Western Australian jockey Angus Armanasco was also known as a trainer who spent more than three decades training the best two-year-olds who shone on racetracks across the country.
Armanasco rode in Western Australia between the two world wars and then went to Melbourne in the 1950s to become one of the country’s most distinguished trainers. Getting 7 top-ranking Victorian trainers is no mean feat, so owner Stanley Wootton had full faith in Armanasco’s abilities to produce champion horses from the Star Kingdom line on a regular basis. Star Kingdom was a successful Australian Thoroughbred racehorse purchased by Stanley Wootton to perform sire duties at the Baramul Stud.
Armanasco was a leading jockey for the last ten years of his riding career. A problem keeping his weight on forced him to hang up his chair, but it marked the beginning of a glorious coaching career. After a brief period in a stable at Mentone, Armanasco met breeder Stanley Wootton, who spent most of his time in England training for the royal family. The untimely death of Theo Lewis, Wootton’s manager in Melbourne, promoted Wootton to offer Armanasco a job as caretaker manager.
Gray Ghost was Armanasco’s first taste of success as a trainer, which was enough to instill confidence in Wootton, who in turn rewarded him with a selection of horses. Star Kingdom was one of the stallions that reshaped the Australian breeding industry and played a major role in the success of the Armanasco. Among the horses from the Star Kingdom line that brought success to the trainer were The Judge, Biscay, True Version, Bletchingly, Full On Aces (winner of a Golden Slipper Stakes) and Zeditave, winner of five Group 1 races. Tolerance, winner of three Blue Diamond Stakes at Caulfield, he was trained by Armanasco. Forina was next in line in 1974, while Zeditave brought his win tally in the Blue Diamond Stakes to six.
Armanasco’s strategies as a coach were different. According to former stable jockey Roy Higgins, the trainer never overworked or overran any of the horses. He didn’t believe in drugs either. Most of the brilliant sprinters in Wootton’s stable never let him down, which is one of the main reasons why Armanasco ended his coaching career with 7 Victorian coaches’ titles under his belt.
His belief in horses supposedly made him well known on the gambling circuit where he was known to bet heavily on his own horses.
Angus Armanasco retired from training in 1998. His achievements on the racetrack earned him the highest honor in racing as an inductee into the Australian Racing Hall of Fame in 2002.
The Group 2 Angus Armanasco Stakes are held each year in Caulfield during the Fall Carnival, in honor of the great trainer who passed away in 2005.
