Dodemaide calls last bids as time at Inglis comes to an end
When Peter Heagney called time on his illustrious career in 2019 and close Inglis confidant Simon Vivian announced his shock decision in March to retire, it made Mark Dodemaide consider his own future.
After 32 years at Inglis, Dodemaide, 60, started to ponder what was next and, after much consideration, decided to follow the lead of his former colleagues and leave the company where he had been for most of his working life.
Yesterday was Dodemaide’s last day working for Inglis after calling his final bids from the company’s Oaklands Junction complex on Sunday and Monday.
‘Dods’, as he is referred to by many, will not be lost to the racing and breeding industry, but where his next chapter lies will be revealed in the coming weeks.
“I’ve been with Inglis for over 30 years and I’ve loved every minute of it. It’s tough to go as I’ve been mates with Arthur (Inglis) for all that time and it’s a great company to work for,” Dodemaide said after the Inglis Australian Broodmare Sale earlier this month.
“All the staff have been really good, but I just thought, ‘I’m 60 years old, the young ones are doing a really good job and that I should let them come through’.
“As far as Melbourne goes after Simon left, I did feel like I was, to a point, the last dinosaur in the paddock and when you work with Peter (Heagney) for a long time, and Peter’s a legend, and Simon for all those guys, it’s a little bit different.
“The timing seemed right for me (to do something else), but I will always be Inglis. I hope I am that guy who used to work for Inglis. I hope that’s the way it goes.”
After a long and distinguished career with the auction house, parochial Victorian Dodemaide reflected on his career and fondly recalls Inglis selling champion mare Black Caviar (Bel Esprit) through the 2008 Premier Yearling Sale.
She, of course, would go on to win 25 straight races for trainer Peter Moody and become one of Australia’s greatest horses.
It is Black Caviar’s younger half-brother, a colt by Casino Prince (Flying Spur), who provided the long-time bid spotter with his most unique experience when he went through the Newmarket sales ring at the Australian Easter Yearling Sale in 2011.
Subsequently named All Too Hard, he was bought for $1.025 million by Hawkes Racing on behalf of Nathan Tinkler’s Patinack Farm operation but, as is often the case at a yearling sale, there was more to the story than just the winning bidder.
“I used to bid spot down the far alley at Newmarket and it was a bit of a black spot, not many people went over that side. You’d get a few regulars come around and the weirdest one was when All Too Hard was a yearling,” Dodemaide said.
“Peter Moody was bidding to me down the corridor and I think the price was at $975,000 and when Peter bids, he is known to stop, think about it, shake his head and then he can come back and have another bid.
“He was gassed at about $975,000 and John Hawkes was over the other side and I think he just wanted to get out of there because he didn’t want to be tempted to bid again and he went around the back, but I knew he wasn’t done.
“So, I went out of the ring and followed him around and we were near the canteen and I knew he loved the horse, I could tell, so I said, ‘mate, if you want another one I can call it from here and see what happens’ so we called it from there (at $1 million) and by the time I got back around he was knocked down for $1.025 million.
“And it just turned out to be All Too Hard who won four Group 1s.”
It is the people who made Dodemaide enjoy his work so much, he says.
“To me, the highlight has been working with people like Peter Heagney, Simon Vivian and going back over the years and working with racing people,” he said.
“They are all risk takers to a point. They are all passionate, they all love it, and it’s fun dealing with those people,”
Dodemaide cut his teeth in the racing game while living in Melbourne’s western suburbs as a teenager, learning from his school mate Peter Ryan’s father Kevin Ryan, the Melbourne foreman for Colin Hayes.
He would head to the track on Tuesdays and Thursdays before school and strap horses on Saturdays before he left school to work for Flemington-based trainers Tommy Hughes Sr, where he stayed for five years, and a then young up-and-coming horseman in John Sadler for two years.
“Tommy Hughes was a great person, a great trainer and it’s well documented he was a great judge and an unbelievable punter,” Dodemaide said.
“No disrespect to the trainers around these days, but back in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s he was putting the equivalent of a house on a horse.
“I don’t know if too many trainers these days are putting on $800,000 or a million dollars.
“We were just strappers, but he was remarkable in the fact that when he won, we all won. He’d sling everyone but when things didn’t work out he just copped it sweet.”
Interstate trips working for Hughes could often prove lucrative, Dodemaide says.
“When I was working for old Tom we were the highest paid. One of the guys I worked with took horses to Queensland and came back and bought an MG.
“We were high-flying strappers in those days. He was an unbelievable bloke and trainer. I worked there for five years and then I went across to John Sadler’s.
“I was the first Melbourne person to work for him. He had all the Colac people at that stage and John I doubt would have been 30.”
After ending his two-year stint with Sadler, he joined Dalgety’s pedigree department. He was there for five years when Inglis took over and a long friendship with Arthur Inglis was formed.
He said: “Racing’s been a great industry to be involved with. No disrespect for people who do other things, they might be flying jumbo jets or stacking shelves at Coles, but I don’t think they’d have as much fun.”
Finally, Dodemaide reserved special mention for Arthur Inglis.
“When Newmarket was sold, and I can’t remember the exact figure, Arthur could have put a heap of money in his pocket and made the Riverside Stables complex half as good,” he said.
“He will most likely never get that money back again, but a big percentage of that money has been spent for the benefit of the racing industry.
“That is a point that needs to be made.”