TAB For Ever

Yes the year was 1975 .....Young Quinn was one of NZ's greatest ever winning most of NZ's big races , The Interdoms and Miracle mile as well as BIG races in North America. Won 59 races. He started in Wyndham with Bud Baynes ,moved to Charlies as a youngster. In 1975 he was against Aussie great Hondo Grattan going for 3 x Interdoms on end. HG was off 25 in final Young Quinn off 15 .He won like a good horse from Hi Foyle driven by Southlander Henry Skinner tho trained then by Roy Purdon [I think] .The Foyle horses used to battle around Forbury. Were they from Palmerston South ? Maybe dreaming ! Bay Foyle was an Aussie. Little wonder Southlaners love Harness when a short list of their champs would be headed by YQ ,Cardigan Bay , Tactile ,Holy Hal ,Lunar Chance , Robin Dundee [Otago] Holmes DG to name a few plus David Moss ,Poupette , Night Allowance among the trotters. YQ was by Young Charles out of Loyal Trick [ Hal Tryax]............then in 1996 Aussie Young Mister Charles was Interdom Pacing Champ. Plus ImaMightyQuinn was a real champ winning 3 x Interdoms from 2011. Back to John Langdon /Charlie they got the trotters final with Castletons Pride for Roy McKenzie who owned JayAr and many great horses trained by George Noble but Roy [later Sir Roy] never won the NZ Cup. Had a lot of great horses incl Royden Glen and Sundon. Ahhhhh the memories and the Associations ! ps Young Quinn named after well known shearer "Snow' Quinn

Haha...Young Quinn , was Charlie's drive but after a mishap young John Langdon stepped in and won both finals !

No worries Goldilocks , keep posting ! As with the 3 x Bears you need to find your place in life ! I started posting and became a mentor....first time I've got off the bottom rung !

Not knowing anything about things has never stopped you commenting before !!😃😀

Golden Reigns win in 1995 was with Chris Alford as driver...he recently drove our young trotter in Auckland....I told him ,do your best Aussie and he smiled !! I guess you had to be there ! the third horse ,along with VS [a mare] disqulified later was Young Mister Charles.Chokin was put up to 2nd { AGH] Victor Supreme was a good breeder with some good winner like the Stephen Reid pair Victors Delight and Utmost Delight [ Jewels winner].Anothe handy winner was Supremacy which after being a shy breeder has had two recent winners at Auckland including 2yr old Buddy Guy. The 19995 Final had some top horses in it incl Blossom Lady , BeeBee Cee and Master Musician. Also a neighbour of ours ,real small time breeder Alex McDonald who trained Lento a handy mare. Alex didnt train many ,he used to play rugby on wing for Taieri. Another wing on same road was Sid Brown who played for Taieri and Otago. He owned Foreal an Interdom contender at some stage plus Field Marshall a top horse. Sid currently has Sparkle running around Auckland. He and his Dad Jim sold the Pie and Chips at the 1965 Interdoms at Forbury. How time flies...thats 60years ago !

Same ole , same ole....a lot of things happening in Harness now is due to ENTAIN , who are doing their utmost to make Harness relevant again ! I attend 'decent' race meetings regularly and have booked in for NZ Cup week , I take shares in a few young horses and a couple of next gen horses to try and get amongst it . I bet small but regular on the TOTE . In short I watch with Interest and participate as Entain do their best to 'save' NZ harness. They advertise in newspaper ,on TV and widely in newspaper and TV coverage is very good. In short I enjoy being a participant it much better than it has been for some time ! I see you as a perennial moaner ....on and on and on...the boy who cried wolf. Ive told you to take your concerns /ideas to the Entain bosses and the HRNZ. Even if they read your dribble on here its straight to rubbish bin ...verbal diarrhoea !

I read it Gamma and I spot the error to prove it...Lordship won the NZ Cup in 1962 and 1966...Cardy won it in 1963. You mention the good horse Waitaki Hanover which for some seasons was trained by Wolfie also. In later years Wolfie trained a brilliant Victor Supreme who ran 2nd in Interdom Final to Golden Reign [ A ]. But both Victorv Supreme and the 3rd horse were later disqualified after positive swabs. Wolfies son Glen drove VS. Then later on I was excited to join a big synd in a Wolie trained horse. Peter won a couple of races on this promising horse named after an Olympic Gold Medalist but thru unsoundness it was moved to Chief Stipe Gale .It won 3 x races quite quickly then entered in Interdom as a 6 win horse. It ran mid field driven by Nicole Molander. Nicole had driven a trotter Lanson to 4th in Trotters final the year before then the next year won a consolation race on Lanson. The year Rondel scored its upset win over the favourite Sapling , the sedate pacers final was upstaged at Addington by No Response's remarkable finish to win the Trotters final. Rondel was the mingling of the owners names.

Well enjoy the next 5 years .....after that things could be up in air , and some new incentives will be available for the cheaper/value fees. A new boom sire will be in vogue ! So much to worry and moan about......for what IMO a good time to be involved !

Now days I find the stud service fee to be of little concern. its the day to day homing ,feeding ,training that takes its toll on the funds then the vet services can be eyewatering . And all these are much higher in the North ,even the hay is way more expensive !

A vague question there Gamma... Are you talking about Cardigan Bays driver Peter Wolfenden. Also won at Addington when Rondel [ trainer Peter Young] won one of the most sedate races ever !

Gamma , there is talk that the Lazarus progeny need a bit of time ...ie they will flourish at 3,4 and 5...maybe wishful thinking . I'm not sure how many sires are $5k or less but there are a few getting results with limited opportunities. Most breeders are going for the commercially popular sires which attract the higher prices at yearling sales. I note the popular sire Always B Miki is not travelling down this year cos of injury. That leaves a gap 1 Sky Major and Vincent are two value propositions along with the likes of LatherUp ,Ultimate Machete, Terror To Love ,BlingIt On.McWicked ,Locherburn,For A Reason . In the trotters there are Regal Inspiration ,Speeding Spur ,Majestic Son ,Imperial Count ,Creatine , Marcoola , Habiti Inta ,OneOver Da Moon. And more may now drop below that $5000 limit. Breeding seems so hard now ...an expensive hobby indeed and the farmers who had the pastures to raise em have sold out and/or getting too old to bother now.

Robert - 3 x Master , 1 x Defoe !

Out spoken Industry participants are highly critical of this new '.raceday ' involving progeny of 'low cost ' stallions. Firstly cos it on the same time as Invercargill Cup day ,the big day down South and close to the rich Golden Gait day in Auckland. So these clashes seen as spreading the supply of horses too slim and questioning whether there are even enough numbers of this category of horse to fill the fields. HRNZ claim to have tweaked the Calendar to give a better 'flow' so time will tell. The "Aces' series which was run late November for 2 yr olds at Addington in 2024 has been scrapped.

Bingo Gamma ! I felt so pleased that Jim Cole won with Clouding Over on Friday night ! His wife there as usual and co-owners ! Cos of the horses low rating it often number 1 so gets stuck on the rails and battles away. Jim often drives her...53 starts ,1 x win and 14 places. Last few starts Morrie Mack back on and drawn 2 it got in the running line and out in middle of track in straight. Perfect drive for win 2. Back in a day I used to follow a few Cole trotters including Dionne Hanover who led to turn over 2200 and battled away. I always throw Clouding Over into my trifecta for place. A friend told me he liked it on Friday ,before the race, I smiled but inwardly I thought.....well NO chance of winning ,maybe 3rd or 4th.

Further Trivia Gamma.... I was just sent a list which shows AG Herlihy as the winningest Interdom driver in history. The list has Finals plus heat wins and with 39 he is one ahead of Anthony Butt. The Bronze goes to Australia Brian Hancock.

Yes gamma, Ranga is top shelf, Great to recall some great races...any idea on the missing driver in Pacers final , the horse was Trotting bred by Game Pride outa a Great Evander mare ! You have good recall and photos on hand. Scott Phelan got a place on HolmesDG Tony Herlihy 2nds on Chokin and Christopher Vance and 4 x Trotting Finals wins Peter Ferguson Kates First David Butcher Win and 4th with Elsu ,also drove Changeover 4th ,Winforu 2nd Brabham 5th and Gaellic Skipper. Morrie Mack Kylies hero and some good Trots drives ,David Moss ,Sovereignty ,Mountain Gold BPurdon several drives won Trots with Night Allowance Mango drove Franco Ice and Luxury Liner Mattie White Lombo Navigator Mark Purdon...legend ...I think 3 Pacing , 4 x Trots Great memories....Maybe NZ would have more multiple winners with mobile starts and without the 24 yard handicaps etc

Only a 100% Harness addict could nail that one ......I actually miscalculated on my addition ...should have been 10 ,not 9. Any ideas on the last one ? And only a serious attendee would have noticed Tony Shaw[ Yulestar] and maybe Mango. On course BPurdon been away a bit with a hip injury and then over at Ascot in his top hat and tails. The North certainly has some of the industries top performers of the last 50 years !

Whoops....look like I a day behind . This been covered off. A question from me for the Interdom Students ! Subject - Drivers who have driven in the Pacing Final AND are still actively involved in week by week racing , in the much discussed Northern region of NZ. Q.....name the drivers who have driven in an Interdominion Pacing Final AND have also driven at Auckland/Cambridge over the past MONTH , and also those Interdom Final drivers who have attended Northern Harness in past month as a trainer or strapper/helper. A...I 'unofficially' make it 9 who have driven at both , including 2 x winners AND 5 Trainers/helpers including one driving win in Interdom Final . PS...BOrange and JDunn have not been driven up north in recent weeks

Stella Frost.....was relegated from NZ Cup win ,promoted in Interdoms. Juniors Image.....slipped the cutter at the 600m , a bold dive [ Phil Coulson ]

Gamma, Cya Art certainly ran out of itsskin. It been away from NZ for quite a good while after showing sharp improvement when joining JGrimsons barn and racing well against Merlin and Don't Stop dreaming. Prior to that it was a horse who had its moments , often showing up in good class but not so good at Cambridge and Manawatu etc. It was in the Telfer/Stockman stable. And I see it has one just once from 37 starts , in the last 2 x seasons in Aussie. It traces back 3 x dams to good racemare Fern Glen who won 10 races out of Ivan Behrns stable ,and raced in mares races v Blossom Lady etc. Fern Glen bred a lot of horses with the name Maheer in it. Maheer Lord was good horse with AGHerlihy and raced Elsu ,Just An Excuse etc.

I'll pick LTF and Wisper A Secret ! Lock it in !

The best ever...well before Dexter Dunn and Tony Herlihy......was the injured Reinsman......Maurice Holmes. The horses who crashed at Forbury opening meeting were both top horses ...Lookaway and Sun Chief ! Correct Gamma ,tho I wasn't at the 1961 Final I was glued to the radio when Massacre from Ashburton won in a boilover .DCampbell and DWatts associated with shock results Bit definitely at all nights of 1965 and remember the confusion when result of deadheat had people rushing around getting both horses back to birdcage for presentation .We always stood at the Northen end of birdcage next to the parade ring and stables with the Port Chalmers crowd ..the Forgies and Pangy Khan. So Jayar and RobinDundee deadheated with Disband third. I remember Soanfra winning a heat. The trotters final was an upset....Poupette [Harry Cox - Winton] upset Aussie champ Gramel. Dunedin was the first NZ Interdom final under lights and really Dunedin never really kicked on ...partly I suppose cos Wingatui was such a strong region for Gallops.

An Interdominion Question from me... Q...What Kiwi winner of Pacers Final went into the series as a 4 x win horse ,with at least 3 of those on minor tracks . Q....What Kiwi Favourite for Pacers final won the first day , was later found to be using illegal gear [ What was gear ] , had to remove it for second day but fell at the start of that race . Then in the final , was lead in first but the photo proved he was only second. Q...In that final 2 x horses who scored enough points were banned from starting , for what reason .... Phew...I guess you had to be there !

If it's such a big problem finding a race for a horse why do they continue to keep on importing horses from the North Island , surely this half the reason.

I see an M. Luke and Todd McCarthy ? or Steve and Mark Waugh ...us Kiwis don't spend much time on Aussie Winners😀