Borana….

[Newmarket]

George Shand did a very good job with this youngster, won them in a row against good horses. 
 

Does anyone know how the horse ended up with Peter Jones? Amazingly when it changed stables, it never won a race for nearly a year, but of course we know its next win was a biggie, the NZ cup, although did have several placings before that. 
 

I assume horse was sold out of Shand stable, any info would be great, thanks

[Gammalite]

4 hours ago, Newmarket said:

George Shand did a very good job with this youngster, won them in a row against good horses. 
 

Does anyone know how the horse ended up with Peter Jones? Amazingly when it changed stables, it never won a race for nearly a year, but of course we know its next win was a biggie, the NZ cup, although did have several placings before that. 
 

I assume horse was sold out of Shand stable, any info would be great, thanks

Borana raced for John and Doreen Murray throughout his career . Purchased by them for $2000 and retired after 126 race starts for 20 wins and $380,000.

The 1984 NZ Cup had a Huge crash in it caused by George Shand , and 6 horses bit the dust. The winner of the race was Camelot who missed the disaster by millimetres. 

The great Australian horse Gammalite missed the crash as well, but off a ridiculous tough 30m handicap ran down the track with Borana.

George would of got a very LONG Suspension for that foul driving , so the horses transferred to Peter Jones and 2 weeks after the Cup ran 4th to the Old Peter Jones drive of Hands Down . Peter had won a Cup driving Hands Down as well of course.  Hands Down driven from then on , and for that Win by the Young junior driver Anthony Butt . for his granddad Derek.    (The Cup winner Camelot finishing 3rd in that FFA ) 

Gammalite was favourite in that same FFA won by Ant's on Hands Down,  but ran down the track again 🙄.

Bloody NZers always so hard to beat at Addington lol 😆 . Luckily Lightning Blue came along just 2 years later to show him (Gammalite)  How it's done properly 😁💰🏆👍 

[Newmarket]

Thanks

[the galah]

yes borana was certainly a good horse right from the start.

i think george shand won something like 17 races with him in the 2-4 age group races.Then he had a run of outs at the start of the following season,,which would have been in the open class ranks and then there was that unfortunate nz cup incident. It was very shortly after that, the owner decided to change trainers and gave the horse to p jones.I think naturally shand would have been very disappointed,that happens sometimes in racing.At the time,one of my relations had  had a horse trained by mr shand.When borana suffered an injury as a 2 year old after wiinning 6 races, shand nursed him back to racing.i recall being told he may have even slept near the horse to make sure he was ok for a start,not long after coming back,maybe from an op after the injury,although whether that true or not,it was just what someone told me once.I know Shand would go smooth the washdyke track with the thing they used to do that,every time he worked the horse when recovering from the injury.

i understand borana ,after serving a few seasons at stud,no longer was sougt after as a stallion and from memory i think his owner had passed away by then. The same married couple gammalite refeers to had owned him all the way through,but once the husband,mr murry passed away they could not find a home for borana and i understand mrs murray,unable to find a home for him, offered the horse back to the shands,but they declined. i don't know what happened to the horse after that,whether they found a home for him. someone thought  not,but i wouldn't guarantee that was the case.

that was at a time when harness racing was still enjoying the golden era and owning and training nice horses,expecially one so good as borana,would have had substanial impact on those involved and is often the case,there could be the ups and downs as well.

the start of boranas racing career came the following year from when mr shand reired the top trotter,pointer hanover that he trained.poiner hanover was an open class trotter who raced in a lot of the bigger races. He had an interesting race one night at addington against the champion trotter scitch tar. Scotsh tar was known to be highly strung and mr shand was known to have a very loud whistle. One particular night at addington he put his whistle to use ,it could be heard a long way away and scotch tar broke when racing alongside him.

mr shand did suffer a bad injury when he was getting older when he suffered interference in a race where from memory half a dozen horses fell.when people get older i would imagine that would knock you around a bit. from memory,he made a comeback and had eastwood jaunty. i think one of the things ghe enjoyed was not only winning,but pushing someone out 3 wide.

i could be wrong,but one of his sons i think still trains from the same property. He had a runner in yesterday. He had a nice horse,adventereux ,or something like that that used to run against the likes of right bower who was trained by ian cameron. i've noted that his wife does a lot of good work for the timaru club,especially trying to help with the family days.

 

Edited Monday at 01:02 AM by the galah

[Withadream2]

A good friend of mine bred Borana. I’m not sure if he checks in on bitofayarn but I’ll message him & let him know about the thread. My understanding is that after the 1984 cup the Murrays told George they wanted another driver.  When he refused to let the owners choose someone else they swapped stables.  In my opinion they did the right thing. I don’t believe he would have won a cup with George Shand driving. 

[Withadream2]

Just been in touch with the breeder.  He said Borana was previously registered as a hack but is now deregistered. No doubt he would have passed on some time ago. 

[the galah]

2 hours ago, Withadream2 said:

A good friend of mine bred Borana. I’m not sure if he checks in on bitofayarn but I’ll message him & let him know about the thread. My understanding is that after the 1984 cup the Murrays told George they wanted another driver.  When he refused to let the owners choose someone else they swapped stables.  In my opinion they did the right thing. I don’t believe he would have won a cup with George Shand driving. 

sometimes owners have to make hard decisions.At the end of the day,they did what they thought was no doubt best and they ended up owning a nz cup winner. making decisions about things like that would have been difficult for all involved..

2 hours ago, Withadream2 said:

Just been in touch with the breeder.  He said Borana was previously registered as a hack but is now deregistered. No doubt he would have passed on some time ago. 

borana definetly stood at stud for a few seasons.He left a few winners but wasn't that popular and was only bred for a few seasons. When he finished that part of his life he was offered to shand by the part owner,as i understand it.He would have been in his late teens i think then and being a stallion it would not have been so easy to find a home for him.Hopefully they found a home for him after that . i did speak to someone one time about that,but i personally don't know about that.

[Withadream2]

10 hours ago, the galah said:

sometimes owners have to make hard decisions.At the end of the day,they did what they thought was no doubt best and they ended up owning a nz cup winner. making decisions about things like that would have been difficult for all involved..

I agree and he could have kept Borana in his stable if he had been more realistic about his driving abilities, especially in big races. 

[Newmarket]

Great comments The Galah, Withadream2 and Gamma…

That puts a different spin on changing stables, you would have thought Shand would have happily continue to train and let another driver on, who knows he could have trained a NZ cup winner. 
I only started following harness in early 80s and remember Borana, but forgot how dominant he was as a youngster only to see him battle a bit as an open class horse, then come out and bomb them cup day. 
Great memories 

[Withadream2]

14 hours ago, Newmarket said:

Great comments The Galah, Withadream2 and Gamma…

That puts a different spin on changing stables, you would have thought Shand would have happily continue to train and let another driver on, who knows he could have trained a NZ cup winner. 
I only started following harness in early 80s and remember Borana, but forgot how dominant he was as a youngster only to see him battle a bit as an open class horse, then come out and bomb them cup day. 
Great memories 

I guess back then most horsemen were trainer drivers and there were probably only one or two professional drivers full time not like today where trainers often specialise in training only.   I remember thinking Borana was a good place chance in the 1984 Cup as he was very unlucky in the previous years Auckland Cup running 4th to Royden Glen. 

[Withadream2]

One other point, I’m not sure if this is true or not but I seem to remember being told that the committee of the NZMTC at the time didn’t want Borana in the 1984 Cup because they were worried about Shands driving.                (In my previous post I meant 1985 Cup)

[Chief Stipe]

We had a 3yr old that beat Borana a couple of times - the Timaru Challenge Stakes comes to mind.  A horse called Dunhill.  I remember the Derby that year where Borana went to the lead from the start and Dunhill sat parked and tried to attack.  I'll never forget the comment afterwards that "you never attack Georgie Shand and expect him to hand up!".  Mighty Me won that Derby with Borana tiring to fourth.  Unfortunately we were evern further back!

[Blackie]

Borana ran third that year, leading up with Mighty Me in the trail. Lyndon Robert was fourth.

[Newmarket]

On 1/10/2025 at 8:52 AM, Chief Stipe said:

We had a 3yr old that beat Borana a couple of times - the Timaru Challenge Stakes comes to mind.  A horse called Dunhill.  I remember the Derby that year where Borana went to the lead from the start and Dunhill sat parked and tried to attack.  I'll never forget the comment afterwards that "you never attack Georgie Shand and expect him to hand up!".  Mighty Me won that Derby with Borana tiring to fourth.  Unfortunately we were evern further back!

I remember being at Addington for Mighty Me’s win….. plenty booing as he was returning to birdcage, from memory think it paid double figures, was beaten fav previous couple runs, although i am not 100% on this…

Dunhill was a pretty handy sort👍