Peter Heagney could have followed his Australian Racing Hall of Fame inductee father Grahame into training racehorses for a living.
Although he proved adept at the craft as understudy to his father, including during the halcyon days of 1960s superstar, the dual Cox Plate hero Tobin Bronze, Heagney decided early on that he was better off pursuing another career.
And that’s exactly what he did for close to five decades, going on to become one of the most respected figures in the bloodstock sector in Australia as well as internationally, excelling with the gavel in hand and as a mentor to the next generation.
Heagney died in Melbourne on Sunday after a battle with cancer, aged 77.
Heagney, who started out selling livestock in South Australia, was working for Dalgetys in Perth in 1975 when he first mounted the rostrum to auction horses, both standardbreds and thoroughbreds, alongside a doyen in David Coles of Coles Brothers in Adelaide.
Dalgetys bought Victoria’s Wright-Stephenson and in 1982 Dalgetys held the first Premier Yearling Sale at Oaklands Junction, near Melbourne Airport, where Inglis’ Victorian base is today.
In 1994, Inglis bought out Dalgetys. In that same year Heagney auctioned at every major sale in Australia, freelancing.
Over his career, Heagney also sold at Tattersalls in the UK, in Malaysia, in China and in every state in Australia.
Fellow Inglis auctioneer Simon Vivian, who succeeded Heagney as the company’s Victorian bloodstock manager in 2016 until his own retirement in 2021, was a long-time friend and colleague.
He visited Heagney in palliative care twice last month and they watched some of the broadcast of the Champions Day meeting at Flemington, marvelling at the deeds of Via Sistina.
“We talk about legends in this industry and certainly people like David Coles and John Inglis are legends. But people like Peter Heagney are ingrained into the fabric of the Australian thoroughbred system, principally through agencies, through auction houses,” Vivian told The Straight on Monday.
“He's as integral as any person you can name. He's a vital cog and has been a vital cog in the Australasian thoroughbred system for nearly 50 years.
“He leaves a mark as a professional bloodstock person and an incredibly professional and competent and outstanding auctioneer. But, more importantly, I think he was one of those people who everyone liked.”
Heagney remained with Inglis from 1994 until his retirement in 2019 where he bowed out at Oaklands Junction with a “he’s done and so I am I, $65,000, thank you” after selling a weanling at the Great Southern Sale for $65,000.
Palamos, the son of Extreme Choice who would be Heagney’s final horse to go through the sales ring, went on to win two of his first three starts as a juvenile in New Zealand, but he was far from the legendary auctioneer’s best.
“He leaves a mark as a professional bloodstock person and an incredibly professional and competent and outstanding auctioneer. But, more importantly, I think he was one of those people who everyone liked." Simon Vivian on Peter Heagney
As fate would have it, Heagney had the honour of bringing down the gavel at $210,000 for a powerful Bel Esprit filly at Oaklands Junction in 2008. She, of course, would go on to be the Peter Moody-trained unbeaten champion Black Caviar.
Reflecting in 2019 on the sale and the perfect 25 from 25 racing career of Black Caviar, Heagney described selling her as “one of my highlights”.
“You don't remember every specific lot once they go on and race, but having said that we keep all our old catalogues. When they come good, you immediately revert to your catalogue and see what notes you had written on them,” Heagney told The Thoroughbred Report upon his retirement.
“It’s ironic, of all the horses I've sold, I've never made the statement before or since when I said 'just think what she will be worth when she wins a Group 1'. Of course, in retrospect it’s a great call, but at the time she is just a filly that made $210,000.”
Mark Dodemaide, another long-time colleague and friend of Heagney’s, said the man had a gift to be able to sense how best to guide a conversation no matter the situation.
“If you were at the Chairman's Sale and Peter was talking to you and you love talking horses, then he'd talk horses with you,” Dodemaide said.
“But if he realised that your wife was looking a bit bored and she wasn't really into the conversation, he’d always be onto that and take up a conversation with her. He was smart like that.”
Vivian spent countless hours in the car, at sales and in paddocks with Heagney and he has fond memories of their time together.
“I remember one night that (my wife) Carleen and I went out to dinner with Peter and his wife Helen and Peter ordered something and I said that I didn't think he'd be having the calamari, I thought he'd have the scallops,” Vivian recalled.
“Carleen punched me and said, ‘you're supposed to say that sort of thing to me, not to him’. I replied, ‘well, the trouble is that I've spent 11 weeks with Peter and two with you’. That's how much time we get to be with each other.”
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Dodemaide believes Heagney almost single-handedly saved the Second Session of Inglis’ Melbourne Premier Yearling Sale from being axed before it had even gained a foothold.
“It was the second run of P2 and it was either the second or third year of running it and the sale was going no good at all,” Dodemaide said.
“I thought, ‘jeez, if this doesn't kick up in the next little bit, then P2 will be finished’.
“And it was important to us that it was successful because we'd extended onto the barns so we could house more horses.
“He came on for his second run for the day and he was selling things that should have made $40,000 for $65,000. He was on fire; he resurrected the sale and P2 ended up becoming a normal feature in the Melbourne catalogue.”
A celebration of the life of Peter Heagney will take place at Inglis’ Oaklands Junction complex on January 14 starting at 1pm. He is survived by his wife Helen and two sons Sam and Will.
