‘You have to laugh and you have to pick yourself up’ – Robbie Griffiths on living life, losing mates and a new Legacy

The reminders of his own mortality and that of those around him have been everywhere for Robbie Griffiths. He tells Matt Stewart that since losing three of his closest friends in a 12-month period, he has allowed himself time to take the foot off the accelerator.  

If Robbie Griffiths was prone to melancholy, he might say he feels like a man sitting at a familiar table surrounded by empty chairs.

Too many went too soon and in such quick succession. Griffiths was often left pondering his career and his life. “I spent a lot of time thinking ‘what’s going on?’” he said.

Griffiths lost his beloved brother Rod to cancer in May 2022, then his other “brother” Deane Lester the following February, then great mate Peter Mertens that April.

Griffiths could easily have been the first to vacate his chair.

Two days before Christmas in 2012, at age 42, he almost died from salmonella.

He became crook on holiday in Bali and was originally mis-diagnosed with cancer, the disease that would rob him of his three closest mates. “The salmonella was days away from eating away at a heart valve which would have killed me,” Griffiths said.

Seven years later Griffiths went “arse up” on a plane and an MRI revealed a brain aneurysm. It could also have taken his life.

“I dodged two pretty big bullets,” he said.

A doctor eye-balled Griffiths and pointed out likely contributors. The doctor could have been addressing almost anyone in Australia who holds a training licence.

“The doctor said you work 365 days a year, most people work maybe 200 when you factor in Saturdays and Sundays, public holidays, tradies days off. He pointed out the stress element and suggested I do something about it,” Griffiths said.

“People who don’t do it, people outside of racing, don’t get it. It’s all you’ve known. You left school at 14 on the Friday and started working in the stables on the Monday.”

Like so many others who have dodged bullets and lost loved ones, Griffiths promised himself he’d ease off the accelerator.

But for horse trainers, it’s difficult.

Covid hit and racing somehow continued under onerous restrictions and Griffiths took on a training partner in talented young South African Mathew de Kock. The presence of de Kock in many ways eased the burden on Griffiths but at the same time, the stable grew. 

“It was good work, so rewarding, but it was still hard work, which I don’t shy away from but there can be a toll,” he said.

Last year, fellow trainer Mat Ellerton suffered a stroke in Bali and his medical emergency revealed the financial and physical toll of training. Ellerton no longer trains. The cost of having him transported home was steep, requiring GoFundMe donations.

De Kock returned to South Africa late last year. It was yet another blow to Griffiths but one that forced change.

“In racing we just keep putting layer on top of layer on top of layer and everyone is used to working seven days but there is a cost. The doctor said ‘slow down’ but it’s not easy, work balance,” he said.

“I dodged two bullets and thought ‘OK, let’s just take each day as it comes’ and the next minute … Rod, then Deane then Pete.

“You start looking at life differently but it’s hard to get it right. I’ve been lucky that I’m able to do the work I love but you get lessons and life warnings.

“It was great with Matt. We knew straight away we could work together. I think I’ve instilled some things in him and I’ve certainly benefitted as a trainer from things I learned from Matt. He’d had a lot of work experience before joining me.

“But I’m now happy to be a smaller, niche trainer. You don’t have to go all over the state to race meetings any more. Owners understand it.

“When Matt left, I decided to focus more on my team and my team of staff and I think, for me, that’s made my life better.”

The training ranks are rife with speculators and most expected Griffiths to go flatline without de Kock, the young partner who injected genuine vitality into the stable.

It had been a successful four-year partnership and de Kock was widely respected; a smaller scale version of what Dave Eustace had been to Ciaron Maher.

But Griffiths did not go backwards. He’s had 100 runners in the last 12 months, running at a 10 per cent win strike rate and a remarkable 45 per cent of his runners have finished top three. 

“The staff have been incredible,” he said.

Griffiths had long been regarded as a go-to trainer to mum and dad syndicates, the five and 10 percenters, who were attracted to Griffiths’ penchant for early return winners and a sense of community. If one horse failed there was always another fairly cheap purchase to be sub-divided at relatively minimal cost.

The Quarterback’s defeat of Chautauqua in the 2016 Newmarket Handicap was a big-league taste for Griffiths and his most cherished memory because Lester, beaming in the mounting yard in his motorised scooter, was a part-owner.

Griffiths’ Cranbourne operation has become smaller since the departure of de Kock, mostly because he finally decided to attempt the impossible and inject lifestyle – and a better health outlook – into the relentless business of horse training.

Amid this Griffiths has managed to get his hands on the horse he believes may be the best he’s trained. His only regret about Legacy Bound’s victory in last Saturday’s Poseidon Stakes at Flemington is that the three-year-old had been gelded.

He is being aimed at the Coolmore Stud Stakes during Cup Week. Had he won it as an entire, he’d be worth maybe $30 million.

Griffiths has endured too much to be aggrieved by a gelding he wishes was a colt. “You just have to laugh,” he said.

He was among a large group who recently attended a memorial for Lester and Mertens at the Glenferrie Hotel. It was not a sombre occasion because the stories were simply too funny and the memories still vivid.

Lester was a racing oracle who loved trivia. Rod Griffiths was a champion jockey with a bad gambling habit. Mertens was one of life’s gentlemen. They’d all played golf together.

Racing is a great test of fortitude. The release for this group of mostly lifelong mates from down Devon Meadows way was laughter. Jockeys Ivan Culliver and Max Allen often had seats at the table.

Griffiths would swap everything achieved in his career of 1606 winners for just one more lunch in the main bar at Kelly’s Hotel in Cranbourne’s main drag, or at some golf course clubhouse, with his band of lost brothers.

“I felt we all did it together, we forged our careers and businesses together. When we got together, we had a hell of a funny time,” he said.

“We’d take the piss out of my brother who was always snipping someone to go play the pokies, we’d always joke that our lives sometimes seemed like that Seinfeld episode where they pitched to NBC a show about nothing,” he said.

“It was just light-hearted fun. I don’t think any of us thought it would ever end. But it did.

“My wife Shiranee used to ask me, ‘are you married to me, or are you married to Deane?’ I was always either in the car with him on long road trips – Deano loved driving – or on the phone talking about racing or some song he’d just heard or whatever.”

With Rod, the laughs continued right to the end.

“He lasted a fair bit longer than they thought he would. Right at the end, a doctor told him basically that he was ‘off’ and had days to live. Rod asked ‘can I have a drink and a smoke then?’

“The doctor said ‘of course’ and Rod looked at me, winked and said, ‘hey, it ain’t all bad’.”

Poseidon Stakes | Legacy Bound

Legacy Bound retains his perfect record narrowly in an enthralling edition of the Poseidon Stakes ⭐️

Ch. 78/68, Foxtel 529, Kayo or via our app
REPLAYS: https://t.co/ZIa4a02wC0 pic.twitter.com/vynXHXHZG1

— Racing.com (@Racing) September 13, 2025

At 56, Griffiths is a doting granddad and a re-energised trainer who no longer feels compelled to cart himself all over the state to watch his horses run. His owners get it. Post Covid, many have reset their lives and priorities.

Griffiths finds strength in the strength of those he has lost. Besides, he has a good ‘un in the stable and the possibility of the next good horse has motivated trainers through the toughest of times.

“We lost them all too young but they all packed so much life into their 54 (or so) years,” he said of his brother, Lester and Mertens.

“I’ll admit there have been times when I just stopped and thought, ‘what is going on?’ but I never let it overwhelm me. Those two guys, Rod and my other ‘brother’ Deano, were such strong characters. They’d just kick me and say ‘get up you weak bastard’.”

They had a mantra essential for survival in horse racing. You have to laugh and you have to pick yourself up.

“Deano said to his jockeys – and Rod rode this way – … ‘mate, you gotta be brave’.”