CLICK HERE TO GO BACK

2009 NRM SIRES' STAKES 2YO TROTTERS CHAMPIONSHIP

Nobody saw it coming, but the unthinkable happened last weekend when The Fiery Ginga got beaten. Twice. Rampant and infallible since February, the country's leading 2-year-old trotter is all of a sudden suggesting that perhaps there is a chink in his armour - turning his head to the side and galloping behind the gate. He did it shortly after the start of the NRM Sires' Stakes Trotters Championship at Addington on Saturday, and then repeated the misdemeanour 21 hours later in the slush at Timaru. For many though, The Fiery Ginga's performance to be beaten a nostril at Addington was one of the greatest they have ever seen; memorable not only for how much ground the baby trotter lost and later made up, but also for the mission he was asked to undertake.

In the end he came up an inch short of pulling off a miracle, but it would be remiss to take anything away from the combined deeds of trainer Phil Burrows and driver Jamie Keast who won the $60,000 Group 2 event from the outside of the second row with a maiden filly. Keast was at his brilliant best, keeping Coninental Auto balanced and out of the paths of three early breakers before settling her at the tail of the field on the outer. When The Fiery Ginga caught the pack at the 800m and took off a moment later, Keast set his filly alight and sizzled around the bunch three-wide, all the while being flanked by the favourite who was emptying his tank a cart-width wider.

By the time the home turn loomed Continental Auto seemed to have shaken off The Fiery Ginga, but it was only a temporary respite because the latter charged at her again down the straight, and Keast extracted one last ounce of energy from the Continentalman filly to get her there by a nose.

Back at the stables afterwards, Burrows savoured his first Group race victory as a trainer. "Gee she had to show a bit of nickel today," he said. "We'd actually been a bit worried about her in the last month or so, because she'd started a wee habit of breaking for no reason. But she's so well gaited, and because she very rarely gallops she just didn't know what to do and how to get back into a trot. It's just an experience thing," he said.

Part of the revised game plan for Continental Auto's assignment on Saturday included putting a hood on her for the first time, and taking her out onto the track for a bowl-around an hour before her event. Burrows was hoping it would take the edge off her and hence help her concentrate more, but if anything he says it made her "a little bit agitated" the second time round.

Bred by Mike Gourdie and Michael House, the Continentalman- Auto Bank filly was leased to Burrows initially but recently bought outright by Rangiora enthusiasts Ronnie and Maree Dawe. Burrows has trained from their property in Fernside since last September, and because it was built from scratch - "new track, new fences, stables, the lot" - he feels very thankful to be associated with the couple.

"Ronnie and Maree only got into the game in the last five years through knowing Wayne Ross," Burrows said. "They originally owned The Big Mach who was sold to Tim Butt and BG Three who went to Australia, and got the bug after that. Continental Auto was actually supposed to go through the Sales, but was really lean and tall at the time so Mike pulled her out. I broke her in after he leased her to me, and always liked the way she moved. She's out of a daughter of Indette, so there's a bit of blood there, and I thought with some feeding up she might turn out alright.

Credit: John Robinsin writing in HRWeekly 13May09

2009 AVON CITY FORD (NEW BRIGHTON) CUP

There was a total of 45 hopefuls all wanting a spot in November's NZ Cup when nominations closed last Tuesday, and on Friday one of them had guaranteed himself a place in the $1 million thriller. His name is Bondy, and he booked his spot after producing a punishing finish to win the $25,000 Avon City Ford New Brighton Cup at Addington.

The lure of the listed event is not so much the $13,630 winner's cheque, it's the assurance that whoever takes it out will make the Cup field regardless. So once again it drew a classy line-up, but Bondy pretty much gave them all a start and a beating.

After settling back from his wide draw on the front line, the son of Live Or Die trucked around the field to sit parked and straight away got cover from Mr Feelgood starting the last lap. Within a furlong he was three-back on the outer, and despite the pace quickening appreciably down the back straight as you would expect, co-trainer/driver David Butt was able to leave his mounting run until the home turn when the horses fanned around the bend. Momentarily left flat-footed, the strapping pacer balanced on straightening and threw himself into the fight, powering home to get the nod in a nose/nose/half-length finish over Bettor's Strike, Nearea Franco and Mr Feelgood.

For starters it proved in no uncertain terms that Bondy is not just a 'one trick pony', a tag which some might have wanted to pin on him because he has won a lot of his races from the front; his other two appearances this season being no exception. And secondly, it really changed nothing in the overall picture of those jostling for NZ Cup positions - Bondy probably would have made the field anyway, because prior to winning on Friday night he had put together a formline of 11211 since June. So his win just made it that little bit harder for the other 44 horses fighting for the 14 remaining spots.

This year's nominations must have Addington officials licking their lips in anticipation ... equine superstar Auckland Reactor, reigning Inter-Dominion champion Mr Feelgood, defending Cup winner Changeover - not to mention a staggering six expressions of interest from across the Tasman, including three-time Inter-Dominion hero Blacks A Fake and other Australian topliners like Karloo Mick, Smoken Up, Be Good Johnny and Lombo Pocket Watch. If most of the Aussies make the trip it will be like an Inter-Dominion Grand Final; in fact, you have only got to look at the sort of horses who end up missing out to see how good the field really is. Bondy will be right there amongst the action on November 10, and a typically reserved David Butt says the 8-year-old is not without a chance. "He's going to be competitive with the right run," Butt said. "His manners will put him in the race for starters."

Bondy's had one go at the Cup before, two years ago, running sixth behind Flashing Red. "But that was when he'd only just gotten to Cup class after winning the Kaikoura Cup," Butt said, adding that the enforced layoff Bondy had to have between March last year and May this year after cracking a bone in his back foot could have been a blessing in a way. He has taken a long time to fill out into his big frame," he said.

The plan for Bondy from here on in is a busy one, as his trainers intend to line the gelding up in most of the lead-up races - starting with the Hannon Memorial this Sunday, and then the Ashburton Flying Stakes or Kaikoura Cup.



Credit: John Robinson writing in HR Weekly 23 Sept 2009

FIERY FALCON DIES

Fiery Falcon lost his battle with colitis last week, and died on Thursday night.

Suffering from a condition that can be caused by stress and is also known as 'travel sickness' or 'scours', the result of which is chronic dehydration, Fiery Falcon showed amazing resolve against an affliction that normally claims it's victims within 24-48 hours. He lasted for 10 days.

Raced by the estate of Sir Roy McKenzie together with Colin and Rona McKay, Phil and Glenys Kennard and Michele House, Fiery Falcon returned to the latter's property for the last two days of his life. "Both jugular veins had collapsed at that stage, which meant he couldn't pump blood around his body," said Michael House. "We tubed him when he first came home and he actually started to look good, but then his head began to swell up with blood and we couldn't get a tube up his nose to fix it," added House, who was with Fiery Falcon when he died.

The 5-year-old son of Mach Three and Falcon's Guest raced 34 times for his group of owners and was a super-consistent performer, winning on 10 occasions and being placed a further 20 times. Amongst those were Group 1 victories in the 2yo Sires' Stakes Final and Woodlands Northern Derby at three, the 3yo Harness Emerald at Cambridge last year, and up until recently he held the NZ record for a 4yo and older pacer over 2600 metres from a stand (3:13.5).

"It was a real shame," House said. "I just wanted to see him make old bones, and I reckon he could've competed with most horses. But Michele gave him a nice burial here, so he's got a place to spend the rest of his days."

Credit: John Robinson writing in HRWeekly 14 Oct 2009

MASTER MOOD

Last Thursday was a sad day for the Williams and Wong families when Master Mood (Rick), their champion pacer of 1980s, passed away.

Master Mood had spent his retirement years in the best of conditions and health at Tall Tree Stud and had reached the grand old age of 28. Unfortunately in recent months he had developed a sinus infection which proved to be very difficult to treat.

Master Mood was without peer during the 1985/86 and 86/87 seasons and was voted Harness Horse of the Year on two consecutive occasions. "A highlight of his career was winning the Miracle Mile in Sydney in 1986, beating Aussie champs Village Kid and Lightning Blue. That season he also won the NZ Cup and the Auckland Cup - not a bad effort for a horse who was only the size of a pony but had the heart of a lion," said trainer/driver and part-owner Kevin Williams.

Master Mood won the New Zealand Cup at Addington and Miracle Mile at Harold Park, Sydney, in 1986. His time of 1:56.1 in the Miracle Mile was a race record that stood for four years. He won the 1987 Auckland Cup and the 1986 NZ Free-For-All. Master Mood won nine races in a row as a 4-year-old in the 1985/86 season. his wins included the Wellington Cup, Forbury Park Four-Year-Old Championship and Lion Red Mile in Auckland.

Master Mood became the first sub-2.00 2-year-old pacer in Australia and New Zealand when he won the Final of the Sires' Stakes series at Washdyke in 1:59.5 in 1984. He won six races including the New Zealand Kindergarten Stakes, Timaru Nursery Stakes and Te Awamutu Juvenile Pace at two.

Master Mood raced 96 times for 27 wins and 21 placings, for stakes of $806,925. Master Mood gave a tremendous amount of pleasure, not only to his owners but his strapper at the time, Dave Anderson, and many family friends who followed him on his travels. Master Mood is buried on the front lawn at Tall Tree Stud.

Credit: HR Weekly 29Oct09

SLY FLYIN

Michelle Wallis's tears said it all.

As Sly Flyin hobbled off the track gingerly after the Nufarm Free-For-All last Friday, his trainer knew the grand old man of NZ pacing had run his last race. But she wasn't crying for opportunities lost, or for the fact old Sly was feeling his old legs. After all, Sly has spent a lifetime feeling his legs. Wallis's anguish was that such a great horse will almost certainly end his career at the back of a field at the start of Auckland racing's biggest week.

That is not the ideal way for a warrior like Sly Flyin to bow out. He should have been winning something great, breakng into the millionaire's club with wonderful things being said about him on TV and written about him in newspapers. Instead, this may have to do. "If he is finished I hate seeing him go out like this," said Wallis. "He was like my best mate."

Sly Flyin deserved better than he ever got. If there is a God of racing, he is a cruel one to put such a giant heart in a body supported by such troubled legs. It is so long ago now, six years to be exact that Sly Flyin should have won a Sires' Stakes and who knows how many Derbys. You can forget that he might have started favourite in a Miracle Mile but for breaking down a few days before. And that it took Elsu at his greatest to deny him an Inter-Dominion. Let alone those amazing Easter Cup efforts, or just how many times he must have paced 3200m in 4.00 but got little to show for it.

If he goes into retirement he does so as one of the greatest pacers of the modern era not to earn $1 million, falling just under $100,000 short. But he will go to the paddock with a special place in the hearts, and minds, of those who knew what he overcame. After all, this is a horse Tony Herlihy rated as one of the best pacers he ever drove. Think about that for a second.

But maybe, just maybe, this was the right way for Sly Flyin to end his career. Trying his heart out, against the best in the business, until something broke. Only this time, it looks like it can't be fixed. Goodbye old man. You have earned your rest.

Footnote: Sly Flyin raced every season from 2 to 9. The most starts he had in a season was 16, at 5. His best season was at 8 when he won $225,446.

For The Record: Starts: 82, wins: 29, placings: 18, stakes: $911,689.

Credit: Michael Guerin writing in HRWeekly 5Mar2008

Former top pacer Iraklis has been put down.

Owner Kypros and Mary Kotzikas said the decision was based on veterinary advice after it appeared he had been suffering from an undiagnosed hearty problem.

Iralkis was a great racehorse, winning 22 of his 51 starts, and more than $1 million in stakes.

He won his first three for trainer Robert Cameron, and after that his successful drivers were the late Danny Campbell and Ricky May. He produced a towering performance to win the Free-For-All on Show Day as a 4-year-old in 1996, won the Miracle Mile, and just held out Smooth Dominion to win the 1997 NZ Cup.

At stud, he was not the giant he was on the racetrack. To date he has 251 foals, and 34 individual winners, the best of thembeing Irak Attack(6 wins), Posh Lavra(5), Phevos(4), and Rakalees(4). His first crop of 73 foals was his biggest, and he has two mares in foal this season.

Credit: Mike Grainger writing in HRWeekly 3Oct07

The remarkable little trotting mare Tussle passed away on November 1 aged 31. She had been in retirement for several years at the Halswell property of her 85-year-old breeder/owner/trainer Dr Cliff Irvine, for whom she won 36 races and $534,325 in NZ plus two Inter-Dominion heats in Australia. Her tallies for races and stakes won were records which will stand for a trotting mare in NZ and were achieved 20 years ago after only winning her first race as a 6-year-old at her 12th attempt.

After winning the Rowe in 1985 and Dominion in 1986, Tussle's crowning glory came in 1987 when she swept unbeaten through the Inter-Dominions at Addington. That was as a 10-year-old and Tussle would win three races in her last season of racing as a 12-year-old, the penultimate one being a 15 to one upset of Tyron Scottie and a top field in a FFA on NZ Cup day in 1988 where she set a 2000m standing start national record of 2:33.8. She would finish second to Landora's Pride in the Dominion and then win her last race at Alexandra Park the following month in the Rhodes Memorial Flying Mile when odds on.

A year later she would produce her first foal in the Game Pride colt Wrestle, who qualified but went unraced. After starting stallion life as the teaser at Nevele R Stud, the diminutive Wrestle has been lightly patronised at stud over the years and sired seven winners (from 30-odd foals of racing age) including the good sorts Down For The Count, Monaro Miss and Jack The Capricorn. Minor winners in Throttle and Topple followed before Tussle produced Bristle, a Britewell colt who won eight races in NZ and another in Australia.

Tussle's sixth and last foal and her only filly was Scuffle in 1998, a daughter of Sundon who was unraced and whose first foal is De Gaulle, a Continentalman colt sold at the Premier Sale of $20,000. Bill Bishop has Scuffle's next foal in a colt by Armbro Invasion, while Tussle's 'lifetime caretaker' Sally Marks has just broken in a yearling filly by Continentalman called Mamselle for Irvine.

By Tuft, Tussle was one of 12 foals and six winners Irvine bred from the unraced Kimmer, whose sire Light Mood was a good pacer for Irvine winning nine races in the late 50s.

Credit: Frank Marrion writing in HR Weekly 15Nov07

Blossom Lady winning her Cup in 1992

The passing of Blossom Lady last week would have meant different things to many different people.

For her countless fans around Australasia, an admiration earned mostly by sheer guts and determination, it would have rekindled memories of a truly marvellous racing career, the nature of which we are unlikely to ever see the likes of again.

For the Polly Syndicate's Manager Ralph Kermode it was like the last chapter in a book, but if irony and coincidence play any part in the racing scheme of things, it won't be the end of the story. Because the same day that the fateful news came from Canterbury, Blossom Lady's last foal arrived home at Kermode's Palmerston North property. Thus there was the end of an era, but also a beginning. Finding an appropriate name for a filly by Live Or Die while retaining the 'Bloss' or 'Bloom' theme under such circumstances is the task presently ahead for the Polly Syndicate.

For all the Kermode family's friends in the syndicate - Bob and Barbara Williams, Ian and Jenny Smith, Ross and Adrienne Kennedy and the late Pat Foley and his wife Mary - Blossom Lady was their first standardbred.

Kermode was in a reflective mood last week, recalling the events which led to a horse of a lifetime. "I was interested in a filly by a commercial sire from a nice family, but just being a poor school teacher at the time, couldn't afford to get one at the yearling sales," said Kermode. "So I had advertised for such a weanling in the 'Calendar' and had about fifty phonecalls, mostly from the South Island, and they all reckoned they had the best family in NZ. I arranged to go to about a dozen properties while in Canterbury over a Queen's Birthday weekend, and was at the Ashburton trots on the Monday. When I got home, (wife) Judy said a fellow from Ashburton called Bill Cook had been calling all weekend, and that I had better ring him - Bill was rather gruff. So I did, and when I said who it was he said 'where the hell have you been ?' - that was the first thing Bill ever said to me."

All this led to Kermode buying a filly by El Patron from Lumber Lady, and subsequent "pestering" about her year older half-sister by Farm Timer. "Farm Timer didn't exactly fit my criteria for commercial - I'd hardly heard of him - but Bill wouldn't let it go, so in the end I agreed to lease her and beat him down to a right of purchase of $5500 within six months."

Blossom Lady soon showed sufficient promise and speed for that option to be exercised - more ability than the unraced Paleface Lady anyway - and Kermode knew he had "something" when she began her career as a 3-year-old. "She didn't like to get involved in races - she would just hang around at the back and pace roughly. Then one night at Hutt Park, Stephen (Doody) was at the back at the half and let her go and she went past them in a hundred metres. Then she hit the bend again and she just about finished up in the tide at Petone."

Progress was not rapid however, and it would be another couple of years before there was a realisation that Blossom Lady was a lot more than something. This was at Ashburton during a Queen's Birthday weekend again. "On the first day she finished second to Clancy and on tape you can see Peter (Jones) still trying to pull the ear plugs after the finish. He came back and said 'who put those (bl....) ear plugs in?'" On the second day, Blossom Lady streeted Millie's Brother and company over 3200m in 4:03.8, which bettered Delightful Lady's national record for mares by two seconds.

That was just the start of the highlights and memories of course. From that point, between the ages of six and 11, she would win another 35 races and $1.3m. The New Zealand Cup was special, and her second Hunter Cup was "bloody amazing". That night she served it up to Golden Reign in front and "brained them" - running 3280m from a 30 metre handicap in a staggering 2:00.6 mile rate after being three-wide in the open for much of the race. "Anthony (Butt) came back and said she could have gone round again - she was just unbeatable that night."

Kermode also singled out an Easter Cup where she "took it" to Chokin at the height of his powers before going down fighting, and the Palmerstonian Classic from 90 metres before a big hometown crowd as other memorable moments. The biggest disappointment was the Inter-Dominion at Addington, where she was "carved up" at the 600m mark. A heat of that Championship as a 10-year-old would be her last win, and her first foal would be Mister D G, whose career has followed an amazingly similar path.

There is another 'beginning and end' aspect to all this as well. Since Blossom Lady's foal was fostered at one month, she has been cared for by Ohoka veterinary couple Bruce Taylor and Margaret Evans. Last week, Kermode recounted the story that was told to him during Blossom Lady's career by Jim Dalgety, who stood Farm Timer, the horse to naturally service Lumber Lady. "Apparently Lumber Lady was such a bag that Jim had to used a twitch on both ears as well as her lip, and even then he doubted the horse had got the job done. It was Margaret who would come around and palpate the mares, and Lumber Lady was among them one day. Whe Magaret said that 'there was a nice foal in there', Jim said 'that can't be - she has been too much trouble'."

Dalgety's reaction to this surprise was something to the effect that..."the mare had been that much trouble, that the foal would either be worth nothing and knocking on the head, or a champion." It wasn't the first or the last time Dalgety was right of course, but the essence of the story is the fact that Evans was there in the beginning, and the end.



Credit: Frank Marrion writing in HRWeekly 26May04

A Young Rufus but not the original was the competitor at Addington last week. Had it been the Young Rufus of old, he would not have scrambled home like a handy 'C sixer' ahead of Clifford Jasper in a kind race for him last Thursday. His margin should have reflected the great horse he is - or was. Indicating he had lost interest in being a racehorse, he got home by a neck.

With a booking to leave for Auckland, and then on to Melbourne, trainer Mark Purdon was immediately faced with the choice of retirement on a high note or a campaign that carried a high risk of ending on a sad one. "I would not like to take him to Australia and for people to see him finish down the track," said Purdon.

As it was, the winner of the Auckland Cup by nearly eight lengths a year ago and last season's Pacer of the Year was all-out to win a five-win front off 20 metres with just a flicker of the old flame. Purdon said it was pleasing for Young Rufus to end his career on a winning note and top $900,000 in stakes.

Up in the trainers' stand, Grant Payne, his attendant since Purdon had shifted south, was "disappointed." "I expected him to win by three or four lengths. In his last hopple before the race, he had worked as well or better than ever before. When he got to the races, all he could think about was the breeding barn. When he came back to the boxes, he was pretty fresh - you wouldn't have thought he had had a race," he said.

Payne said he had enjoyed the travelling that came with caring for a great horse. "Five times to Australia, everywhere here. He was a great mannered horse, and liked company. He never really liked being by himself."

Payne's devotion to the stallion played a part in his remarkable recovery from a life-threatening operation to mend a twisted bowel on the eve of the Inter-Dominions at Addington last year. For three nights, he slept outside his box as Young Rufus tettered between life and death. "I never really thought he was going to die, but Bill Bishop said to me later he put the chance of survival at thirty percent."

Payne said the Auckland Cup win was his most compelling performance. "He was one fit horse for that. I don't think any horse in the world would have beaten him that night," he said. "No matter how quick you were going with him, you knew that you were on something special. But he would always hang a little. You would straighten him, and he'd just hang the other way."

Pyne said Young Rufus was always a pleasure to parade. "He was a show horse. You would finish grooming him and stand back and look at him, and you couldn't help thinking how good he looked. He was one of those horses that you'd walk out, and people who didn't know him would ask 'What's that horse?'"

Bishop, who performed the operation to save Young Rufus, said the horse was not affected physically by his experience. "He got back all his old habits. It is hard to evaluate whether the operation had any lasting affect. It is fair to say the expectations on the track were high. But how he looked and how he raced did not co-relate," he said.

In the meantime, Young Rufus is having a few days swimming to keep himself in trim.

Credit: Mike Grainger writing in HRWeekly 28Jan04

Last weekend marked the end of an era for Roydon Lodge Stud with the death of Smooth Fella.

The son of Most Happy Fella was a flagship stallion for the Christchurch-based stud during the 1980s, and it was a solemn moment for all when he slipped away peacefully in his yard on Saturday afternoon.

"I think it is sad when any great horse like this dies," said Roydon Lodge Stud's Director Keith Gibson. "I would not say his death was expected, but we knew he was nearing the end and he hadn't served any mares for a number of seasons. He'd had a long life for such an active stallion, and a great one."

Smooth Fella made an indelible impact on the harness racing industry in this country. At last count he was the sire of 793 NZ-bred winners (787 pacers and six trotters), with 235 in 2:00, and damsire of 687 NZ-bred winners (681 pacers - 231 in 2:00; and eight trotters - one in 2:00).

Smooth Fella is the sire of 16 1:55 pacers, the fastest of them being Skip (1:51.8), Commander Paul (1:52.4) and Rainbow Fella (1:53). He is also the damsire of 57 to break this mark, the top three in this respect being Silky Pockets (nee Birthday Boy, 1:51.2), Just A Butler (1:51.4) and Valiant Heart (1:51.4).

Without question Smooth Fella's greatest son was Roydon Glen (22 wins, $463,244), who later would sire champion trotter Lyell Creek, and Smooth Fella himself also left other successful sires in former champion juvenile Tuapeka Knight, Slugger and more recently Ermis.

Smooth Fella was the leading sire of 2-year-old pacers four times, with his first three crops in 1980/81, 1981/82 and 1982/83, and then again in 1986/87; he was leading sire of 3-year-old pacers once, in the 1983/84 season; he was the leading sire of pacers once, in the 1984/85 season; and he topped the broodmare sires' list twice, in 1997/98 and then again in 2001/02. Remarkably, he is currently the leading broodmare sire for this season.

Smooth Fella had not served a mare since the 2000/01 season, but in his time at stud in NZ he covered a total of 2314 mares for 1733 live foals.

He was 31 years old at the time of his death.

Credit: John Robinson writing in HRWeekly 14Jan04