Frank Dempsey's association with the 'Wizard of Mordialloc' Jack Holt forged one of the most feared jockey-trainer partnerships in the history of Australian racing

FRANK DEMPSEY was widely recognised as one of Australia's most accomplished lightweight jockeys and was considered a true gentleman of racing. He had a flair matched with a unique ability that gathered widespread respect, highlighted by many great wins in Australia and England. In a career that extended 30 years, Frank Dempsey won the majority of Australia's important races.

Dempsey was widely recognised for his exceptional stylistic prowess within his profession. Consistently viewed by his contemporaries as Victoria's most accomplished classical jockey, Dempsey commenced his riding career as a 10-year-old apprentice under his father, in 1909, concluding it at the age of 40 in July, 1939. Born in September 1899, Frank was the son of the Mentone trainer, Tom Dempsey. Given his family background, small stature and natural athleticism, young Frank was probably always destined for the saddle, but unlike many apprentices of the period, he was afforded a good education at the local, privately owned Catholic Mentone College.

After a stuttering start when stewards (concerned about the boy’s lack of strength) withdrew his licence for three months following his first race ride on one of his father’s horses at Moonee Valley in January 1913, Dempsey quickly made a name for himself. His first winner came aboard TINAMBA, trained by his father, at Albury in April 1914. By the end of the 1914-15 racing season, Frank had won 12 races from 104 rides and leading trainers such as Jack Holt, Lou Robertson and Dick Bradfield were beginning to take notice.

The 1915-16 racing season had been Dempsey’s breakthrough year. In October 1915, Frank Brennan, a leading owner from Western Australia, engaged the 16-year-old Dempsey to ride his imported horse, WILLIAM THE SILENT, in The A.J.C. Metropolitan. Although Dempsey partnered with the horse to take the A.J.C. Trial Stakes at Randwick on the Saturday before The Metropolitan, less than a fortnight later, Dempsey cracked the big time when he won the Caulfield Cup on another imported horse – LAVENDO, for Lou Robertson and owners Alan and George Tye. Dempsey retained the mount when Lavendo went off as the 5/1 equal favourite in the Melbourne Cup, but the pair lost several lengths at the start and ran nowhere after Dempsey had suffered concussion from a fall in the race immediately prior.

Dempsey had some success in England in the 1920s and rode in the era of such great jockeys as Jim Pike, Bill Duncan, Darby Munro, Bobby Lewis, Billy Cook and Frank Bullock. He could not stand the English winter and for that reason returned to Australia each year when the summer season finished. His riding seasons in the homeland lasted only four or five months' duration, getting back in ample time for the Melbourne Cup carnivals.

As an apprentice Dempsey already had had a remarkable record having won the 1915 Caulfield Cup at age 16. It was around this time that young Frank garnered the nickname of 'Last Race Dempsey' for his habit of frequently winning the last race on the card. Frank finished the 1915-16 season top of the jockeys list for winning the most races in the Melbourne metropolitan area with Jack Holt providing some of the ammunition with the likes of LUDOVICH and SIR IBEX. It was to be the first of a remarkable four Melbourne jockeys' premierships in a row for Dempsey that included victories in the V.R.C. Australian Cup on Harriet Graham and a second Caulfield Cup on BRONZETTI.

In 1917, after winning the Cup again, that same year he won the Memsie Stakes, Australian Cup, Gimcrack Stakes, Epsom Handicap, and Maribyrnong Plate. By the time EURYTHMIC came to Mordialloc during the winter of 1920, Jack Holt and Frank Dempsey had forged one of the most successful trainer- jockey partnerships in the history of racing. In 1920, he partnered EURYTHMIC, for a third Caulfield Cup win at the age of 21. He won the Victorian Jockeys Premiership on five occasions (1916, 1917, 1918, 1919, and 1924), twice as an apprentice, an accomplishment unheard of at the time. Dempsey had a long and successful association with the powerful stable of Jack Holt, the ‘Wizard of Mordialloc’ in the early 1920s, with the feared pair became the most formidable combination in Victorian racing.

Though Dempsey failed win a Melbourne Cup, he triumphed in a long list of classics and associated with many great horses. He rode EURYTHMIC in 20 of his wins, including the Futurity Stakes, Caulfield Cup and Sydney Cup. On champion filly FRANCES TRESSADY, he won the 1923 Victoria Derby-VRC Oaks double. On WHITTIER, he won the Doncaster Handicap and a succession of weight-for-age races. And in 1925 he took the mount on the rogue horse, MANFRED, winning the Cox Plate and Victoria Derby and running second to WINDBAG in the Melbourne Cup. He won the Victorian jockeys' premiership five times and rode with success in England, winning over 40 races during the 1926 season. Dempsey retired from the saddle in 1939 and subsequently became the starter for the VATC and the MVRC after his 30 years of service. Dempsey was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2008 having passed away in 1977.