Downey and Gamble ride highs and lows amidst Victoria bushfires
Dennis Ryan - Raceform • January 15th, 2026 11:15 AM • 5 min read
In the midst of an experience they would never wish to relive, Gareth Downey and Mel Gamble found solace last Saturday when Chica Mojito finally got the win she deserved in the A$500,000 The Lakes Mile at Wyong.
Unfortunately the former New Zealand couple weren’t able to enjoy the action at one of the biggest fixtures on the New South Wales track, committed instead to the challenges of the north-east Victoria bushfires involving their workplace, Lindsay Park Racing.
The Hayes family’s private training and spelling property at Creightons Creek, 150 kilometres north-east of Melbourne, was impacted by the massive Longwood bushfire that by the start of this week had devastated some 400,000 hectares of rural Victoria.
Sadly, the losses included one Longwood resident, much wildlife and a lot of livestock including seven horses in the Lindsay Park spelling paddocks, and numerous farm and residential buildings. Amongst those destroyed was an estimated 90 percent of Lindsay Park’s 390-hectare fencing and pastures.
Lindsay Park’s core training facility was fortuitously spared, in large part thanks to irrigation systems and associated infrastructure, allowing that part of the operation to remain functional.
Downey, well-known in New Zealand from his time with Waikato Stud and then as General Manager of Valachi Downs, now works as Chief Executive of Lindsay Park Racing having joined them three years ago. His wife Mel works there too managing marketing and communications.
Together they have bred and raced on a small scale, with their most notable success the Gr.1 Thorndon Mile with Macavelli Miss in 2006. On Saturday the Chris Waller-trained Chica Mojito added her name to that list with her dominant win in The Lakes Mile.
“It’s hard to put into words what we’ve all experienced over the past five days,” Downey said when RaceForm spoke to him on Monday.
“On the Friday all hell broke loose with winds up to 100 kilometres an hour and 45-degree heat. The CFA (Country Fire Authority) firefighters were saying they had never seen anything like it and they did an utterly fantastic job to contain it as well as they did.
“For everyone at Lindsay Park, we all know we did the very best we could but will of course always wish there was more we could have done.”
Downey and Gamble live on their own 70-acre property in the Strathbogie Ranges about half an hour’s drive from Lindsay Park, and they had to evacuate that for what thankfully transpired as only a precautionary measure.
“Everyone’s lives around here have been tipped upside down, we’ve all been through a hell of a lot with some of our staff losing their homes or property and some coming close to disaster while trying to defend their own places. The common feeling about the last five days is that it seems more like five weeks – that’s how surreal it’s all been.
“Chica Mojito’s win up at Wyong was something else again. Normally when one of our horses is due to race we get very excited about it, but the distractions were so immense on Saturday that we almost forgot what time the race actually was.
“I was here at Lindsay Park and Mel was at our temporary accommodation, so we tuned in separately and when she won like she did, we were straight on the phone to each other and there was basically a lot of crying.
“It was such a difficult situation for us and our reaction was more an emotional release rather than a celebration.”
Downey deflects credit for Chica Mojito’s existence to his wife, who sourced her dam, the Cecconi mare Cantina, online.
“We were looking for a semi-commercial mare and just kept getting outbid. Then Mel saw this nondescript-looking mare in foal to Redwood as part of a dispersal sale for the princely sum of $1,000.
“Mel just had a sense there was something special about the mare and she felt sorry for her so she bought her, which I have to admit I gave her some grief about at the time. The Redwood filly she produced was named Tequila and won her second start like a horse really going places, but then she did a tendon.
“We then bred Cantina twice to Zacinto when he was standing at Valachi Downs; the first was a colt who won one race and the next was the filly who is Chica Mojito.”
Initially trained by Ben and Ryan Foote, Chica Mojito won her second start and later that spring lined up in the New Zealand 1000 Guineas but finished midfield after a luckless run.
Her next-start third in the Gr.3 Eulogy Stakes attracted the interest of Australian syndicator Brad Spicer and a deal was done with Downey and Gamble retaining a 50 percent interest and she was transferred to Chris Waller.
Saturday’s Wyong win was her first since and thoroughly deserved given the number of times she had gone close, including four runner-up performances in Sydney, third placings in the Gr.3 Gosford Belle of the Turf Stakes and Listed Queensland Tattersall’s Mile and fourths in the Gr.2 Queensland Guineas and Gr.3 James HB Carr Stakes.
“We were beginning to wonder if it was ever going to happen, she started being talked about as the next Tom Kitten,” Downey said. “It wasn’t as if she was racing poorly, more that there was always something that went wrong, so to see her come out and win so well at Wyong in track record time was remarkable.”
Chica Mojito’s share of the $500,000 stake took her earnings past A$600,000 and now with that confidence booster behind her, connections are looking at further opportunities on this side of Tasman.
“Chris plans to pop her out for a week and then send her over for the Group Two fillies and mares’ race on Champions Day at Ellerslie,” Downey said in reference to the Gr.2 Al Basti Equiworld Dubai Classic, formerly known as the Westbury Classic.
“He did the same last year for good results with Konasana, who had a similar profile to Chica, and all going to plan she’ll also run in the Thoroughbred Breeders’ Stakes.
“That’s pretty exciting being a Group One and we definitely plan to get over to New Zealand for that, it will be quite a buzz to come home.”
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