In his autobiography titled, ‘Bart – My Life’, Cummings said of Harry White “As a rider, he had good soft hands and great patience.
“The more relaxed riders came from Victoria, in my observation, and none of them was more relaxed than Harry White,” he is recorded as saying.
In the same reference he reflected on the 1974 Melbourne Cup and his own fourth Cup victory, “Harry desperately wanted to get on Leilani in that Cup. We were having a bit of a jockey shortage at the time. Roy Higgins and Mick Mallyon were both suspended after infringements in the Caulfield Cup.
“And I’d booked Peter Cook for Leilani in the Mackinnon and the Melbourne Cup. Peter was the son of a great rider in Billy Cook (1941 and 1945 Cups) and at the time was emerging as one of the very good younger jockeys.
“I wouldn’t be moved on this and to Harry’s (temporary) chagrin, he had to ride Think Big. After the Hotham Handicap win, however, Harry began to have second thoughts; maybe he was on a good thing after all!,” Cummings added.
It was also the first of four Cup victories for owner Dato Tan Chin Nam who, with his famous checkerboard silks, would also part own and race Saintly (1996) and Viewed (2008).
Like several Cummings Cup winners, Think Big was bred in New Zealand, secured for $10,000 at the Trentham Sales. His sire Sobig was a winner of the 1964 Great Northern (New Zealand) Derby and would be a strong source of stamina siring a number of quality stayers including 1972 Caulfield Cup winner, Sobar and star weight for age performer, So Called, a winner of the 1978 Cox Plate.
The victory was the third quinella in the race for Cummings and saw the emergence of White as an elite judge of pace and a quality rider of stayers, although in a career boasting three Newmarket Handicaps and four Lightning Stakes victories, he was just as adept to the short course at Flemington as he was at a distance.