Purdons move north permanently...for now.

[Chief Stipe]

HISTORIC ERA AT ROLLESTON TO END

purdonracing.co.nz

HISTORIC ERA AT ROLLESTON TO END

Feb 11, 2025

The sensationally successful era of the Purdon partnerships at Rolleston is to come to an end with the announcement the Nathan and Mark stable is to shift to Auckland.

The stable will take over the Pukekohe barn formerly operated by Steven Reid in May and expect to be in full operation by June 1.

“Dad had suggested it before but I resisted it because the current setup suited me. But when I was based in Auckland over Xmas with friends and family I began to have a change of heart and just before New Year we started having talks with the Auckland club” Nathan said

“I was a bit worried too that our local owners might resist a major change like that but I have been really surprised at their reaction.Nearly all of them have signed up to it and we should have about 25 horses heading north in May.Its a great boost for us”

Mark Purdon,now based in Matamata, moved south from Auckland in 2000 and began an unparallelled run of success on his own account and then in partnership with Grant Payne,Natalie Rasmussen, Hayden Cullen and finally Nathan.

The Rolleston property, which Mark developed from scratch into one of the finest harness racing establishments in the world after starting out training at Yaldhurst, has been under option for other uses for some time and was due to be handed over in the foreseeable future. It included a straight track that proved a boon to the stable over the years and may other innovations.

“Some of the staff want to remain here because of their ties to Canterbury and you would expect that but I am sure they will not be short of offers given their skills and attitudes. We couldn’t have achieved all this without top staff.

“Now its go I am really looking forward to the challenge” Nathan said “It will be quite different in some ways but great in others. We will still naturally be travelling south for major races when we have the horses to suit.”

“I have enjoyed it here and met some great people but its time to try something new”

The Purdon family emigrated to Canterbury from Scotland early in the 20th century but a branch headed by Hugh Purdon moved north in the 1920’s and then  descended Roy Purdon a legendary trainer in his own right,and his highest achieving sons, Barry and Mark as famous as their father.

Nathan’s brother,Michael, is one of those who will remain in Canterbury developing his own property and interests.

[Brodie]

Going to help the North Island with a few  more horses initially, so that is good!

Will probably clean up you would think?

Going to be very interesting to see how many existing owners in the South actually do stick with the Purdons as some will not want to fly to the North Island to watch them.

I am sure there will be some horses that leave existing trainers and go to Purdons chasing the bigger stakes that are falsely bring provided in  Auckland though.

[curious]

Pardon?

[Chief Stipe]

34 minutes ago, curious said:

Pardon?

Bloody auto spell check.  AI is making it worse.

[Nowornever]

Strange decision in my opinion moving away from the better racing and bigger fields. I compare it to someone like Emma Stuart moving to Tasmania! Why would you!.

Mind you nothing makes sense these days.

[Brodie]

24 minutes ago, Nowornever said:

Strange decision in my opinion moving away from the better racing and bigger fields. I compare it to someone like Emma Stuart moving to Tasmania! Why would you!.

Mind you nothing makes sense these days.

They appeared to be down on numbers compared to what they had when Mark and Nat were training together and winning everything.

I believe that where they are training is going to be developed into sections so that eould be the major reason, I would say?

A bit surprising as it is or was  under the flight path!!

[Chief Stipe]

6 minutes ago, Brodie said:

I believe that where they are training is going to be developed into sections so that eould be the major reason, I would say?

A bit surprising as it is or was  under the flight path!!

Yep being subdivided.  Worth squillions.

[the galah]

1 hour ago, Nowornever said:

Strange decision in my opinion moving away from the better racing and bigger fields. I compare it to someone like Emma Stuart moving to Tasmania! Why would you!.

Mind you nothing makes sense these days.

seems an irony there.

Steven reid moves to canterbury,then the purdons announce a move to train from steven reids fromer barn,at a training centre that the auckland club is desperate to sell,with no guarantee that  any future purchaser will extend a lease to enable training to continue from ,even if it was sold.

Auckland of course does have a future if sensible,realistic decisions regarding future plans , are made by the club and hrnz.

but where's the evidence of anything currently being in place or being sustainable?

What is happening with the pukekohe training centre? How many more millions will the auckland club be in debt before they announce a sale and will the sale price be anywhere near what the original offer was and how many million $, (possibly tens of millions) will hrnz contribute  to help establish a training centre for the pukekohe trainers and will racing continue at alexandra park.And where does that HRNZ money come from? 

All those questions you would think must have been in the back of the minds of the purdons,but they have the luxury of having a big bank balance and can set up there own training facilty down the track i suppose.

But at the end of the day,the purdons have a history of making wise decisions so lets hope they are happy and prosper and contribute as they have previously, to racing in the upper north island.

i would say,they are a definite plus for auckland racing,as auckland harness racing is very much reliant on the professional trainers to provide the horse numbers.

Having said that.  The purdon stable  very much focus on the udr. Last year they lined up 216 starters,and didn't actually make the top 20 trainers nz starters, numbers wise.

 

Edited 3 hours ago by the galah

[Shad]

How did they go with their gallopers they purchased, from memory one by savabeel.