KEITH VOITRE was a stylish rider and a superstar Kiwi jockey who dominated the Australian season of 1935, before his life would be cut tragically short in a fall

KEITH VOITRE came to Australia from New Zealand, and from the outset proved himself a master horseman. He was a talented rider renowned for having soft hands and a strict aversion to using the whip, essentially a hands and heels rider who liked to whoose his horse out of the gates. Voitre's career lasted only 10 years, but he left his mark on the Australasian riding scene. KEITH VOITRE was born in Palmerston North in 1913. With no racing blood in the family, Voitre was thirteen before he even sat on a horse, but his natural talent emerged quickly. Hector Gray was the first to notice the little Polish kid Keith Voitrekovsky riding trackwork at Otaki. Gray scolded him for riding in gumboots - Keith neatly kicked them off and rode barefoot instead. Gray saw his ability and arranged a place in Rowley Hatches stable.

Voitre won his first New Zealand premiership when still an apprentice, with 86 wins in the 1932-33 season but really made a name for himself the following year, with 123 wins, from just 504 rides. This was a remarkable feat given the strength of the opposition, the limited number of meetings and the difficulties associated with travelling around the country. It eclipsed Hector Gray’s record tally of 116, two years earlier, and would stand the test of time. No other rider managed 100 wins in a season until Bill Skelton sneaked past Voitre’s record in the 1967-68 season some 35 years later, with 124 wins. That record stood for another 15 years, before David Peake reached 127 wins in the 1982-83 season. Voitre’s NZ wins included the Auckland Cup twice, Wellington Cup, Manawatu Sires’, Great Northern Guineas, Wellington Stakes, Great Northern Foal Stakes twice, Royal Stakes twice, ARC Welcome Stakes twice, Wellesley Stakes and numerous other Cup races.

Ex-Pat New Zealand trainer Lou Robertson encouraged Voitre to move to Melbourne. He had ridden successfully in Adelaide, having won the St. Leger on DONASTER. At the Birthday meeting in June, he was second on REGULAR BACHELOR in the City Handicap at Victoria Park and won races on POINT STURT and PIMLICO. Voitre had a sensational season in 1935, with the highlight being his decisive victory in the Melbourne Cup on MARABOU, trained by Robertson. He also provided Voitre with his winning Cox Plate ride on GARRIO, VRC Derby on FIELDSPAR and VRC Oaks on NALDA and rode GARRIO to win the Williamstown Cup (Sandown Classic). He also won the Linlithgow Stakes and Wakeful Stakes. The 22-year-old won sixteen feature races in barely eight months. He was a racing superstar.

Voitre captured an Epsom Handicap on SYNAGOGUE, a Doncaster on the great HALL MARK, and with COUNT ITO he also won a Newmarket Handicap. Voitre had an endless run of success in Victoria. Unfortunately, he had to stand down for several months through a broken leg, sustained in a race smash. Voitre, was 25 and at the peak of his powers. He rode his first race when 15 and made his first visit to Australia in 1931.

Though his career was short, Voitre had still managed to win two New Zealand premierships, including a record tally that stood for 35 years, and to dominate the 1935 Melbourne spring carnival. He did not make a permanent shift to Melbourne till February 1935 and in addition to his spring carnival haul, his first year in Australia also produced wins in the Moonee Valley Stakes, Lloyd Stakes, VATC Anniversary Handicap, St George Stakes, Heatherlie Handicap, Liverpool Handicap and South Australian St Leger. Newspaper reports of the time said that 1935 would always be known as ‘Voitre’s year’.

Race riding in Australia during this era was a particularly dangerous game, with a fairly gungho attitude and lack of concern for self-preservation or rider safety. Five Melbourne Cup-winning jockeys later died following race falls and three of those – Hughie Cairns, Roy Reed and Keith Voitre - were Kiwis. The New Zealand trio were all top-class riders. Cairns, who starred on the flat and over fences, was 41 when he died after a hurdle fall at Moonee Valley in 1929 and Roy Reed was in his mid-30s when he was fatally injured at Trentham in 1936. Reed and his older brother, Ashley, both rode Melbourne Cup winners and won a host of other feature races in New Zealand and Australia but the family could not be described as lucky. A third brother, Con, made a mark as a jockey but died, aged 23, after a fall at Taumarunui in 1924.

Keith Voitre died from injuries received at the Moonee Valley races in 1938. The fall - one of the worst of its kind in Melbourne during the era cast a gloom over the huge crowd. Voitre has had his full share of misfortune since he began riding. In the corresponding meeting the year prior, he had a leg badly broken in a fall at Moonee Valley with VALIANT CHIEF. Voitre, who suffered a fractured skull and serious internal injuries after being thrown into the running rail, died during an operation in St. Vincent's Hospital. He was fatally injured when his mount FRILL PRINCE fell in the Budgeree Handicap. It was a sensational smash involving four horses and their riders. He almost didn't ride on that fateful day due to the flu but made the decision to accept two rides.

Voltre had already established an enormous following in both New Zealand and Australia, and his Melbourne funeral almost brought the city to a standstill with 60,000 people lining the streets. The procession, which included four cars dedicated to carrying the floral tributes, was followed by around 150 private cars.

Traffic lights were temporarily turned off along the route and extra trains were put on to allow the public to reach the cemetery. Press reports stated that the crowd contained “men and women of every class” and that “not for many years has such an assembly been seen at a Melbourne funeral.” Wellington’s Evening Post noted that “Like Phar Lap, Voitre had a name that was known not only in racing circles but in every corner and sphere in the Dominion.” The most poinent tribute - his Melbourne Cup winning whip sitting atop his coffin.

Following Voitre’s death, the “racing owners of Melbourne” agreed to fund the building of an additional ward at Prince Henry Hospital in Melbourne, as a tribute to the rider. Keith Voitre was inducted into the New Zealand Racing Hall of Fame in 2023 alongside Opie Bosson.