Queensland racing industry mourns loss of Noel Best

By Jordan Gerrans

When jockey Micheal Hellyer first made the move to Brisbane, a quiet and unexpected word with a legend of the game was a confidence booster he never saw coming.

Hellyer was the latest and eventually last hoop that was mentored by the late great Noel Best.

The champion rider and trainer passed away on Monday after a long battle with illness at 90 years of age.

Best holds the rare distinction of having won premierships as an apprentice rider, senior jockey as well as a trainer.

He is the only participant in Queensland to have won all three titles.

Best was twice the senior jockeys champion in the early 1950s.

He also claimed the prized Doomben 10,000 on Murray Stream in 1948 when he was still a teenager.   

Best was the son of the revered Fred Best and learned his trade under his father as an apprentice.

The father-and-son team were prolific until the heavyweight Noel eventually stepped away from race riding.

He claimed those honours in the 1940s through to the 60s before he was eventually inducted into the Queensland Thoroughbred Hall Of Fame.

The 35-year-old Hellyer was granted the honour of speaking at Best’s Hall of Fame induction.

The hard-working hoop said it was a privilege to be mentored by the respected Best and took great pride in speaking at the induction ceremony.

Hellyer and Best had not met before the jockey made the move to the Sunshine State.

The retired hoop spoke to Hellyer out of the blue and immediately took a keen interest in the newcomer to Queensland. 

“He always mentioned that he would watch my rides and give me advice on how things were going for me,” Hellyer said.

“It was always really good input as his record speaks for itself.

“He went out of his way to do that at the start and he did not know me at all – he just wanted to help.

“I started riding at the Gold Coast more instead of in town but when I did go back to town, he would come up and tell me he had been watching me at the ‘Coast and how well I had been riding.

“We would talk about the horses I was riding and he was just always lovely.

Hellyer described his mentor as a person with an abundance of knowledge that just loved talking racing.

Best was a regular at the race track until he started to battle with his health later in his life, Best’s nephew Alan Gollogly said.

According to Gollogly, Hellyer was just one of many jockeys his late uncle mentored over the decades.

“He never lost the passion for racing and was at the track often until he could not get around as much over the last five or so years,” Gollogly said.

“Up until that, he was there all the time.

“He always liked to pick out a jockey he would give advice to and his last one was Micheal Hellyer.

“He thought Micheal was a good rider and often pushed trainers to put him on more often.”

After first meeting Best at the track, Hellyer went home later that day and Googled the man he met and was blown away to read about his stunning feats on the race track.

“To achieve a win like that at such a young age in the Doomben 10,000, it is an amazing achievement,” Hellyer said.

“It was very sad to hear of his passing.”

As well as his accomplishments in the racing industry, Best was regarded as a great family man to his two children.

“He was a very laid back easy person,” Gollogly said.

“He was a good family man.”

He also had a wicked sense of humour, according to his nephew.

“He was probably the best joke teller in Brisbane, Noel,” Gollogly recalls.

“He always had a joke to tell.

“Noel was a professional at that stuff and he would make you laugh, that was in his repertoire.

“He would pick people up with jokes, he would brighten their days up.”

Fred and Noel had great success with stayer Book Link, who won an array of feature races.

Looking back on Noel’s two senior riding titles, Gollogly believes they carry extra significance after what the heavyweight hoop had to put his body through to consistently be able to ride.

“He was limited with what rides he could take because of his weight but he worked very strenuously on it,” Gollogly said.

“That is why he only rode for 10 or 12 years before weight pulled him up.

“He worked very hard at it through his diet and the sauna.

“It is an amazing feat for him to win the senior jockey title with what he had to go through with his weight.”

Best’s funeral will be held at 11.30am at Eagle Farm on May 18.

Racing Queensland extends its condolences to the Best family.