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A jubilant Brent Smith and his wife Carol with Met President Murray Taylor and his wife Rana

1981 NZ TROTTING CUP

A few weeks ago, Brent Smith confessed he had one ambition: to win the New Zealand Cup with Armalight to prove he owned the best horse in the country. No, he wasn't worried that she might be up against the likes of Delightful Lady or Bonnie's Chance or, at that stage, Hands Down. His mare would match any of them. And so, last Tuesday, it proved. Delightful Lady wasn't there but the others were.... and they weren't just beaten. They were thrashed.

Armalight won the $100,000 New Zealand Cup by an ever widening seven lengths after siting in the open outside the pacemaker for all the journey. Apart, that is, from the last 800 metres when Bob Negus sprinted her into the lead and sailed home to greet the judge in a 57 second last section, a phenomenal effort.

"That just proves it," the young Christchurch owner-trainer said as he waited for his mare to come back to scale. "She's a real champion." You couldn't really argue with that. To win the country's most presitious two mile test on only a three-race build-up, and to be a mare in season at the same time, takes a talent a little out of the ordinary.

Nineteen starts now she's had, counting the Cup, and she's won thirteen and been placed in five for stakes of close to $140,000. She was a champion three-year-old...and now at five, it looks as though she'll further cement her claim to the "champion" tag.

Armalight, by Timely Knight out of a Sapling Stakes and Oaks winner in Ar Miss, was off the racing scene from May 1980 until only a few weeks ago. She was badly frightened after training one day, took off and was lucky to escape injuries serious enough to permanently end her career on the track. It's been a long road back. But the patience and perseverence have paid off. She's been in work again since March for Smith - she's the only horse he trains - and she's been to the trials probably half a dozen times this season. Not a racing build-up, one would have thought, to fit a horse to become the first mare since Loyal Nurse away back in 1949. But Smith, an amateur trainer when he is not working in the load-out dock at the City Abattoir, obviously knew what he was doing.

He said after the event he knew she "would go a big race. But you can't be too confident in the New Zealand Cup, especially after seeing what Hands Down did to us from 25 metres behind at Kaikoura," he confessed.

A few minutes later he held the shimmering gold trophy aloft to the cheers of the 19,000 Addington crowd and told them his pride and joy had come into season only the day before. "I could have sent her to the stud tomorrow," he said. That probably depended on whether she'd won or lost. Instead, though, he'd line her up on the later days of the meeting.

With Smith on the victory platform was his wife Carol who a few minutes earlier had, in spite of the tension and joy of her moment of victory, told reporters "she's a great mare. She always tries." That Armalight tries all the time was substantiated by Bob Negus, probably as happy a man as there was on course. Now fifty, Negus has been driving horses for 27 years and never before has he taken part in the Cup. "I've been waiting for a drive in the Cup, but it's been a case of having to wait," he said. And then the wry confession: "I couldn't have driven the horse worse, parked out like that. Being in front wouldn't have been much better but I couldn't get there. Alec Milne wouldn't let me. Still, she's a top mare and she takes her racing and training very seriously...like a good pupil at school. You've got to hand it to Brent. He's made a great job of her. He's done everything he can to make sure everything's right."

It was Negus who drove Armalight to her first win two seasons ago at Westport, and he's driven her in most of her races since. He, too, came in for his share of the public praise from Smith for all his help in making Armalight the champion she is. "I'm just an amateur in all ways," he said. "I've got to thank Bob for all he's done to help me."

It's raceday history now that Armalight won the Cup with a superb 4:08.7 run, a mile rate of just a tick over 2:05. And it's history, too, that Bonnie's Chance and odds-on favourite Hands Down were her closest rivals, a neck apart, at the line. Their drivers, Richard Brosnan and Peter Jones, had no excuses. Bonnie's Chance was in the trail behind Watbro only to be pushed back to last when that horse packed it in at the 400 metres. With the other nine in front of him, and Armalight lengths clear, Brosnan had to take his mare way out to the middle of the track to get a run, but it was all too late. "Another round and we might have caught her," he said. "Still, second is better than third ... and a lot better than sixth. Maybe next year ..." Brosnan said Bonnie's Chance had begun well to settle in the trail. He thought Watbro might have stuck on a little longer but instead he just plodded on while the others improved round him.

Hands Down, on the other hand, was, as usual, content to sit at the back on the outer of the bunch until the 1200 metres. Jones took him forward from there with a big run to be three wide outside Glen Moria with 400 metres to go. They headed the chase after Armalight in the straight but "just wasn't good enough on the day" to make it two Cups in a row. "Kaikoura proved he was fit enough, but today Armalight was too good," Jones said.

Idolmite, three back on the outer most of the way, stuck on for fourth ahead of the Aussie, Gammalite. The winner of 40 of his 71 starts before crossing the Tasmen for the Cup meeting, Gammalite didn't get much of a chance to show his true worth. He and northern hope John Tudor broke at the start, "and I just can't explain that at all," driver Bruce Clarke said later. "He's always reliable from a stand." And then, when he went to improve from the back with 1100 metres to go, the gap wasn't there between El Regale and John Tudor and he momentarily locked wheels with John Noble's drive. Once clear he too was up wide for the rest of the trip and battled away to collect the $3,000 fifth stake. "It was a good run. I'm not complaining," Clarke said. The other five were well beaten. There could have been no excuses.

On the day, it was Armalight all the way. It was her day.

Credit: Graham Ingram writing in NZ Trotting Calendar

Ces Devine, Jack Smolenski & Lord Module

GREAT RACES: LORD MODULE 1981 ALLAN MATSON FFA

Now that we have entered the realms of our 'living memory', the very first occasion that always springs to mind as a 'greatest event' is Lord Module's 1981 Allan Matson. It was a great race featuring a number of great horses like a lot of others, but it was a spectacle combined with the recent history and the emotions which flowed which made it all the more special.

I was a rising 21-year-old cadet with the then 'NZ Trotting Calendar' in November, 1981, having been brought on board the HRW's predecessor a year or two earlier by editor Tony Williams, based solely on unabashed enthusiasm - couldn't even type let alone write a story. Reading up the old Calendars at the time to refresh the memory, it is obvious by the time the 1981 Cup Meeting came round that my main responsibilities each week had still only evolved into banging out the weekend's race results all day Monday on our trusty old portable typewriter, sorting out the NZ-bred winners in America and being 'trusted' with the intro, and 'working' at the Addington races, where my primary objective was to ensure I made the stretch to the old tote 10 times a night and in time to get Tony's investments placed, which was all very exciting given each one was more than my weekly wage. The memory banks recede with time, but I will never, ever forget the night of November 21, 1981.

Sitting in the open Press Box in the old Member's Stand and on an angle to the public grandstand, which in those days was pretty full for events such as the last night of the Cup Meeting, the sight of the stand moving like a slow moving landside was unbelievable. The people were coming to greet, cheer and clap their idol, and they crammed around the birdcage for the nearest and best possible vantage point. It was enough to make grown men cry, and some did.

To appreciate and understand what led to this night of unbridled enthusiasm and passion and an unforgettably magic moment in time, one had to live through the career of Lord Module, one which for the most part seemed like one sensational hair-raising performance or controversial abject failure after another.

In 1976, the racing days of Canterbury's favourite (standardbred) son Robalan were over, and the people needed a new champion. Lord Module wasn't long in coming, displaying exceptional talent and potential as a 2-year-old for a by now veteran and semi-retired but legendary horseman in Ces Devine, a man who did not suffer fools lightly let alone owners and slow horses. He suffered Lord Module though, even when more often than not that season he would run the favourite and do a stretch at the start, mobiles being still a rarity at Addington, rather than the norm. But his class was well and truly confirmed when he romped away in record time with the NZ Juvenile Championship at Alexandra Park at season's end, accounting for the boom northern youngster Testing Times (10 wins from 12 starts going in) and other top colts in Glide Time, Redcraze, Main Star and Motu Prince.

He was back bigger and bolder at three, but no better behaved, and waywardness would cost him dearly in both the New Zealand and Great Northern Derbys. Devine was not afraid to start him against tough and older intermediate grade pacers if it suited the schedule though, and his eight wins that season included a 'c5-c6' mobile at Addington over the good mares Ruling River and Bronze Queen and the 'c7-c9' Barton Memorial at Forbury Park, where he started favourite against pretty much an open class field and bolted in by six lengths over stable-mate Sun Seeker (handled by son-in-law Kevin Williams) and Miss Pert.

Not much changed at four either, a season he began in open class. Lord Module started favourite in each of his first eight races that year - except for the NZ Cup where he blew the start - and failed to win any of them for one reason or another. He started to get his act together in the second half of the season with three straight wins and a game third from 30m behind in the Forbury 4YO Championship to frontmarker Graikos, giving cause for a rise in optimism going into the 1979 Inter-Dominions at Addington.

That optimism crashed to Ground Zero on the first night though when he was up to his old tricks again and tailed the field home bar one even more tardy Australian in Gemini Boy. Faced with a 'must win' situation on the second night, Lord Module again conceded ground and settled well behind favourite Markovina (15m), but the 3200m helped and after tracking the NZ-bred entire up and into line six-wide, and as many lengths from the leaders, Lord Module scorched the outside fence and got up to down Belmer's Image in the last stride. A sound second to the unbeaten heat winner Wee Win on the third night had him comfortably into the Final, but Lord Module had had enough of the heroics for now and in an Inter-Dominion which was supposed to serve as redemption for the 'one that got away' with False Step, Devine's thoughts instead turned to what would be his last NZ Cup drive that year.

Lord Module would be overshadowed in the spring by a redhot Roydon Scott - on the comeback trail after going amiss the previous January - and was also the centre of much mirth at the National Meeting in August. Roydon Scott had beaten him fairly and squarely in the Louisson, but when the field emerged from a blanket of fog less than 100 metres from the finish in the National Handicap, Lord Module had Roydon Scott in a box as Sunseeker won uncontested to qualify for the Cup. Roydon Scott had gone amiss again by the time Lord Module was runner-up at Ashburton to Bad Luck and Oamaru to Watbro, but Devine was just foxing and fine-tuning his V8 to have it ready to explode at the Cup Meeting.

And explode it did, at least at the start in the minds of punters, who sent him out a $3.55 favourite. While only winning once at Forbury Park in his seven lead-up races, Lord Module had been second or third in the other six and had been rewarded for his good behaviour by being taken off the unruly list. This however resulted in him drawing the awkward barrier one in the Cup, and as if to signal that Lord Module figured big occasions equated to failure and disappointment, he stood motionless as he tape flew and watched the rest of the field disembark. He had however made up his lost 50 metres by the time Bad Luck reached the winning post the first time and Devine immediately latched onto Sapling's back for an early cart into the race.

What happened soon after would become the stuff of folklore. Sapling took over the 'death seat' occupied by Sun Seeker, and Lord Module managed to slot into the one-one in an incident which forced his stablemate down onto Greg Robinson, who galloped and put Rondel out of the race. Pushed back from the half by the three-wide train as Sapling also tired and came back on him, Lord Module showed up at the furlong and careered away for a brilliant and magnificent four-and-a-half-length win in a truly-run 4:09.

Gavan Hamilton, who was a 22-year-old participant in all this and had a good view behind his father Ron's horse, the third-placed Trevira, wrote to vote for this race as one of the greatest, and offered his thoughts on what transpired. "I was talking to Henry (Skinner with Sapling) later and he said 'I looked around and saw Lord Module coming and I thought this was good. Then I looked around again to see where he'd got to and he was on my back, and I thought how the hell did that happen.' Soon after we had finished, Max (Robinson with Greg Robinson) drove over to Ces and screamed 'you are going to lose that' and so on. Max was normally a very placid sort of fellow and Wolfie was none to happy either. Then I was called into the room about getting cut off (by Lord Module) at the furlong. I had taken hold for a stride but that's all, I didn't think it had cost me second. But if I had been second, it would have been tempting to say 'what about the earlier incident'."

There was an enquiry into the infamous incident about 2100 metre from home, but after receiving conflicting evidence and viewing an inconclusive video, the announcement that the placings would stand came about 20 minutes later much to the delight of all and sundry. Fair to say, the Stipes knew they stood to be lynched by an angry mob at best if they had taken the race off Lord Module, or more to the point, Devine.

Hamilton, these days working for a fertilisator company while keeping his hand in with the odd horse, was as much in awe of Lord Module that day as anyone. "I was four-wide coming to the turn outside Del's Dream and Lord Module was inside me, fair bolting and climbing all over Denis Nyhan (Del's Dream). Denis turned to me and said 'who is that' and I said it's 'Tassie'. He said keep him there as long as you can and you might win. Being just a lad with a chance to win the Cup, I thought I would go for it and put a winning break on him. Well no sooner had I done that and he was out and around me and gone in two strides, and I thought, my God what a horse, and I didn't even know he had done a stretch at the start."

Three days later, Lord Module jogged the opening mile of the Free-For-All in 1:57.4 and won easing down by four lengths over Trevira, missing Robalan's world record by .1 of a second, and the Allan Matson was likewise a walk in the park. The Pan Am Mile and the NZ record for a race of 1:56.2 soon followed - where he loafed home in 30.2 with nobody to push him - as he did in the New Year Mile over speedster Locarno and new Auckland sensation Delightful Lady.

The 1:55 barrier then fell in an epic time-trial at Addington in far from even good conditions. The event had been postponed a week due to the weather, and from 8.30pm until after the last race following day-long rain, but over 6000 ardent admirers braved the bitter conditions and Lord Module didn't disappoint in powering home in 1:54.9 when most figured 1:57 would be tough.

Turning back an offer of $600,000 from Del Miller which would have resulted in the resurrection of the International Series in New York with a flat "not for sale at any price - I'm having too much fun," Devine next headed off for a tilt at th Auckland Cup, and Lord Module headed for the downward spiral to his career which would land him on the night of the 1981 Allan Matson, with only one further win behind him - a mile at Washdyke over light-weights Philippa Frost and The Raider the previous February from 14 races in his 6-year-old season.

He had developed a reputation as a complete rogue, and it mattered little that the painful quarter cracks which had troubled him on and off for much of his career had reduced his mental capacity to that of an errant 3-year-old with a tooth ache. He had been stood down from even starting in the spring and failed special trials which would have allowed him to take his place in the Cup. Yet another sullen display had seen him fail to participate at all in the NZ Free-For-All, in a week when the spotlight shone brightly on Armalight, Lord Module had been reduced to the butt of cruel jibes and jokes by all but his most fanatical followers.

Come the Allan Matson, and the 'bully' was that if Lord Module produced another act of petulance and Devine didn't then retire him, the Stipes would. Enough was enough - the end was nigh.

It was therefore hearts in mouths stuff as the mobile began to move away, and heads in hands when Lord Module pig-rooted and momentarily it seemed 'here we go again'- the end had come with another inglorious display. But out of desperation, Jack Smolenski went for the whip, and Lord Module lept into action and was almost unbelievably in his rightful place as the start was reached, and the crowd roared for the first time. Settling handy only to be pushed back in the running, Lord Module was last on the fence with a lap to go as Armalight and Gammalite - under the bat but unable to cross - took them along at break-neck speed, closely attende by Bonnie's Chance and Hands Down.

All the while the crowd rumbled with feverish excitement. Still last at the 300m, Lord Module began to make his move and when he showed up six-wide at the furlong, Reon Murtha screamed "and here's Lord Module, and oh, he is just mowing them down!" And the crowd erupted. There was a secondary eruption when a new world record was announced, and a third when Lord Module finally arrived back at the birdcage after some delay - he had kept going at high speed some way past the finish and Smolenski had only been able to bring him to a standstill and turn around in the backstraight.

Even Devine was visibly shaken, and down at the track the incessant and frenetic reaction that swept along everyone meant that it was impossible to hear someone only a few feet away. Lord Module returned to a hero's welcome and old-timers agreed that the only receptions to compare were the aftermath of Johnny Globe's NZ Cup almost half a century earlier, and the retirement of the immortal Harold Logan in the late 30s. All else was forgotten in the delerium and ecstasy - no abuse this time, just admiration and awe.

Not known that night was that it would in fact be Lord Module's last race. The quarter cracks would deteriorate beyond repair in the ensuing months, and Devine announced his retirement to stud a few months later. That would not be the start of another fairytale story, but as the end to a spectacular racing career, what a way to go!


Credit: Frank Marrion writing in HRWeekly 5Jul06

Hands Down & Delightful Lady

Great Races: 1980 NEW ZEALAND TROTTING CUP.

If the 1979 New Zealand Cup had been a spectacular sight, the 1980 edition promised even more, and it didn't disappoint in going right to the wire - literally. On paper there had never been a better field of protagonists, or since for that matter, and in a full field of 15 for the first Cup to carry a stake of $100,000, a good case could have been made for at least 10 of them.

By the time the big day rolled around though, the class, form and champion status of Delightful Lady, Lord Module and Roydon Scott had been well established and it seemed the winner would come from that trio. But also in contention were such fine stayers as Greg Robinson, Sapling, Trevira, Trusty Scot and Wee Win, and then there were the Hannon winner Idolmite and Kaikoura Cup winner Sun Seeker, along with a 'young' upstart in the form of 5-year-old Hands Down.

Delightful Lady was a 7-year-old and in career best form. She had downed Lord Module in the previous Auckland Cup and been much too good for her northern rivals in five straight races in the spring, only going down in her last lead-up event when beaten two heads by frontmarkers Trio and Dictatorship fron 25m in the Rondel Handicap on October 29. Against her was the 15m backmark and the record book though - a mare had not won the Cup since Loyal Nurse in 1949, let alone from a handicap.

Lord Module looked and seemed in great shape for a second Cup win when resuming with a strong finishing second to Wee Win in the Ashburton Flying Stakes, but then things began to turn to custard when starting a hot favourite in two races at Forbury Park in mid-October. Kevin Williams, son-in-law of owner-trainer Ces Devine, had been employed to drive Lord Module at the start of the season, but on the first night in Dunedin the stallion had swung sideways at the start and taken no part in what was the first sign of things to come. Devine then engaged Jack Smolenski, but on the second night Lord Module refused to move at all, and when he repeated that performance in the Cup Trial he was made unruly.

Devine had been reluctant to race Lord Module after Forbury, as a repeat mulish display would have resulted in him being stood down from racing and starting in the Cup, and also compounding his problems was the fact that Lord Module was now also suffering from quarter cracks in his hind hooves as well as the front. Then the week of the Cup Trial, Smolenski had also been suspended for an indiscretion at Kaikoura and an appeal had failed at the 11th hour, forcing Devine to turn to the experience of John Noble. It was hardly an ideal build up, but the Cup still loomed as and promised to be an epic battle between 'The Lord' and 'The Lady.'

Roydon Scott would actually run the favourite though, on the strength of two brilliant wins at Addington in September and the Cup Trial, and the fact he was a normally smart beginner and off the front. He resumed by breaking his own NZ standing start 2000m record in the Laing Free-For-All and was no less impressive with a last to first performance in the Hutchison FFA a fortnight later. Not known at the time though was that the Cup would be the last race for the injury-troubled Scottish Hanover gelding, and that he would be humanely put down inside of a year when arthritis took its toll.

Sapling was a 7-year-old entire and coming to the end of his sterling career, but had shown with a runaway win at Forbury Park that he was still a big threat in any race. Greg Robinson was the same age and while overshadowed by Delightful Lady his staying credentials were never in question either. Another 7-year-old in Trevira, third in the Cup a year earlier, had streeted his rival in the Easter Cup that year in a track record 4:06.9, and downed Sapling at Ascot Park in the spring in NZ record time, while the 8-year-old Wee Win had shown at Ashburton that he was far from finished too. The 1978 Cup winner Trusty Scot, also now eight, had downed Trevira and Sapling at Gore in late September, also adding to the form puzzle.

Almost forgotten and neglected while all this was going on was Hands Down, who had qualified for the Cup with an outstanding double in the Louisson and National Handicaps in August. A one-time rogue who had improved to be just a very wayward customer in the early part of his racing career, Hands Down had finally turned the corner for trainer Derek Jones in breaking maiden ranks the previous December. The National was his sixth straight win and 11th in less than eight months, a sequence which had included the Canterbuy Park Winter Cup in 4:09.3 after a great tussle with Bonnie's Chance. But he had not shown up in two further races - at Forbury Park he had been tripped up by the shifty track and been stood down for a month and until trialling satisfactorily, and at Kaikoura he had been checked and galloped - nor was he placed in the Cup Trial.

But a then 25-year-old Peter Jones was still quietly confident in what would be his first Cup drive. "At that point he was still fragile and easily tripped up at the best of times (referring to his Dunedin and Kaikoura failures), but in the Cup Trial I just kept him 'in behind' and he had been travelling as easy as any of them," recalled Jones last week. "I think he fell from favour mostly because he had got there (to Cup class) so quickly, and had become overlooked particularly given the quality and experience of the others. When it might have seemed the bubble had burst, his career was actually still in the ascendency when most of the others were in the descent," he added.

The start of the 1980 NZ Cup was almost as sensational as the finish. Lord Module played up and eventually just stood there, figuring 200 metres was about his correct handicap, while Roydon Scott also missed away badly and lost all chance along with Canis Minor and Trio. Hands Down was also tardily away and settled down well behind Delightful Lady, who had started from more like a 20m handicap with on tape behind the 10m line, and had been slow starting because of it. Delightful Lady was normally a very smart starter, but a flying tape was her signal to get into gear.

Mack Dougall took up the early running from Trevira in the open, but it wasn't long before the fireworks began - Wee Win and Bob Cameron were soon off and around them when the pace eased and led a mile from home. They had been tracked forward by Hands Down, and Delightful Lady had attempted to follow him, but was shoved four-wide a lap out by Lordable and Denis Nyhan.

Jones pressed on to join Wee Win at the 1100m and Delightful Lady camped three-wide outside them, until the 700m mark when Mike Stromont tuned up the wick and Hands Down and Delightful Lady went clear and set sail for the judge, going at it hammer and tongs. The great mare seemed to have the measure of Hands Down on the home turn and Stormont glanced to his right to see no other threats were coming. Half a length up at the furlong, Delightful Lady looked certain to have the Cup in the bag, but Jones was just foxing and when he finally went for Hands Down, the rugged gelding responded and gradually pegged the mare back, in the end drawing away by a neck right on the line.

The race had been a true test of stamina - Hands Down's 4:07.2 off the front broke Johnny Globe's equivalent race record and was the fastest 3200m recorded at Addington since the introduction of metrics - and the stretch duel was a truly stirring, strength sapping and memorable one. Delightful Lady was gallant in defeat, not giving an inch until the final strides after such a tough run, while Sapling finished on gamely for third four lengths away after being held up at a crucial time by the tiring Wee Win. Greg Robinson was fourth another three lengths as the rest of the field filed in at intervals, with a last ironic and sarcastic cheer being saved for Lord Module as he actually finished the race, a very long last, only to suffer the ignominy of being barred from standing starts.

Delightful Lady, who was credited with a placed time of 4:06.1 in the Cup, underlined her greatness when she trekked back to Auckland and won the Franklin Cup three days later in 4:05.8 from 55 metres. This gave her the record 'no ifs or buts' over Young Quinn's 4:06.7 recorded at the Auckland Inter-Dominions five years earlier - Young Quinn having bowed out from the spotlight by parading at Addington on Cup Day. Delightful Lady would win 12 races that season, careering away with a second Auckland Cup in another all-comers' national record and claiming the Horse of the Year title, and was no worse than third in 18 races that year.

But Hands Down's triumph from seemingly certain defeat in the NZ Cup was certainly no less a performance that day. "I would have been quite happy to sit outside Wee Win, but when Mike (Stormont) made his move down the back, he forced me to go. Hands Down never got tired and even when Delightful Lady got half a length on us, I knew we weren't going away - it was just a matter of whether she would come back to us and in the end she did. Hands Down couldn't go the Auckland way, but on his day at Addington, he was pretty much unbeatable." He had the last say over Lord Module in an equally exciting NZ Free-For-All after trotting speedster Scotch Tar had taken them through the first mile in 1:57.4, and the Allan Matson proved a mere formality.

Hands Down would start in five more Cups without success, being third a year later behind Armalight and fourth in 1983, and only Roi l'Or, Tactician and Master Musician would start in more Cups with seven unsuccessful bids. When retired with 31 wins, 23 had come at Addington to break Lordship's record of 21, and also included three Easter Cups and four Louissons.

For Derek Jones, his son had provided him with his first Cup winner after 21 drives himself, which included the likes of Auckland Cup winners Soangetaha ( for his solitary third place behind Adorian almost 30 years earlier) and Leading Light. When informed that Hands Down was his 13th individual starter in the race during his famous quick wit - "bugger, if I had known that - I would have backed him."

For breeder/owner Bill McAughtrie, a humble and semi-retired farmer from Omarama, Hands Down's overnight success was a reminder just how fickle the game can be. As he accepted the gleaming trophy from the Duchess of Kent, McAughtrie reflected that year earlier "I knew I had a horse with a tonne of ability, but I never thought he would ever win a race."

Hands Down, by the successful Tar Heel horse Armbro Del, belonged to the maternal line of previous Cup winners Cardigan Bay and Globe Bay and a host of other top performers. McAughtrie had been involved with the family for 20 years, when he leased the first foal in Slick Chick from Snow Jane, an unraced U Scott half-sister to the dam of Cardigan Bay. Slick Chick won a race with Jack Fraser jnr as the trainer, but when he gave the game away, McAughtrie gave the Brahman gelding to Jones and he won another six. McAughtrie then bought from Christchurch breeder Harry Kay his sister Snowline for $1000. She won three as a 3-year-old, but was then so badly injured in a fence that it seemed she was finished, and McAughtrie bred he to Fallacy to get the dam of Hands Down - Snow Chick.

Put back into work, Snowline won another nine races, including a 2:00 mile in the New Year FFA at Addington. In March 1971, Snowline won her last race at Greymouth, the same night that Snow Chick won a maiden race for Jones and then training partner Jack Grant, and both were soon retired.

Snowline's dam, Snow Jane was also the dam of 1976 Inter-Dominion Trotting Grand Final winner Bay Johnny, Snow Globe (10 NZ wins trotting), good Australian pacer Toliver Bay and the dam of a brilliant one in Apre Ski (Vic Marathon, US1:56).

Snowline had 10 in all with nine of them being fillies that amounted to little on the track, but the first colt from the first of them, Snow Chick, was Hands Down.

Credit: Frank Marrion writing in HRWeekly 12Jul06

1980 NZ OAKS

Armalight, daughter of 1971 NZ Oaks winner Ar Miss, followed in mum's footsteps when she won the 1980 renewal of the fillies' Classic, but not before she had to call on her vast reserves of courage.

The brilliant Timely Knight filly had caused young owner Brent Smith all sorts of problems in the ten days leading up to the Oaks, a cold, a low blood count and the odd leg problem thrown in to boot. But Armalight showed her tremendous heart by overcoming all these handicaps to capitalise on a perfect drive by Jack Carmichael and down the equally game Armbro Play by half a head.

Her time for the 2600 metres was 3:23.9, not quite as fast as her winning run in the NZ Metropolitan Three-Year-Old Stakes at Easter, but still a race record.

Armalight settled three back on the fence behind Regal Cheval and Armbro Play and it was only approaching the home turn that Jack Carmichael angled her out from behind Armbro Play. Regal Cheval was still in front turning for home in front of Armbro Play and Chantilly Belle, who had improved sharply on the turn, with Armalight in behind. Carmichael started to aim Armalight outside Chantilly Belle to make her bid, then switched direction back between her and Armbro Play. Armbro Play quickly dashed past Regal Cheval, then settled down to a dour battle with Armalight. With Carmichael flicking the whip at her, Armalight stuck her head down and kept coming at Armbro Play for a half-head victory.

These two were three and a half lengths clear of Royal Decision, who would have undoubtedly have finished closer, but for racing very greenly in the straight. Regal Cheval, Royal Decision's stablemate, wilted to fourth a length and a half back, with three lengths to the maiden Frosty Lopez, who made up a lot of ground. Another maiden, Royal Parade, paced a good race for sixth a further length back with Bonnie Lass, in contention on the turn, the next home ahead of the weakening Chantilly Belle.

Armalight is to contest the Fillies' Triple Crown, a race for which she will be an even more dominating favourite than she was in the Oaks. Then, it will be off north for the DB Flying Fillies' Stakes Final and the North Island Oaks. Victory in two of these events will give Armalight the singular honour of reaching open company in five months, a unique achievment for a three-year-old, and a particularly noteworthy one for a filly.

Credit: Tony Williams writing in NZ Trotting Calendar

Hands Down catches Lord Module to win the FFA

1980 BENSON & HEDGES NZ FREE-FOR-ALL

Though he finally finished out of the money, champion trotter Scotch Tar was responsible for the spectacular contest which developed in the NZ Free-For-All.

Producing speed away from the gate which few thought even he could muster, Scotch Tar streaked to the lead to pull the field through the first quarter in 26.8. Maintaining amazing speed, Scotch Tar went through the first 800 metres in 58.6, then maintained the pressure as owner-trainer Slim Dykman attempted to burn off the opposition at the 800 metres. Scotch Tar reached the 1600 metres in an incredible 1:57.4, having left Be Sly struggling in his wake as the one trying to lead the chase after the trotter.

Scotch Tar was under pressure, not surprisingly, as he straightened up for the run home and Lord Module was the first to put his head in front. He took a clear lead, but then came NZ Cup winner Hands Down with a genuine stayer's finish from near the rear on the home turn to wear down Lord Module and go clear over the last 50 metres. Peter Jones said after the event that it was only his staying ability that saw Hands Down get up to beat Lord Module, a fact confirmed by trainer Derek Jones later. "That trotter made it for him. If it had turned into a sprint he wouldn't have had a chance," Derek said.

Lord Module's effort was much more encouraging, considering he had not really had a race for some weeks. He locked sulky stays with Trevira at the 400 metres as they both started to improve after Scotch Tar but driver Jack Smolenski did not think it affected his winning chances. "It was a much better race. He showed he wanted to race today," Smolenski said.

Philippa Frost showed once again just what a game little mare she is by finishing strongly for third after starting from the second line and following Lord Module round when he started to improve. Trevira wilted a shade to fourth after moving up to challenge on the home turn, then came Sun Seeker, Wee Win and Sapling.

Sapling's driver Doug Mangos and Sun Seeker's driver Richard Brosnan were both disappointed after the race. "I thought it was going to be a false start," said Mangos, who had his chances extinguished 200 metres from the start when Wee Win broke and ran out, checking Sapling badly. Sun Seeker was another to suffer and Brosnan, too, was far from satisfied with the start.

Credit: NZ Trotting Calendar

Scotch Tar & Slim Dykeman

1980 DOMINION TROTTING HANDICAP

Slim Dykman is rapidly becoming one of the great characters and favourites of those racing at Addington.
There was a time when any indiscretion in his driving tactics drew the ire of the stipes and the vocal wrath of the crowd. But these days Slim and his amazing little trotter Scotch Tar can do very little wrong. The Addington crowd loves them. Mind you, they have given fans a lot to talk about over the last couple of seasons. But never more so than over the recent Cup carnival.

Slim capped of a mighty couple of weeks with an effortless win in the country's premier trot, the Dominion Handicap, fulfilling a prophecy he made after winning the race two years ago when he told the multitude: "It occurs to me that we should do this again some time." If Slim's comments brought the house down then, his larconic sense of humour came to the fore again the other night to a similar reception. "The first thing that comes to mind," he said after accepting the trophy, "is the Telethon theme song Thank You Very Much For Your Kind Donation." And well the Club might have thought the Dominion was a formality for the brilliant son of Tarport Coulter and Scotch Penny and the $22,750 chegue Slim's for the writing.

In winning on the first day of the carnival he set a New Zealand record of 3:21.1 for 2600 metres; on Show Day he set a blazing pace to burn off some of the best pacers in the country to run the first mile of the New Zealand Free-For-All in an incredible 1:57.4; on the first night he failed by just a tenth of a second on his own to beat Nigel Craig's time trial time of 1:58.8. Slim Dykman was right on the ball when he told the crowd that Scotch Tar had been "racing something furious over the last weeks and we've got very little to show for it. Winning the best paying trotting race has made it all worthwhile," he said.

Called out a wag in the crowd: "The taxmans here Slim," referring to Mr Muldoon who was on hand to see his colt run in the two-year-old event. Called back Slim, as quick as a flash: "He's not getting any of that." Only minutes before another with a sense of humour among the crowd had called out to the P.M.: "You wanna get one like that Rob." Mr Muldoon could only agree.

Scotch Tar won the Dominion in the end by two and a half lengths from an improved Stormy Morn with Game Way and No Response deadheating for third. Scotch Tar began slowly from the ten metre mark but had soon overcome his handicap to sit in the open outside Game Way, content temporarily at least to let Trevor Thomas and Stormy Morn bowl along in the lead. The "champion" had made the front by the 1400 metres and from then on the result was never in doubt. Just as Scotch Tar made the lead, Stormy Morn tried to make it harder for him but there wasn't much use trying to pressure Scotch Tar out of it. Once in the lead he just trotted along comfortably; he might as well have been jogging around the track at home. He wasn't wasting any time over the last bit, however. His last half was cut out in less than a minute. His overall time was 4:16.6, a far cry from his record 4:11.6 of two years ago.

Thomas was well-pleased to get second money. "I tried to make it hard for the winner at one stage but there's no point in being a big man and burning yourself out and getting nothing either," he said. "We really had no show with Scotch Tar; I got a bit closer to him nearer home, but he was just having us on," Thomas said. Game Way ran an honest race for his placing while No Response ran on reasonably well to share third. Northern mare Thriller Dee broke at the start but recovered to get up for fifth ahead of Kate's Return and Hano Direct who moved up with a round to go.

Credit: NZ Trotting Calendar

Amaze & trainer Scobie Harley

1980 NZ DERBY

"Who wants a tatty rug anyway...and what's $15,000 between friends?" Christchurch owner Brian Register joked after the New Zealand Derby. And well he might have asked. For from as far out as 800 metres from home, there was only one horse in it and it wasn't Mr Register's El Regale.

It was tough South Canterbury colt Amaze who recorded a phenominal performance to win the $35,000 Derby by three and a half lengths from El Regale and Young Pride third, just ahead of Vita Man. The winner's share of the purse was $22,750; the runner-up got more than $15,000 less. But from every angle, Amaze earned every cent for his owners, Mr and Mrs Jim Connolly and owner/ trainer Scobie Harley, all from South Canterbury.

Amaze, by Out To Win from an Easter Cup winner in Torrent, lost a lot of ground at the start and was still well back among the stragglers with a round to go. Driver Jack Smolenski took off with the tough colt soon after and, even though very wide at times, pressed on relentlessly. The pair cruised past pacemaker Lomondu Host halfway down the back straight and they set sail for the judge. On the home turn Smolenski had a couple of quick looks over his shoulder to see where the others were, but he had nothing to fear. He was on his own. He was slowing a little near the post, but that was hardly surprising. Even after all his trouble at the start and sight seeing on the way, he still cut out the 2600 metres in 3:21.7, the fastest since Motu Prince's record 3:21.1 in 1977.

Amaze was not originally down to contest the Derby but his connections thought sufficiently of his chances after two earlier good runs at the carnival to make the $1,500 late entry payment last week. It was money well spent. Smolenski was especially impressed with the run. "I didn't really give him a show early on but once he got going, he really went. I didn't want to go to the lead but he was pulling when Lomondu Host gave it away so I let him go." Smolenski said he knew the horse was a good one, especially after a run earlier in the season at Waikouaiti when he finished fifth after being checked at least three times.

Amaze, the win favourite, ran wide turning for home, "but I knew then I was well glear of the rest and out of trouble," Smolenski said. Second favourite Captain Padero, in the hands of northern reinsman Peter Wolfenden, cost his supporters dearly when he started to fade when perfectly placed 800 metres out and eventually finished last. Wolfenden could not explain the run. "And horses can't tell you what the trouble is, either, can they?" he said.

Runner-up El Regale came off the rails with about a mile to go but was then pushed wide. He came on well in the straight to take second, but had no chanc with the winner. Young Pride's was a good performance for third after breaking stride a couple of times in the running while Southern colt Vita Man put in a tremendous run for his fourth after getting a long way back earlier in the race. Melton Monarch made a strong run along th rails after being checked at the start to take fifth off the well-supported Lock Rae.

Credit: Graham Ingram writing in NZ Trotting Calendar

The Duchess of Kent presents the Cup to Hands Down's owner Bill McAughtrie

1980 NZ TROTTING CUP

It was only a year ago. Winning the 1980 New Zealand Cup was the furtherest thought in Bill McAughtrie's mind. "In fact," he confessed only minutes after his tough five-year-old gelding Hands Down had indeed won the Cup, "I had a horse I knew had a ton of ability, but I never thought he'd ever win a race. He was a wayward animal," Mr McAughtrie said before being hustled off to receive the gleaming trophy from the Duchess of Kent.

But in the last year, most of it in the hands of Templeton trainer Derek Jones, Hands Down has lost just about all those wayward tendencies and has won a dozen races in the meantime. From maiden to New Zealand Cup winner in a matter of months...a fairy tale of progress for Bill McAughtrie, a farmer from Omararama, and his wife.

And equally meteoric has been the rise of Hands Down's driver, twenty-five-year-old Peter Jones. Last Tuesday's was his first drive in the Cup. And in it he was able to achieve what father Derek, astute horseman that he is, has been unable to do in his twenty drives in New Zealand's premier race over the years. Peter was also able to credit his father with his first training success in the Cup after having many horses in the past who have made it to Cup class. Hands Down was Derek's thirteenth runner in the race, a point that prompted him, with usual quickness of wit, to suggest to the nearby reporters: "If I'd known that, I would have backed him."

Hands Down, though, has long been marked as a top Cup prospect. He won his first race at Timaru last December and then proceeded to win his next three as well. He missed a few times before winning a class four and five free-for-all at Addington in February, scored a third and then failed in three more races. Then again he lined up at Addington in April to begin an unbroken sequence of six unbeaten starts, four at the end of last term and two fine performances at the National meeting on the course in August.

The first of those August wins took him into the Cup and his win on the second night, a tough performance in anyone's language, marked him as the horse to watch if he lined up in New Zealand's premier staying race. A stayer Hands Down certainly is. He's taken five of his dozen victories over the exteme distance,more than any of his rivals last week.

He's big and strong and, according to Peter Jones, he's a lovely horse to work with at home. He's still relatively lightly raced (he hasn't had thirty races yet) and this, along with losing a lot of confidence after falling at the start of one of his early races at Forbury, contributes a little to his "greenness". The stipes weren't all that impressed with his Forbury performance and put him out for a month and made him trial to their satisfaction before they let him race again.

"Quietly confident" before last weeks event, Jones said he first knew the Armbro Del gelding was extra good when he missed away in a four-year-old race at Invercargill last December and yet still thrashed the likes of Lincmac, Historic Moment and Matai Dreamer.

It was no thrashing, though, Hands Down handed out to this year's star-studded Cup field. At the line, he had only a neck to spare from the brilliant northern mare Delightful Lady, whose run for her placing in an incredible 4:06.1 was a feature of the race. Hands Down's time of 4:07.2 was a record for the race. Delightful Lady, in turn, was four lengths to the good of old Sapling with another northerner in Greg Robinson three lengths further back.

Where Hands Down lost ground at the start, "The Lady" too was a little slow but soon made up her 15 metre handicap. She tagged onto the back of the main bunch, four lengths in front of the breakers Hands Down, Trio, Canis Minor, Roydon Scott - and the luckless Lord Module who let the others get 200 metres in front before moving off for John Noble. At the half-way stage Hands Down was tucked up behind the mare but soon after Jones took off in search of the lead with Wee Win, Mack Dougal and Trevira. He was outside Wee Win at the 1000 with Mike Stormont and Delightful Lady now back in the second line but three wide.

Hands Down mastered Wee Win at the 600 and at that moment Stormont started his charge. These two sorted themselves out and set sail for the judge some lengths clear of the rest. Delightful Lady actually got her head in front of Hands Down half-way down the straight but he fought back well to take the decision. Third-placed Sapling, in peak of condition, was, according to driver Doug Mangos, held up by a tiring Trevira at the 500 metres. "The leaders got away on me then and those three or four lengths I had to make up were just too much," he said. "Still, he ran on really well. It was a top run."

Greg Robinson, in the hands of Peter Wolfenden, pleased his owner Max Robinson with the way he stuck on after getting a good run mostly, even though a little wide down the back. And at the same time Robinson confessed, not without the inevitable smile however, to being a little disappointed after the race. "We thought we'd go home with the horse having won $100,000 in stakes." However his $6,000 for fourth took him to just on $96,000. "But we'll hit the target over the next few weeks once we get home," Robinson said. "They're easier up there." On his horse's performance last week, he wasn't being too optimistic. Greg Robinson was down to start in last Friday night's $20,000 Franklin Cup, a race Stormont was taking Delightful Lady back north for as well.

Stormont was a little critical of one aspect of last Tuesday's race, the lack of a tape on the 15 metre mark. "She was standing back when they went; we might have been 20 metres for all anyone knows. And then she was waiting for the tape. When it goes, she goes," he said explaining her slight tardiness at the start. He was returning home almost immediately because the stake at Franklin was better than for the Free-For-All and the northern opposition was weaker. "In the Free-For-All she'd have to go hard again and with the Addington track as hard as it is, her splints would make he a bit scratchy," he said. Besides, they'd be racing on their home track. however, he would return to Addington for another crack at the Breeders' Stakes, a race she won earlier this year.

The favourite, Roydon Scott, missed the start and really never had the chance to show the form that saw him unbeaten in his two other starts this season. Trainer-driver Fred Fletcher thought perhaps the big horse might have been "a bit fresh" in spite of some hard runs at the recent trials. "It's a long time since he's done that, and you can't do it in a race like this. It was a hopeless task trying to make up that ground".

If Roydon Scott's task was hopeless, Lord Module, well backed by the Addington crowd, set himself an impossible job by refusing to go again at the start. Last season's pacing sensation, starting from the unruly mark on 10 metres, didn't go for a long time and tailed the field by a long way all through. I was the final ignominy when he was later barred by the stipendary stewards from racing off standing starts. How quickly the mighty fall from grace. But amongst the jeers from a section of the 20,000 strong crowd, as Lord Module and John Noble went past on their own, there were more than a few murmurs of sympathy for a previously great performer. On looks alone on Tuesday, he should have won his second Cup.

But, realistacally, for the beaten lot there were no excuses. Hands Down and Delightful Lady trounced them well and truly.


Credit: Graham Ingram writing in NZ Trotting Calendar

PETER JONES - HANDS DOWN 1960

Young drivers were unusual in the Cup in earlier decades but many produced their best drive in the race first time of asking. None did better than 25-year-old Peter Jones behind Hands Down in 1980. Peter had the faith of his selfless father Derek, who heavily promoted youth at his own expense but was an amazing natural talent.

Hands Down went into the Cup a much discussed enigma, ending up only 6th favourite. Slow as usual, Peter bowled him along until the 1600m. He lapped the field, burned off Wee Win in a fast quarter down the back and headed for home. Too Soon? Some thought so as Delightful Lady loomed at the turn. As if.

The mare got half a length lead. Mike Stormont took a quick peek to his right to check for any outside challengers. He looked the wrong way. The danger was the young man carved in stone inside him. Waiting, waiting, waiting... When the last question was asked close to the post the big horse responded, it was one of the most exciting of modern Cups.

Peter's two Cup wins were an unusual replica of Jack Kennerley's, his first was waiting in front and in his second, the bombshell of Borana in 1984, he was near last at the 700m and still got home. As great drivers do.

TRIVIA FACT: Trainer Derek Jones actually only drove Hands Down once in a race before the 1980 Cup. He ran fifth in a maiden at an on-course only meeting at Blenheim. Within 13 months he was to win a New Zealand Cup, possibly the most incredible progression of any pacer in modern times.

Credit: Davic McCarthy writing in Harnessed 2016

Game Adios (Robert Cameron) trialling at Addington

1979 NZ DERBY

"You could put a jersey bull to that mare and she'd still leave a winner," a friend once told Mid-Canterbury trainer Alister Kerslake. And after Game Adios won the NZ Derby Kerslake would almost have to agree. For out of a dozen foals to get to the races, Game Adios' dam Adio Star has left nine winners...among them four individual Derby winners.

Bachelor Star won the three-year-old feature in 1971 for the late Frank Woolley, Kerslake's father-in-law; Main Adios won it in 1975 for Kerslake, his wife Berry and his brother-in-law Francis Woolley; Main Star won the Great Northern Derby for the trio in 1978; and noe Game Adios is on the list. "And don't you worry," a jubilant Kerslake said after the Derby victory, "we'll be back again next year with this bloke's brother Bionic Adios, also by Garrison Hanover." A representative from the Kerslake stable won't be beyond the realms of possibility the year after either, for the champion broodmarehas just left a nice colt by Out To Win for the partners.

Driven again by Robert Cameron who has done so well with Kerslake-trained horses over the years, Game Adios got to the lead with half the 2600 metres gone. He held on to win with a minimum of trouble from El Guago and Cheltenham with the unlucky Dictatorship fourth. Cameron actually made his move at the 2000 metre mark with a big run from the back of the field. Once in the lead with 1300 metres to go, he just kept up the pressure andleft it to the others to get to him. The win in the $30,000 Derby was Game Adios' fifth this term and he is due to have a few days off this week. "That was the race we wanted to win," Kerslake said.

Hot favourite for the race Ryal Pont was in all sorts of strife right from the start when he was very slow to begin. And then, about the 2000 metre mark he caught the backwash of some interference to Dictatorship by Regal Guy (an incident that was later to earn Regal Guy's driver Kevin Townley a holiday). Settled again by Kevin Holmes, straight from his world driving series assignments in Perth the previous night, the tough Tactile gelding made a big move four wide from the 600 metres but all that earlier buffeting had taken its toll and he weakened out. He finished near the tail of the field with Wickliffe, another to suffer at the 2000.

El Guago's run was a good one. He was facing the breeze most of the way and still had something left for Jack Carmichael once into the straight. Cheltenham, in the hands of Doody Townley, had a brief spell in the lead and after, got a good trail behind Game Adios. He was hard-pressed for room going for home but gave nothing away. Fourth placed Dictatorship would have to be the unlucky runner in the field. He suffered at the hands of Regal Guy, settled again well for Garry Smith and was finishing better than anything in the straight. The others could offer no excuses. At the end they were well and truly beaten.

And getting back to that idea of putting Adio Star to the bull? "Well, with the cattle prices the way they are at the moment, that wouldn't be too bad an idea," Kerslake said.


Credit: Graham Ingram writing in NZ Trotting Calendar