Addington… What Are Your Favourite Memories

[Newmarket]

I first went to Addington in the early 80s, firstly with my dad but after that with a group of 6 or so mates, hardly missed a meeting back then for many years. Loved the 2600 standing start, would pop out of bar, walk underneath and buy square pie, then head to start beside tree. 
 

If my horse went away, would walk to finish post to watch finish, if horse galloped, head to bar😆
 

 

[Chief Stipe]

Watching Lord Module win the Allan Matson FFA in the Trainers stand.

Also a lasting memory was being allowed to drive my Dads horse or maybe even McShane round the pre-parade ring, down the walkway to the birdcage and then drive the horse back to the stables after the race.

I was so excited when told I could do it after gearing the horse up that I jumped in the sulky waiting for the horse to be unhooked and the reins handed to me.  I was told in no uncertain terms to get out and do it myself the way I had been taught with the trainer saying - "who the bloody hell do you think you are?  Maurice Holmes?!"

[Walt]

22 minutes ago, Newmarket said:

I first went to Addington in the early 80s, firstly with my dad but after that with a group of 6 or so mates, hardly missed a meeting back then for many years. Loved the 2600 standing start, would pop out of bar, walk underneath and buy square pie, then head to start beside tree. 
 

If my horse went away, would walk to finish post to watch finish, if horse galloped, head to bar😆
 

 

Hands Down winning his third Easter Cup in 1983 and his NZ Cup in 1980.

Lord Module winning his NZ Cup in 1979 and his Alan Matson FFA win in 1981.

Bonnies Chance winning her NZ Cup in 1982. My biggest ever wager and collect off a horse.

Tussle winning her Dominion in 1986. Very smart drive by Pete

The win of Chase A Dream in the Sires Stakes Final on Cup Day 2023 .......and a very long list of others

[Gammalite]

41 minutes ago, Chief Stipe said:

Watching Lord Module win the Allan Matson FFA in the Trainers stand.

 

13 minutes ago, Walt said:

Lord Module winning his NZ Cup in 1979 and his Alan Matson FFA win in 1981.

Blah blah blah blah blah . just cause Gammalite ran second I spose 🤣😂🤣😎 what a fluke by that unruly horse. mmmmm some small FFA that nobody knows mmmm.

I've been to South Island just once in life and can share a better one than that . I'll just find it. 

[Gammalite]

And here we go !! I did personally see Gammalite win at Auckland in the Interdominion and an Auckland Cup there too,  knocking over Walts leading ladies of Bonnie's Chance and Delightful Lady. also that cocky Aussie bloke Vinnie. 

But even better still , my one Addington visit resulted in this magical moment in time with the Aussie Trifecta in the Interdominion Grand Final .The magic touch from the BOAY master blaster gets the money. Mt Galah can't even beat this one . 

[Walt]

21 minutes ago, Gammalite said:

And here we go !! I did personally see Gammalite win at Auckland in the Interdominion and an Auckland Cup there too,  knocking over Walts leading ladies of Bonnie's Chance and Delightful Lady. also that cocky Aussie bloke Vinnie. 

But even better still , my one Addington visit resulted in this magical moment in time with the Aussie Trifecta in the Interdominion Grand Final .The magic touch from the BOAY master blaster gets the money. Mt Galah can't even beat this one . 

I'm impressed Gammalite. Couldn't have been easy finding a photo of Gammalite actually winning @ Addington. 

I wonder how badly Bonnie's Chance and Delightful Lady were checked ?  

Meanwhile, back to reality......

 

 

[Gammalite]

24 minutes ago, Walt said:

I'm impressed Gammalite. Couldn't have been easy finding a photo of Gammalite actually winning @ Addington. 

An impossible Task altogether Walt 😎. Gammalite never won in 6 career starts at Addington. He won 2 Big races at Auckland though , from 5 starts there. The 83' Interdominion and the 82' Auckland Cup. I don't actually know any of the connections of Gammalite. 

The photo above is Lightning Blue winning the 87' Interdominion Grand Final at Addington from QLDer Sunset Candios and NSWer Paleface Bubble. A great night out. I travelled many places with Lightning Blue but was unfortunately in Queensland competing when he returned to NZ for the NZ Cup bid later that year. (he won that as well over luxury Liner) 

Here he is tied up to a very old valiant. Used to stick the 2 stallions on either side of the car and just drive around for a while 😂🤣. good bit of exercise lol. He loved it and would stick his head in the window and chat To ya and have a good old time trying to pick the radio music lol.😆 

He (Lightning Blue) is very fine build for a stallion. 'Blue' Would of beaten Gammalite by 50m or more if he ever had raced him. 'Blue' had to race much faster horses. Narrowly beaten by Master Mood in the Miracle Mile , A great win for NZ. Village Kid beaten into 3rd on that occasion in that Miracle Mile , so a great achievement to beat that speed horse champion home anyway. 

[Newmarket]

13 hours ago, Chief Stipe said:

Watching Lord Module win the Allan Matson FFA in the Trainers stand.

Also a lasting memory was being allowed to drive my Dads horse or maybe even McShane round the pre-parade ring, down the walkway to the birdcage and then drive the horse back to the stables after the race.

I was so excited when told I could do it after gearing the horse up that I jumped in the sulky waiting for the horse to be unhooked and the reins handed to me.  I was told in no uncertain terms to get out and do it myself the way I had been taught with the trainer saying - "who the bloody hell do you think you are?  Maurice Holmes?!"

That’s a cool memory, handy horse McShane. 

[Newmarket]

Good memories….

Remember huge hailstorm early 80s during midweek meeting, 2yo trotters on track, race delayed for awhile, I think Zebec went in to win. 
 

Remember foggy night, Reon broadcasting from back of starting gate…. also calling race when a hare raced ahead of field down straight. 

[Walt]

There are a million memories from Addington over the years. Terror To Love winning his third Cup. Flashing Red winning his two. The second not as expected as the first. Lot of emotion for Ants with the great DG no longer in the picture.

Naval Officer winning the 1984 NZ Derby or should I say Debacle.

Borana winning the Cup at huge odds for Pete in 1985. Borana had worked a treat in the lead up and the win was not a big shock to Peter but it was to most others including myself.

I've noticed that some of my big memories at Addington involve Peter Jones. I always rated him as a superb and very smart driver. His Cup win with Hands Down (Old Bill) in 1980 when he beat Delightful Lady was an epic battle similar to the Bonecrusher / Waverly Star in the Cox Plate six years later in 1986. 

Pete was only 26 and having his first drive in the Cup. I'm still in awe of that winning drive 44 years later for a list of reasons. Not a lot of people knew Peter had a non harness racing concern that day that weighed on his mind but you would never have known when watching his drive. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree. I have considerable respect for him.

On that score I will pay tribute to his wonderful father and all round great human being. DG

[Gammalite]

21 minutes ago, Walt said:

On that score I will pay tribute to his wonderful father and all round great human being

Fair dinkum' true Walt. Derek , Wolfie and Roy Purdon the absolute  'Grandmasters of the game ' always thoroughly polite to everybody , achievements in harness through the ceiling , All MBE I think?  and possibly the top 3 in NZ history harness . although Nz has a brilliant field to choose from. Their sons and grandsons doing well accordingly too. 

Hey for BOAY and Newmarket s Addington thread. Here's one for you Walt and even Chief , Galah and Newmarket and Ranga might remember this one.

The open class National Handicap used to run every Winter . and one year I was tuned in as a kid to the great commentary of Reon Murtha. Reon talking about the weather during the race 

Reon uttering "Unbelievable conditions here at Addington tonight , the fog so thick you can't make out where the horses are on the track and we'll only get a glimpse of them 100m from the line as they emerge from the fog . ANd IT's SUNSEEKER !! sunseeker wins the National !!!"""

(quite apt a horse-name for the conditions , looking for some sunshine too ? 😂)

Sunseeker (driven by Kevin Williams for Cecil) was a real outclassed horse of Cecil Devine's and defeated Lord Module and the very nice horse Roydon Scott to win that race on that cold Foggy Addington August night. 

Sunseeker being a very poor non trying horse,  Never won (or even placed)  in another race after that, from 50 more race starts over 3 or 4 years. taking on Hands Down, Bonnies Chance and co. Got no idea why Cecil kept sending him around. Probably just as a 'kill' for Lord Module I spose.? 

But he had that one race to 'shine' when All the others got 'lost in the Fog' . the sun(seeker) shined for a moment in time 😅🌞🌞

[mikeynz]

2 hours ago, Gammalite said:

Fair dinkum' true Walt. Derek , Wolfie and Roy Purdon the absolute  'Grandmasters of the game ' always thoroughly polite to everybody , achievements in harness through the ceiling , All MBE I think?  and possibly the top 3 in NZ history harness . although Nz has a brilliant field to choose from. Their sons and grandsons doing well accordingly too. 

Hey for BOAY and Newmarket s Addington thread. Here's one for you Walt and even Chief , Galah and Newmarket and Ranga might remember this one.

The open class National Handicap used to run every Winter . and one year I was tuned in as a kid to the great commentary of Reon Murtha. Reon talking about the weather during the race 

Reon uttering "Unbelievable conditions here at Addington tonight , the fog so thick you can't make out where the horses are on the track and we'll only get a glimpse of them 100m from the line as they emerge from the fog . ANd IT's SUNSEEKER !! sunseeker wins the National !!!"""

(quite apt a horse-name for the conditions , looking for some sunshine too ? 😂)

Sunseeker (driven by Kevin Williams for Cecil) was a real outclassed horse of Cecil Devine's and defeated Lord Module and the very nice horse Roydon Scott to win that race on that cold Foggy Addington August night. 

Sunseeker being a very poor non trying horse,  Never won (or even placed)  in another race after that, from 50 more race starts over 3 or 4 years. taking on Hands Down, Bonnies Chance and co. Got no idea why Cecil kept sending him around. Probably just as a 'kill' for Lord Module I spose.? 

But he had that one race to 'shine' when All the others got 'lost in the Fog' . the sun(seeker) shined for a moment in time 😅🌞🌞

I stand to be  corrected but I think the race in the fog may have been.on a Monday night, just to confirm.either way I will go check results🤔

[Doomed]

4 hours ago, mikeynz said:

I stand to be  corrected but I think the race in the fog may have been.on a Monday night, just to confirm.either way I will go check results🤔

I do recall several of Reon's "fog calls" at Addington, but I also there for one of the great fog races when Hands Down won the last race at Ashburton one day on the old grass track. That track must have been at least 2,200 metres around so there wasn't much to see for an awfully long time until they appeared out of the fog with about 150m to go.

[Rangatira]

Having to venture to the track if you wanted to watch the action.

The 3 bars in and under the public stand. The exodus of patrons from those bars to watch the races.

The parade ring by the stables.

The NZ Metropolitan TC Louisson and National Handicaps in August

The New Brighton TC DB Superstars for 4yo's in September

The Canterbury Park TC Lion Brown Risings Stars for 3yo's in October

[Newmarket]

What about the old tote…. prices sliding up and down on the board. Getting funny looks from punters at the $1 windows while I’m punting at the $10 window😬

[Gammalite]

2 hours ago, Newmarket said:

What about the old tote…. prices sliding up and down on the board. Getting funny looks from punters at the $1 windows while I’m punting at the $10 window😬

you were probably held up at that window quite often,  by the guy under the low brim hat and beady eyes darting about,  getting his wads on?  Brodie spotting a pole marker at 3-1 the place running the tote machine out of paper ?

[Chief Stipe]

4 hours ago, Newmarket said:

What about the old tote…. prices sliding up and down on the board. Getting funny looks from punters at the $1 windows while I’m punting at the $10 window😬

 

1 hour ago, Gammalite said:

you were probably held up at that window quite often,  by the guy under the low brim hat and beady eyes darting about,  getting his wads on?  Brodie spotting a pole marker at 3-1 the place running the tote machine out of paper ?

Or the guy in the trench coat and low brim hat offering you cash for your tickets plus 10%.  That was when money laundering was a breeze!

[Brodie]

Entering thru the gate that people with tickets went through,  and pointing around the corner at the turnstiles at Addington, if the men in white coats tried to accoste me!

you were meant to be accompanied by an adult if you were under 18!
Had a lot of parents back then!

 

[Walt]

10 hours ago, Brodie said:

Entering thru the gate that people with tickets went through,  and pointing around the corner at the turnstiles at Addington, if the men in white coats tried to accoste me!

you were meant to be accompanied by an adult if you were under 18!
Had a lot of parents back then!

 

You've also had the bug since childhood Brodie.

Harness Racing arrange races so we develop our favourite horses and favourite moments and are hooked for life. Sneaky bastards  

I remember being 9 far king years old at Hampden Street Primary School in Nelson. My teacher was Mr Ching. He was awesome and got the Christchurch Press. He'd give me the racing lift out every morning. How bad is that? It get's worse. He encouraged me to put my name down for the free milk program. Not because he thought I needed it but because the kids on that program started their morning tea ten minutes before the other kids and he said that would give me extra time to study the form because he didn't think it was a good idea to look at horse racing while he was teaching the class. How could I ever forget him? He's the only teacher that I cried when he passed away. 

[Brodie]

I believe that the most ardent racing enthusiasts get the bug when they are very young.

I still remember  listening to the wireless radio and having the yellow and greenish colour paper tickets alongside me on a Saturday.

Trying to pick up Reg Clapp on A Saturday night and hearing the Magness Benro adds, and the staticy very hard to get Greymouth trots!

What we are missing is getting the youngsters along to the course so they can get the harness bug early on!

I do not believe that without that, the industry can possibly survive medium term!

People of gambling age generally just do not bet the bug from going to Cup Day, they are going there for the social aspect and perving!

The clubs and HRNZ need to be doing serious marketing like Harness Racing Unhinged is at least having a go!

[Chief Stipe]

1 hour ago, Walt said:

You've also had the bug since childhood Brodie.

Harness Racing arrange races so we develop our favourite horses and favourite moments and are hooked for life. Sneaky bastards  

I remember being 9 far king years old at Hampden Street Primary School in Nelson. My teacher was Mr Ching. He was awesome and got the Christchurch Press. He'd give me the racing lift out every morning. How bad is that? It get's worse. He encouraged me to put my name down for the free milk program. Not because he thought I needed it but because the kids on that program started their morning tea ten minutes before the other kids and he said that would give me extra time to study the form because he didn't think it was a good idea to look at horse racing while he was teaching the class. How could I ever forget him? He's the only teacher that I cried when he passed away. 

One of my favourite teachers at High School was a Mr Gugich.  He loved a punt.  Knew my Dad had horses and was always asking me at the end of class if I had any tips.

He used to put a good word in when at the beginning of every year I invariably missed the first week and a half of the new school year.  Our family was holidaying on the Nelson/Blenheim Harness circuit.

[Walt]

41 minutes ago, Brodie said:

I believe that the most ardent racing enthusiasts get the bug when they are very young.

I still remember  listening to the wireless radio and having the yellow and greenish colour paper tickets alongside me on a Saturday.

Trying to pick up Reg Clapp on A Saturday night and hearing the Magness Benro adds, and the staticy very hard to get Greymouth trots!

What we are missing is getting the youngsters along to the course so they can get the harness bug early on!

I do not believe that without that, the industry can possibly survive medium term!

People of gambling age generally just do not bet the bug from going to Cup Day, they are going there for the social aspect and perving!

The clubs and HRNZ need to be doing serious marketing like Harness Racing Unhinged is at least having a go!

You've touched on a subject that deserves it's own thread Brodie but we are on the same page. 

Where are the future of horse racing punters going to come from?

If I was to say the three traditional areas from the past they would be....

1) Our fathers

2) Melbourne Cup and associated sweepstakes etc

3) Embracing a champion racehorse.

 

I feel we can start putting a line through the influence of our fathers. There are so many areas / sports competing for the punters dollar these days. Racing no longer has the monopoly it once enjoyed. I also believe more fathers than ever see gambling in a negative light akin to smoking cigarettes. Unsure to what degree animal welfare plays a role with some people not wanting to support horse racing like many people who disapprove of rodeo's. 

You also have to be committed if you intend going to the races. Ten races spread over five hours has limited appeal when most of us are in a hurry to get from one place to another. Imagine going to a Casino and telling people there for five hours they could only have one gamble every thirty minutes so could sit on their hands for 25 minutes in between. Watch how quickly the Casino emptied out. 

I have three daughters and three sons. All are happy to go with me to a race day like the NZ Cup day but wouldn't be interested in any other days. Only two of my sons gamble and that is almost exclusively on football, MMA and League. 

We've all been to NZ Cup day. There's a buzz most embrace but other punters are not fussed. Seeing so many young people on track is encouraging but that encouragement soon evaporates.

Horse racing need a lot more big days targeting young people. It's up to them to work out how to do that. 

People like Carter Dalgety are making a difference. He's young, talented and engaging. Younger people relate to him way more than they would relate to David Butcher etc. Carter has encouraged some of his young mates into horse ownership that has produced positive results. Other young people will have noticed.

Gambling should be seen as fun and with the potential of winning life changing amounts of money for relatively small outlays. Something to compete with Lotto. The nearest we come to that is Pick Six a wager that coincidently the TAB no longer want. There needs to be a weekly jackpot to get peoples attention. Something for them, especially younger folk to pool their funds into a syndicate with the chance of buying that new car with the result. 

Regular sweepstakes could produce positive results. More high profile raffles etc for a share in a horse that is already winning races. 

The TAB have a clear focus on quantity over quality. Compulsive gamblers will embrace that but once again this is the sort of thing that turns others off gambling. We are routinely missing out on features worthy of focusing on as Trackside rush off to another dog race from Wallawallabangdong and others venues that a percentage of viewers wouldn't even know what country the venue is in. 

Getting people to the track is key in my opinion. If I look at Nelson for example we no longer have gallops and have lost our winter harness meeting so 50% of our racing. Nelson has a superb course but the facilities look like it's been decades since a bean was spent on them. I've offered to waterblast some of the shite looking areas free of any charge but the club don't actually own the grandstands etc. The population of Nelson has grown considerably but that is not reflected via horse racing. Richmond the very area the racecourse is on has had a significant population increase and many of them are younger people. I use Nelson as an anecdotal example of racing going backwards.

Is the writing on the wall and the TAB just letting it die knowing Sports Betting is not in the too hard basket? 

[Nowornever]

1 hour ago, Brodie said:

Trying to pick up Reg Clapp on A Saturday night and hearing the Magness Benro adds, and the staticy very hard to get Greymouth trots!

Yes the car was the best place for picking up the coverage in South Canterbury so my brother dad and I would spend half the of the night listening in the car until we jacked up this huge 50ft aerial one day and solved all our problems.  Trackside came on a few years later

[Doomed]

35 minutes ago, Nowornever said:

Yes the car was the best place for picking up the coverage in South Canterbury so my brother dad and I would spend half the of the night listening in the car until we jacked up this huge 50ft aerial one day and solved all our problems.  Trackside came on a few years later

Very interesting. I can remember living in ChCh in the late 70s and having to move to the car during the night to listen to the Auckland trots. Who would bother going to that trouble these days. Listening to the Auckland trots, let alone having to sit in the car in the middle of the night to do so.

[mikeynz]

2 hours ago, Walt said:

You've touched on a subject that deserves it's own thread Brodie but we are on the same page. 

Where are the future of horse racing punters going to come from?

If I was to say the three traditional areas from the past they would be....

1) Our fathers

2) Melbourne Cup and associated sweepstakes etc

3) Embracing a champion racehorse.

 

I feel we can start putting a line through the influence of our fathers. There are so many areas / sports competing for the punters dollar these days. Racing no longer has the monopoly it once enjoyed. I also believe more fathers than ever see gambling in a negative light akin to smoking cigarettes. Unsure to what degree animal welfare plays a role with some people not wanting to support horse racing like many people who disapprove of rodeo's. 

You also have to be committed if you intend going to the races. Ten races spread over five hours has limited appeal when most of us are in a hurry to get from one place to another. Imagine going to a Casino and telling people there for five hours they could only have one gamble every thirty minutes so could sit on their hands for 25 minutes in between. Watch how quickly the Casino emptied out. 

I have three daughters and three sons. All are happy to go with me to a race day like the NZ Cup day but wouldn't be interested in any other days. Only two of my sons gamble and that is almost exclusively on football, MMA and League. 

We've all been to NZ Cup day. There's a buzz most embrace but other punters are not fussed. Seeing so many young people on track is encouraging but that encouragement soon evaporates.

Horse racing need a lot more big days targeting young people. It's up to them to work out how to do that. 

People like Carter Dalgety are making a difference. He's young, talented and engaging. Younger people relate to him way more than they would relate to David Butcher etc. Carter has encouraged some of his young mates into horse ownership that has produced positive results. Other young people will have noticed.

Gambling should be seen as fun and with the potential of winning life changing amounts of money for relatively small outlays. Something to compete with Lotto. The nearest we come to that is Pick Six a wager that coincidently the TAB no longer want. There needs to be a weekly jackpot to get peoples attention. Something for them, especially younger folk to pool their funds into a syndicate with the chance of buying that new car with the result. 

Regular sweepstakes could produce positive results. More high profile raffles etc for a share in a horse that is already winning races. 

The TAB have a clear focus on quantity over quality. Compulsive gamblers will embrace that but once again this is the sort of thing that turns others off gambling. We are routinely missing out on features worthy of focusing on as Trackside rush off to another dog race from Wallawallabangdong and others venues that a percentage of viewers wouldn't even know what country the venue is in. 

Getting people to the track is key in my opinion. If I look at Nelson for example we no longer have gallops and have lost our winter harness meeting so 50% of our racing. Nelson has a superb course but the facilities look like it's been decades since a bean was spent on them. I've offered to waterblast some of the shite looking areas free of any charge but the club don't actually own the grandstands etc. The population of Nelson has grown considerably but that is not reflected via horse racing. Richmond the very area the racecourse is on has had a significant population increase and many of them are younger people. I use Nelson as an anecdotal example of racing going backwards.

Is the writing on the wall and the TAB just letting it die knowing Sports Betting is not in the too hard basket? 

You talk about winning life changing amounts as in lotto, racing don't really have anything, it's not the seventies anymore, that $100 double just wont  go far anymore and quantity over quality, I think the extension of the race days in harness racing next year is a rather naive idea but in every sport we seem to think the more the merrier.

Interestingly I hear the IPL Cricket is going into the finals stange, strangely while  many were disappointed it wasn't on Sky as such we have all survived without it, no different to racing, Entain can have 60 meetings every day but most of it one don't bother with anyway.

Anyway I will go check Wingatui nominations, starting to get into winter in earnest now.

Edited May 21 by mikeynz