Kevin Daffy: One man, one mare, one dream

Kevin Daffy’s love of racing runs deep. “My earliest memories are of being around horses,” he says. “It’s always been my biggest passion and I felt I had a gift for it, but I just didn’t take the path at the time.”

Though he worked closely with his father, Geoff, a trainer at Camperdown, in his teens and early twenties, he eventually pursued a more traditional career path, knowing how tough the industry could be.

“But I never stopped thinking about it,” he says. “Even as life moved on, kids, business, everything else, I always felt it was the one thing I was meant to do.”

When his daughters grew older and life opened up, Daffy decided to stop wondering and finally have a try. “It was probably a bit of a mid-life crisis,” he laughs.

“But I didn’t want to get to the end of my life having never given it a go.” With his family’s full support, he took out his licence and began chasing the dream – late, but with passion, experience and determination on his side.

He came across Oh Too Good – or ‘GiGi’, as she’s known at home – as a fiery, unsaleable yearling out of the paddock. The All Too Hard mare appeared to have no commercial value, but to Daffy, it was love at first sight.

“I fell in love with her the moment I saw her,” he said. “She wasn’t deemed suitable for the sales, but I didn’t care. I just knew.”

A product of Gilgai Farm, her nickname also honouring his late father Geoff and his wife Christine’s father, GiGi was never meant to be a commercial proposition. She was meant to be family. And she is. “She’ll never be sold. She’ll be with us to the day she dies,” said Daffy. “She’s not just a horse to us. She’s a permanent part of our family.”

That family includes wife Christine and daughters Jade and Amber, who share GiGi’s ownership, along with close family friends linked to Daffy’s late father. Before GiGi, the girls weren’t diehard racing fans, but watching their dad pour his soul into her care has changed everything. “Now they adore her.”

Training GiGi is no small feat. It’s a seven-day-a-week job, and Daffy does it all. For a long time, she wouldn’t let anyone else near her. Even now, no one else saddles her on race day. If the media wants a word with Daffy, they must wait until GiGi is settled. It is an extraordinary tale of commitment, love and belief.

“She’s the smartest horse I’ve ever met,” said Daffy. “She watches everything, and needs to know everything that’s going on.”

After several setbacks, including shin soreness and a stress fracture in her humerus, Oh Too Good didn’t debut until February 2024 – more than four years after Daffy brought her home. But when she did, she delivered.

A brilliant win in the Future Stars Series at Pakenham marked the beginning of a fairy tale run that included a cherished victory in the VOBIS Gold Mile at Flemington in June.

That win was no ordinary moment. It was Daffy’s first metropolitan winner at the track that has long held a special place in his heart. Thirty-five years ago, while on a date with Christine at Flemington, he cheekily plucked a rose from the garden and gave it to her. She kept it. They’ve been married 33 years, and the rose is still safely tucked away at home.

After just missing out on Country Cup Final glory last spring, this win felt like closure. “I spent six months preparing her for that Melbourne Cup Carnival Country Final on Oaks Day,” he said.

“But she got pipped on the line. I still don’t know if I have gotten over it!”

 This time, she got the job done in the pink and gold silks with eagle wings to carry her home.

Daffy isn’t a man to burden his jockeys with too much instruction, but he does believe that there needs to be a connection between the horse and rider.

“Ben Allen has that with her. He even started his suspension early just so he could ride her on Saturday in the Listed Winter Championship Final.”

GiGi is fiercely competitive, and was even known to have raced the family’s golden retriever along the paddock fence as a youngster.

“You can’t teach that will to win,” Daffy said. “She just has it.”

Once dubbed ‘the fairy tale horse’ by Terry Bailey, people have rallied behind the pair, especially from the Southside Racing community. “It takes me days to reply to the messages I receive when she wins. I’m just so blown away by the support.”

While GiGi has captured hearts with her performances, the story behind her makes her magic. Daffy jokes that the story might become a book.

But for now, his sights are on this Saturday at Flemington, and then a well-earned break for his beloved mare. Come spring, he’ll pick a nice race for her. And if that happens to be at Flemington, all the better.