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CLOCKWORK

CLOCKWORK

For several seasons around the World War Two era, Clockwork knocked about the best classes. He was second in an Auckland Cup and placed in other good races but never made the breakthrough to the headlines in spite of all the efforts of trainer Cecil Donald. The spring of 1945 looked like the same old, same old. Clockwork had been off the winning list for a year and while third in the Hannon Memorial in October he had been a long way from the winner.

So far in fact that the New Zealand Metropolitan Trotting Club hardly raised a murmur when it eliminated Clockwork from the New Zealand Cup. That Cup was a spectacular race, won at last by eternal crowd hero Gold Bar.

However, a few days later in the New Zealand Pacing Free-For-All, Ron Donald hunted the despised Clockwork out of the barrier and drove him hard to ensure Gold Bar would not put his usual big break on the field. The plan worked. Gold Bar was never more than a length in front of Clockwork and the veteran ran him down. That was sensational enough because Clockwork was at 35/1. But more was to come.

Clockwork had pushed Gold Bar so hard they had run a new national record for the 2400m of a mile & a half which stood for some years before being equalled but never beaten by the champion Highland Fling. As for Clockwork? Well, he never pushed the watches anywhere near any record times ever again.

Credit: David McCarthy writing in Harnessed Feb 2016