From Piping Lane to Alalcance – Leon Laskey’s never-ending Cup journey

Having played a part in the famed career of Piping Lane, Leon Laskey has had a lifetime ambition to have an even stronger connection to a Melbourne Cup winner. He is hoping Sydney Cup favourite Alalcance can realise that dream. 

Before John Letts made himself and Piping Lane famous, there was another jockey who helped turn one of the Melbourne Cup’s most celebrated rags-to-riches stories into a winner.

Leon Laskey’s days in the saddle were limited but he was around long enough before becoming a professional cyclist to have a connection with Piping Lane, one of only three Tasmanian-bred horses to win Australia’s greatest race.

A nondescript brown gelding, Piping Lane gave little indication early on about how his career would unfold, racing 14 times before breaking through for his first win at Launceston’s Mowbray racecourse. 

“Piping Lane was initially trained by a good old trainer in Tassie called Bill Wells who I was apprenticed to then,” Laskey said.

“He was just one of the horses I rode when he was a maiden and I won on him before he progressed a bit.”

Wells trained Piping Lane to win the Hobart Cup before his sale to Ray Trinder who worked the horse through a harsh Tasmanian winter and then called on the mainland and genius of George Hanlon to add the finishing touches to a 40/1 upset in the 1972 Melbourne Cup.

Laskey kept following Piping Lane, right through to the Cup – the first of the metric era – and like most Tasmanians, he won handsomely.

“I was only a kid at the time but it was a massive thing for Tasmania,” he said.

“All our family, we all had a couple of dollars on him and won a bit of money.”

More than 50 years have passed since Piping Lane became part of Australian racing folklore but Laskey’s connection to the Melbourne Cup remains one of fascination and ambition.

A self-described hobbyist, the 70-year-old admits his method of buying tried racehorses online to train from a farm near Gravelly Beach in the Tamar Valley in Tasmania is an unlikely pathway.

But ownership is a different proposition with Laskey and his partner Sharee Marshall sharing an interest in Alalcance, the imported mare who is thriving on the tried and proven Tulloch Lodge routine of Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott.

As the staying find of the autumn, Alalcance is a warm favourite to complete her rise in the $2 million Sydney Cup at Randwick on Saturday.

Alalcance is already among the leading contenders for the Melbourne Cup but a fourth successive victory – even this far out – would most likely provide bookmakers with enough evidence to declare the mare the best of the Australian-trained contingent at Flemington.

It’s not unfamiliar territory for Laskey and Marshall.

They have also shared ownership in the now-retired 2022 Sydney Cup winner Knights Order who also ran in two Melbourne Cups.

Alalcance’s brother Military Mission won a Hobart Cup and gave the couple another Melbourne Cup runner in 2023 and they count the premature retirement of White Marlin because of injury as the one that might have got away.

White Marlin’s unfilled potential is the only downside of an association with Waterhouse that began with Marshall securing the winning bid during a charity auction at Hobart races.

“I bought a day at the races with Gai and that’s how it all started,” Marshall said.

“We had a day at the stables as well … which was excellent and that was the beginning of it all, really.”

That day turned out to be another momentous one among many Waterhouse has enjoyed throughout her career with Pierro completing Sydney’s Triple Crown for two-year-olds in the Champagne Stakes and More Joyous winning the All Aged Stakes.

Swept up by the occasion and captivated by Waterhouse’s infectious enthusiasm, that introduction parlayed into an ownership opportunity.

“I’ve always admired Gai, she is an extraordinary woman,” Marshall says.

“That’s the good thing about horse racing. You meet all sorts of people. Good, fun people and it doesn’t matter where you’re from or whatever.”

One horse led to another – mostly by Coolmore’s late stallion Mastercraftsman, the sire of Alalcance, nearly always coloured grey in tribute to a late friend – and ultimately purchased to win a Melbourne Cup.

The invitation to join a syndicate comes via email and Laskey and Marshall are more than happy to back the stable in without overthinking their decision.

It’s a semi-blase approach that has resulted in a tally of wins that is closing in on a milestone.

“We usually read the email, look at the photo of the horse and then think, ‘oh yeah, that sounds good’,” Marshall explains.

“I started buying staying packages with Gai because I wanted a Melbourne Cup winner and we’ve won 45 races.

“We’ve had three runners in the Melbourne Cup and our closest is Knight’s Order so far but fingers crossed because that’s everybody’s dream. So, we’re just living the dream and enjoying whatever we do, wherever we go.

“There’s lots of good things in life. But when that horse goes over that line first, I don’t know what it is, but it’s excellent.”