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BLAST FROM THE PAST

MOBILE GLOBE

MOBILE GLOBE

The New Zealand Cup of 1952 was all about the weather - the rain. A wet August affected some top horses at the National meeting and a wet spring meant their trainers were frustrated getting the work and racing into their charges right through until Cup time. It was still raining then. The four day Cup meeting was reduced to three through rain. But singing in it were Noel Berkett and Mobile Globe.

Berkett was already noted for his ability to work horses through the winter to peak at the August meetings. And he had recently taken over Mobile Globe - a good horse but a much better one in the wet. Mobile Globe had not won a race all of the previous season and only a handful in the one before that. He has been switched from the Laing stable at Eiffleton and won the Louisson and National Handicaps first and second up for Berkett.

Normally that would make any horse a warm Cup favourite but he was dismissed as a mudder who lacked class. Punters preferred eight others on the day. It was a testing track. Favourite Johnny Globe broke down. The next best, Tactician, had had only two starts due to weather. He went clear 500m out to try and steal it but the seasoned Mobile Globe came up on the inside of him and ran away by four lengths. It was almost bizarre. There had been only two slower Cups in 25 years. It was Berkett's first Cup runner but his magic with Mobile Globe was short-lived. The horse could not handle regular racing on hard tracks and never won again

Credit: David McCarthy writing in Harnessed Feb 2016