LAURIE MORGAN, dual Olympic gold medalist, heavyweight boxing champion, outstanding rower, tenacious Australian Rules footballer, successful racehorse breeder and trainer, international polo player and victorious equestrian, was an extraordinary man who fought his way to the top.
At a time when Australian equestrians were unheard of, Laurie shipped his horse from the western plains of NSW to England and won against the world’s best riders. Due to his incredible determination the Australian equestrian team performed brilliantly at the 1960 Rome Olympics: Australia won two gold medals and a silver.
Laurie’s boyhood ambition was to train and ride his own horse in the English Grand National, which he did at the culmination of a triumphant steeplechasing career.
His trophies had barely gathered dust when Laurie took on the challenge of an Australian outback cattle station. Living under canvas Laurie and his mustering team slept in swags, trapped brumbies, mustered wild cattle, and fought the tough Northern Territorians and extreme isolation to turn Balbirini into a commercial cattle station.
This biography of one of Australia’s greatest all-round sports-men is written by his son, Warwick, himself an accomplished horseman, who tells his father’s story and of his life with this remarkable man.