize money.
So You Think
The duo of Dato Tan Chin Nam and Bart Cummings would wait till late in both their lives to produce arguably their best horse.
So You Think may be one of the most underrated horses in recent Australian racing history and he was sold to Coolmore in Ireland after winning a pair of Cox Plates and finishing a gallant third in the 2010 Melbourne Cup.
He finished his racing career with five Group 1 wins in both Australia and Europe, while he has already started to deliver as a stallion.
Honourable Mentions
Norzita
Wonderful World
Precedence