The horse which transformed the lives of several local men and who raced both city and country tracks in the late 90s and early 2000s has passed away.

Norm’s Bridle was 23 years old when he passed away on Monday morning and although he hadn’t raced since April 2005, he has always been the favourite of the owners who had him in their care.

Norm as he was known was bred by Dean Bourlet and Norm Bourlet and raced by Dean Bourlet, Duke and Chris Heywood, whilst Local Legend Jack Whybrow trained him for over 90% of his career.

Jockey Jamie Whitney rode Norm 37 times, whilst a number of other

well-known local and national jockeys climbed aboard. Reece Peterson was one local jockey who rode Norm before he had to give the game away due to weight.

Other jockeys included Glen Boss, Darren Gauci and Tim Clark, whilst Michael Travers was on board 7 times.

Whitney claimed 6 wins, 6 second placings and 4 third placings on Norm.

Norm finished his career at Holbrook after 96 career starts. He recorded 16 wins, 14 second placings and 11 third placings.

He finished with over $180,000 in prize money and $146,821 of that was post the year 2000.

Former owner Duke Heywood said, “I’ve lost a mate.”

Duke said, “The Bourlets bred him and we broke him in at 18 months of age. The original owners were the Bourlets and we went in to shares to race him with them”

Norm commenced his career on January 26 in a 2 year old Maiden at Canberra. He didn’t set the world on fire when he came in 9 out of 10 over 1000 metres.

Duke said that this was in part due to his manhood which was quite large and affecting his racing. A decision was made to ‘cut’ or geld Norm and not only did his action become more fluid, his results drastically improved.

He broke his maiden at Cootamundra in his fifth start in Race 3 on September 27, 1997, over 1000 metres. He went on to claim 3 placings and another first placing that preparation.

Over his career he gave the punting public a return in 42 % of his races or just over 4 out of every 10 starts. And at 20/1, those returns were often very good.

Duke said, “He had some feet issues, but he was a good horse, he came third in the Wagga Gold Cup and won twice in Sydney. He broke the local tab in Harden after his last Sydney win. They didn’t have enough money to pay the punters out. Everyone backed him at 20/1. We came back to town from Sydney with pockets full of money.”

Norm beating the field home on Anzac Day in 2002 at Randwick.

He said, “He holds the track record at 1400 metres at Young and 2005 metres at Canberra. He was rated in the top half dozen fastest finishing horses in Australia in his day. He could get home in the last 600 metres in 33 seconds. He was a champion. You don’t get too many of them. In the end I bought him outright and continued on with him”

Norm won at race tracks across NSW including: Randwick, Canberra, Queanbeyan, Gundagai, Young, Parkes, Harden, Albury, Bathurst, Cootamundra, Goulburn, Grenfell and Griffith.

Norm was a bay gelding by White Bridle out of Wynjarra dawn (NZ)

Born in 1994, the year Jeune won the Melbourne Cup he captured the hearts of the racing fraternity and the local community with his fast finishes from the back of the field.

Norm was well bred by anyone’s standard. His grand sire was Seattle Slew who won the American Triple Crown in 1977, the tenth of only 12 horses to accomplish the feat. Seattle Slew’s bloodlines go back to Bold Reasoning, Boldnesian and the sire of probably the greatest race horse of the modern era in Secretariat, via Bold Ruler.

After his retirement Duke’s granddaughter Brittany Heywood went on to ride Norm on the family property. She said, “Rest In Peace my dearest friend. I’ve loved every memory you’ve given me these past 23 years. You are the reason I love this sport and will forever hold such a special place in my heart. I love you Normie.”

A very young Brittany Heywood aboard Norm’s Bridle.

Jack Whybrow said, “The old fella was 23. He’s been out at Riverdene stud at Wagga. He was keeping the young foals calm in the paddock because he was just such a relaxed old fella. When we were racing him he had a few issues but we kept overcoming that and he would keep winning. He was a horse that needed a lot of luck, he was always back and would flash home. He wasn’t difficult to ride but was very relaxed until race day. We had a couple of maidens who would beat him by a mile in training, but come race day he would switch on. It’s very sad he was probably the best horse we had over 14 or 15 years.”

Norm sees the funny side of things as he sticks his tongue out for the camera, whilst looking after the next generation.

Connections of Norm will no doubt miss him after Monday mornings’ passing. Good horses are hard to come by. Horses like Norm are one in a million.