Easter Harness Years Ago….

[Newmarket]

First started going to Addington in the early 80s, while I always looked forward to cup time, Easter Saturday was a close 2nd. 
Hands Down winning several cups, and who can forget Basil Dean vrs Sir Castleton battles, especially that record that Basil Dean set which was quicker than the Open Class pacers at the time, quite hard to believe. 
 

Nowadays, I hardly think of Addington on Easter Sat, I will probably be more interested in Motukarara monday.

Who else has good memories of Easter harness?

 

[Gammalite]

1 hour ago, Newmarket said:

Who else has good memories of Easter harness?

Here's a great Easter memory Newmarket , kindly posted by Ranga last year when we were perplexed as to Whatever happened to the time-honoured Easter Cup 2 mile prestigious race. Just not carded anymore sadly....😪

Photos from 1981 and 1983

[Newmarket]

23 minutes ago, Gammalite said:

Here's a great Easter memory Newmarket , kindly posted by Ranga last year when we were perplexed as to Whatever happened to the time-honoured Easter Cup 2 mile prestigious race. Just not carded anymore sadly....😪

Photos from 1981 and 1983

Good one, he was a tough old bugger that loved the roomy Addington track. 
 

Then there was the terrible crash in the 1984 derby, the sound of the crowd gasping was very loud indeed. 
 

[Newmarket]

Talking about the Derby crash, looking back you would have thought race should be called off.

[Shad]

8 hours ago, Newmarket said:

Talking about the Derby crash, looking back you would have thought race should be called off.

I think I have an old video recording of the derby smash, only any good if the old video recorder works, certainly was a shocker, as for Basil Dean was certainly one of my favourites, tough breed back in those days, and true open classy performers.

[mikeynz]

A day meet for Addington, will be interesting to see how it competes with the normal Saturday racing.

 

 

 

[Brodie]

Yes very  interesting the Addington have gone with the day meeting once again for the Easter meeting?

Personally think they would get a better oncourse crowd at night than during the day, but maybe turnover might be higher as a day meeting perhaps, although plenty of meetings during the day.

Good luck trying to make money on the day as the fields appear very difficult to sort out!

[mikeynz]

Back the field, guaranteed to win every race.

[mikeynz]

Shad, have you tried the vcr,or to see if the tape still works ?

Biggest problems are tapes don't always age well and of course vcrs don't either,they probably can't repair them, I got 2, played them recently, still work fine but if you play dodgy tape keeps fouling up the heads.

There was a clip of it on you tube, the smash in the derby

[Blackie]

 

[Gammalite]

That was just like watching a horror movie with jump scares and Hold Your Breath moments. 

Did you see the poor late great Charlie Hunter at the bottom of the pile-up? , then crawling out on hands and knees while everyone was wrestling with the tangled horses?   9 of the 14 runners being brought down or losing the driver.

Charlie eventually walked to ambulance so that was good sign he could get up . Incredibly None of the 9 Derby colts were seriously injured , even though it took 10 minutes to untangle ROYDON GLEN. 

Fun fact: Roydon Glen came back as a 4 yearold later in year, after this Derby crash and Won all 12 Starts as a 4 yearold !! and so was NZ harness horse of the Year. (so no lingering damage from this horrendous Derby incident thankfully) 

[Blackie]

‘‘Twas sitting in the Old Steward stand just after winning post, unfolded right in front of us, all rushed down trying to help, was horrendous. Robert Mitchell , Paleface Tryax, grabbed one and held it it for awhile, then had to let it go as the rein kept slipping through his hand, great piece of horsemanship.

They said Naval Officer was a lucky Derby winner, so Mike DeFilipi to prove a point, came out in that horses very next race , let him run, and won by 14 lengths as I recall!

[Gammalite]

2 minutes ago, Blackie said:

They said Naval Officer was a lucky Derby winner, so Mike DeFilipi to prove a point, came out in that horses very next race , let him run, and won by 14 lengths as I recall!

Well 'Luck's a Fortune' as they say. Probably Lucky to avoid the crash (and Not have the race abandoned as they would do instantly these days, even if one or 2 horses were down on the track) 

But a Derby Winner is a Derby winner. very hard to do. and fantastic accomplishment. Even Krug lol......

[Trotsfan]

I think Charlie hunter still alive and well 

[Gammalite]

1 hour ago, Trotsfan said:

I think Charlie hunter still alive and well 

, Chief put something on site here about 2 year ago when Charlie finally handed up licence. About 86 years old now and been battling cancer. Hope he is on top of it ok.

[Shad]

On 7/04/2023 at 4:27 AM, mikeynz said:

Shad, have you tried the vcr,or to see if the tape still works ?

Biggest problems are tapes don't always age well and of course vcrs don't either,they probably can't repair them, I got 2, played them recently, still work fine but if you play dodgy tape keeps fouling up the heads.

There was a clip of it on you tube, the smash in the derby

Have not tried them for many years, think video recorder ok but dont know for sure, but the old style 10 ton TV is blown an o ring, although not a problem to replace.

[mikeynz]

9 and a half thousand in the main quaddie suggest modest interest in this meeting betting wise.

[mikeynz]

13 hours ago, Shad said:

Have not tried them for many years, think video recorder ok but dont know for sure, but the old style 10 ton TV is blown an o ring, although not a problem to replace.

I know we have moved on from vcr but judging by the number of cassettes here they have done a fair bit of work, they were simply of their time, we moved to disc then to the hard drive but as long as each system works we keep using them, I chucked a few tapes out that had mould but played through a heap more to see if they play, some are fine, playing crappy tapes is the best way to stuff ya player or foul up the heads, I got some sports vids that I won't watch probably but someone may want them it's amazing how much stuff we gather over the years, as I get older I wonder why.