• PHOTO: Coonamble’s former champion jockey Dennis Firth in 1969 as a young jockey aboard Gay Biarritz in Sydney.
JOHNNY Tapp (Tappy) became a household name as Australia’s leading racing commentator and, in his so-called retirement years, has taken to the new world of podcasting.
Recently Mr Tapp tracked down Coonamble’s own champion jockey Dennis Firth, to have a conversation that became available to the world, going online last night, Tuesday 21 February 2023 on his website www.johntapp.racing/tappys-podcast.
Mr Tapp has been podcasting for around four years now, recording his conversations with the who’s who of racing in Australia. His chat with Dennis is episode number 408.
“It’s very biographical,” he said. “We cover the person’s life in racing, be they jockey, trainer, administrator or whoever. It’s the people they worked with, the highs, the lows, the wins, the broken bones … All the fun stuff.”
‘Tappy’ lives and loves racing.
“It’s an old cliche that ‘all men are equal on the turf and under it’,” Mr Tapp chuckled. “How very true.”
Mr Tapp stopped calling races in 1998 and continued on with Sky Channel for another 17 years, working on different programs and projects.
One of these was Inside Racing, an interview show that inspired his eventual podcast.
“I tried to retire in 2015. I thought I’d just play golf, go the movies, take it easy,” he told the Coonamble Times.
“I lasted three weeks. I was ‘walking the box’ as they say.”
“In the end my daughter said ‘You’ve got to do something, you’re driving my mother crazy’.”
He credits his daughter with not only the suggestion, but designing and setting up his website, finding a few sponsors and getting him moving on his ‘new’ career.
“She said ‘just keep doing what you’ve been doing for the last fifty years’.”
“It’s gone from what I thought would be four or five hours a week to an absolute full-time job,” said Tappy.
“I have a theory about websites – they have to look lived-in, like somebody’s home,” he said.
“It’s all about regular content and my regular subscribers like to hear new stories.”
“It’s something I started to save my sanity and now it’s sending me insane,” he jokes.
“But it’s better than the alternative of ‘going to seed.'”
“I’m 81 now and I’ve had a passion for racing since I was ten years old.”
“I’m more fervent than ever, it’s the greatest show on earth.”
In Coonamble the unsuspecting Dennis Firth was not enthusiastic about the idea of talking about himself and his career.
“It’s embarrassing!”, said Dennis. “That was thirty years ago.”
It may be in the history books but, after receiving a number of emails from his listeners requesting to hear Dennis’ story, Johnny Tapp was insistent that the world should be reminded of his feats as a jockey.
Dennis began riding trackwork and moved into professional racing when he was just 15 years old and still attending high school. He remained at school for 18 months after riding his first winner and was on the same terms as the senior jockeys by the time he left to begin his career in late 1965.
Dennis rode for legendary local trainer Johnny Lundholm for 26 years.
“He was a remarkable competitor. He won sixteen consecutive Western Districts Premierships straight,” Johnny Tapp said.
“He was hard to beat. I’ve spoken to some of his old colleagues and they said he was very hard to get past.”
Tappy says he enjoyed his chat with Dennis Firth and is pleased to be able to share his story with listeners.