“I got so damned sick I almost gave it up,” he told the press. “My limbs would not function properly and my wife asked me to hand in my licence.” But Hutchins had a promising stayer and Reys was the stable jockey. Eighteen days into the new racing season of 1973–74, with the anxious approval of his wife Noeline, Norman Francis Reys renewed his jockey’s licence. Wins followed, and a promising second by Gala Supreme in the Caulfield Cup. Melbourne Cup Day: the horse drew the outside barrier. Bert Lillye in the Sydney Morning Herald reported that ‘by some sort of “magic”, Reys had Gala Supreme close to the fence in fifth place passing the winning post the first time’. Near the finish, Reys rode supremely to grab the favourite, New Zealander Glengowan, on the line.
This was the first year the VRC presented a trophy to the winning jockey – a miniature Melbourne Cup.
When it came to the speeches, Reys held the microphone for longer than the VRC Chairman and the reticent owner and the trainer combined. His voice trembled. Tears were shed. “No one who was present that day will ever forget Franks Reys’ emotional speech at the presentation,” wrote seasoned reporter, Peter Solomons. “It moved even the cynics.”
The Golden Anniversary of Gala Supreme’s victory, marked this year, carries a significance not known to the public at the time. Frank Reys can claim to be the first indigenous Australian to ride a winner of the Melbourne Cup. The old story that young Peter St Albans (Bowden) who won the Cup in 1876 on Briseis was Aboriginal has been disproved: his parents were Irish. Frank Reys was born and raised, one of a large family, in Queensland. His maternal grandmother was of the Djiribul people, near Cairns.
Unlike his younger contemporary and occasional competitor in the saddle, Darby McCarthy, Frank Reys did not specifically identify himself as Aboriginal. He saw himself primarily as a professional jockey, one of the best in the game. It was journalists after the Cup win who inadvertently misreported that “his parents came from the Philippines”. This was true only of his father, Andrew, who had made his living in Far North Queensland as a cook.