BLAST FROM THE PAST
LEN BUTTERFIELD: Chief Stipendiary Steward
 LEN BUTTERFIELD
The recent death of Len Butterfield, a highly-respected former Chief Stipendiary Steward, revived memories of the infamous whip slashing incident at Addington in 1957. Butterfield, who was appointed Chief Stipendiary Steward for the NZ Trotting Conference that year, suspended driver Cecil Devine and Jack Litten for six months over the affair.
Butterfield chaired the three-person panel - it also included another stipendiary steward and a club steward - which laid the charge, conducted the inquiry and imposed the penalty. Harness racing adopted the thoroughbred racing system of judicial control in 1997, with stipendiary stewards acting as prosecutor only and a Judicial Control Authority person and panel assessing the evidence and imposing penalties. One member of the JCA in now the norm for all except the major racemeetings, when two are appointed.
Devine and Litten struck at each other with their whips about 250m from the finish of the NZ Flying Stakes on the fourth day of the Cup Meeting. Devine was driving Don Hall with Litten (False Step) on his inner. The pair were fighting out second and third placings in a gap behind Caduceus, then a stablemate of False Step in the Litten stable. Caduceus, driven by Tony Vassallo, won the mobile start race by five lengths, posting his 29th win. False Step finished second with a length to Don Hall in third.
A Press Association report in the "Times" read:
"It is understood Devine and Litten slashed at each other outside the furlong post. Inside the furlong, Litten turned and hit at both Don Hall and Devine. As the horses were pulling up, half a furlong past the finishing point, Litten slumped in the sulky holding the left side of his face. He was still obviously in pain, with his left eye closed on returning to the birdcage, where he and Devine were greeted with boos and cat-calls from many hundreds of people both on the inside and outside enclosures. The payment of place dividends on False Step and Don Hall was delayed until proceedings concluded three hours after the race. The inquiry was adjourned to call additional witnesses."
False Step, who won the 1955 NZ Derby for Litten, and six races as a 4-year-old, did not win at five and was transferred to Devine in 1958. He won the NZ Cup that year, and again in the following two years. Butterfield and Devine had numerous clashes which developed into a feud.
Butterfield ordered the removal of a neck pricker from False Step on the second day of the Inter-Dominions at Addington in 1961. The gear, blunted tacks attached to the inside of the neck band to prevent a horse veering out at the start of a race was illegal. False Step had set a world record for 13 furlongs when he finished second to Diamond Hanover fron 48yds on the first day wearing the pricker. He ran outsider Massacre to a nose in the Final. Massacre who had won four races, scraped into the Final after placings in two heats.
Butterfield, who began work with the Trotting Conference in 1946, was Chief Stipendiary Steward for 21 years until he retired at 65 in 1978.
Hopple shorteners are now accepted gear for pacers but Butterfield disallowed their use briefly in 1968 at the Inter-Dominions, causing controversy. Trainer-driver Dick Benger was barred from using shorteners on the Australian pacer Lord Setay. The horse fell in the opening round of heats and the gear was permitted for the remainder of the series after representations from the Australasian Council of Kindred Associations to the Inter-Dominion Conference.
Credit: Taylor Strong writing in HRWeekly 1Sep99
|
