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ANDY TODD

Andy Todd, the man they called "the flying sportsman", died suddenly in Christchurch last week. He was 87. While he hadn't raced a horse for some years, he had a string of fine pacers and trotters over a period of half a century, harking right back to the depression days.

It was about then he was given a young trotter. Todd Lonzia was the horse's name. He was to go on and win thirteen races, hold the NZ mile record twice and earn himself a chapter in Unhoppled Heroes, a book on our top trotters, soon to be published by Christchurch writer Dave Cannan. The young trotter wasn't Mr Todd's first racehorse. Working in Dunedin, where he was born, Andy Todd was offered a horse to race by a friend, Charles Hudson. However, that mare stumbled and fell heavily while competing at Balclutha and didn't race again. Mr Hudson, when told of the accident, immediately offered Todd Lonzia, already the winner of a couple of races for him, as a replacement.

Andy Todd could hardly refuse. Todd Lonzia over a long career won from long marks and several times - notably at Ashburton and at Washdyke - took on and beat the pacers. Probably the best of his own pacers was Drucus (by Jack Potts), the winner of nine races in NZ when trained first by Ces Donald and later by Derek Jones. Drucus was then sold to Australia. There were a lot of others, and most of them won a race or two. He raced the odd galloper and, back in the early days, was active in greyhound circles as well.

After working for some years in the hardware and builders' supply trade, Andy Todd bought the Bowling Green Hotel in Dunedin in 1939. Later, he took over the Caledonian, also in Dunedin. In 1945 he moved north to Christchurch where he had McKendry's Hotel (now the Cantabrian) for some years. Another move, this time to a hotel in Rakaia, before shifting to the Prebbleton Hotel. In 1965 he gave away the liquor trade and moved into the morning and afternoon tea business. Andy's Tearooms, in the bustling heart of Christchurch boomed. It was Andy Todd's constant delight to hand out sweets for the children in the shop, help mothers with their prams, carry trays for the older customers. That personal touch was his trademark. He retired from the business about five years ago.

It was back in the days at McKendry's when he and a friend, Les Ashworth, started organising air trips to race meetings all over the country for "the flying sportsmen." People queued to join the band. The group would fly, often in two aeroplanes, to Auckland, Manawatu, Tauranga, to Wyndham...or wherever. The pair organised many train trips, too, to the races at Forbury Park.

At one stage, Andy Todd was on the committee at Forbury Park, was patron at Hororata and was a life member of the Canterbury O.T.B. Association and the Kaikoura Trotting Club.

The trotter Final Donn was the last horse he raced on his own, while he was a partner with his nephew Brian Taylor of Christchurch for some years after that in Rere Hine, another trotter.

Credit: Graham Ingram writing in NZ Trotting Calendar 24Aug82

BEN GRICE

Ben Grice, one of trotting's best-known personalities, died in a training accident on his property on New Year's Day. He was 96. Mr Grice fell from the sulky while jogging a young horse on the track at his Prebbleton property. It was the second horse the veteran owner/trainer/breeder had worked that morning.

With his son Des, Mr Grice ran the well-known Kingcraft Farm, current home of World Skipper, Lopez Hanover and Keystone Mutiny. The stud has produced a host of classic winners over the years. Mr Grice has been active in trotting for more than sixty years, first in Mid-Canterbury and then, for the last thirty, at Prebbleton.

The most notable of the hundreds of winners the Grices have produced was the top racemre Haughty, winner of the NZ Cup two years in a row in 1942 and '43, the second time from 36 yards behind. Among the younger brigade, horses like Buccaneer, Jonboy Star, Glamour and Royal Lopez won the NZ Sapling Stakes, while Petro Star and Ruling Lobell made their mark by beating the fillies in the NZ Oaks for Mr Grice.

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Report by Tony Williams writing in NZ Trotting Calendar 19Jan82

Last week, the NZ Trotting Calendar paid a brief tribute to the late Benjamin Thomas 'Grandad' Grice, whose death as a result of a training accident on New Year's Day brought to an end an era in NZ trotting.

But any lifetime spent in trotting as long as Ben's - he was 96 at the time of his death - can not be brushed over in a few paragraphs, particularly when the man in question has made a contribution to the industry which made him a legend in his own lifetime.

Possessed with a delightful sense of humour - particularly when it was sharpened with a few whiskies with his mates - Ben Grice had a host of stories to tell, especially about the early days. But a lot of those stories could never be repeated - they would turn a modern day administrator's hair white - and many of them died with Ben.

Raised in Ashburton, Ben's interest in trotting was stimulated by his father, and it was on his father's property at Willowby that Ben built his first set of loose boxes. Later, on his own property at Winslow, which was formerly part of the old Longbeach estate, Ben converted an old woolshed into boxes and a feed barn, and really set about making a name for himself.

An accomplished horseman who early in his career was not scared to invest a few bob on his horses, he quickly realised you could not train horses up to the stage where they were ready for a bet, then drive them yourself. So over the years some famous horsemen were to don the famous Grice colours, red with cream crossed sashes and cap. Men like Free Holmes, Albert Hendriksen, 'Drum' Withers, Ossie Hooper, Gladdy McKendry, Ron & Ces Donald, Maurice Holmes, Bob Young and, more lately, Jack Carmichael and Denis Nyhan. Ben always believed in employing the best available reinsmen, and that policy paid off as his stable sent forth a string of brilliant pacers.

One of the best of these was Kingcraft, by the little-known stallion Quincey from a fast racemare in Colene Pointer. Colene Pointer, a mare by Logan Pointer from Queen Cole, by King Cole out of the great Norice, was very unsound so Quincey, a locally-based stallion, was walked to the Grice property to serve her. The resulting foal, Kingcraft, was a top performer, and in his first season at three was unbeaten in two starts. The same season, his dam, Colene Pointer, had recovered sufficiently to resume her racing career and won four races, including the Timaru Cup.

Colene Pointer's dam, Queen Cole, was purchased by Ben from Mrs M Duncan of Coldstream Lodge, which stood on the present site of the Fendalton shopping centre in Christchurch. It was not until nearly 60 years later that Ben found out that his expensive mare nearly didn't make it to Ashburton. The late Dave Bennett was working for Mrs Duncan at the time and, along with a mate, was assigned the task of delivering Queen Cole to the shunting yards to be put on board the train to Ashburton. Unfortunately, the mare escaped in the shunting yards and Dave and his friend spent several anxious hours trying to catch the runaway mare. She was finally cornered, loaded aboard the train and delivered to Ben. But Dave Bennett kept the secret of that narrow escape for many years, and it wasn't until a couple of years before his own death that he confided what had happened to Ben.

Queen Cole, and a Prince Imperial mare of unknown history, were the two mares who paved the way for most of the Grice winners, many of them brilliant juveniles who measured up to the best in the two and three-year-old classics. Buccaneer, an outstanding 2-year-old who won three races at two and then went amiss, is rated probably the best of them by Ben's son Des, who, "Went to help dad for a year after the war and I'm still there."

The Grice stable transferred to Prebbleton in 1950 and, naturally enough, Ben Grice named the property Kingcraft Farm, in honour of his old champion. Kingcraft won a division of the 1929 NZ Cup but he was scratched from the final that year. He then finished unplaced in a division of the event in 1930, but in 1931 was beaten a length by Harold Logan in the final after finishing third in a heat on the first day.

A string of grand pacers, dual NZ Cup winner Haughty, her son Brahman who held the 2-year-old mile record for 25 years, Riviera, Petro Star, Tradition, Regal Voyage, Village Guy, Jonboy Star, Courtier, Smokey Lopez, Ruling Lobell, Don Lopez and Avalon (world yearling record holder with a 2:06.8 effort at Washdyke a few seasons back) are but a few of the more famous names associated with Ben Grice.

It was one of Ben Grice's deepest regrets that one of his horses never won the NZ Derby, a classic the veteran horseman dearly wanted to win. He lined up some brilliant pacers in the event, but bad luck always seemed to dog him. He did, however, win the NZ Oaks with Petro Star and Ruling Lobell, the NZ Sapling Stakes four times with Buccaneer, Jonboy Star, Glamour and Royal Lopez and numerous other classics and semi-classics. The Grice horses were always aimed at classic and semi-classic races and, right up until the time of his death, Ben was working with a handful of likely youngsters, one of whom could yet fulfil, even after his death, Ben Grice's greatest ambition - a victory in the NZ Derby.


Credit: NZ Trotting Calendar 12Jan82

SNOW GILLESPIE

Snow Gillespie has never regretted the day he spent his last £200 on a horse. "It was all I had at the time. I must admit I looked twice at it before I handed it over." But those £200, looking back, were the best he's ever spent. Not quite twenty years ago, it was. And the horse? A 4-year-old Stormyway mare called Countess Ada.

Since that time she's won few races herself, but more importantly, has left some top racehorses. The latest is the Transport Chip filly Gliding Princess, the top 2-year-old of her sex in the South Island and one of the brighter hopes in the Sires' Produce final. Gillespie, who now trains at Pleasant Point, bought her off the estate of a friend of his. At the time he was working as private trainer and studmaster to Wally Wilmott at Levels, the home at that time of Whipster.

"I liked her breeding. Her dam Ada Scott was a great mare," Gillespie recalled last week after Gliding Princess had trounced the other fillies in their Sires' Produce heat. "She set many track records." Ada Scott won a heat of the 1951 Inter-Dominions at Addington in a more than useful career. She was by U Scott out of Princess Ada, by Jack Potts. Princess Ada herself left some good performers - Tom Gundy, Black Storm, West Australian Pacing Cup winner Defiance, Rosario (dam of King Anjou and Johnny Thunder, both good winners), Ada Grattan and Princess Hanover, the dam of Young Darran.

Under the terms of his contract with Wilmott, Gillespie was allowed to have a couple of his own horses with him at Levels. Wilmott, incidentally, bought another daughter of Ada Scott at the same time, Kelso Lady, the dam of Hal's Lady who's left current 3-year-old Lil Abner, a winner early this season. But she didn't make her mark like Countess Ada did. Gillespie won three or four races with his mare who was four at the time. "She was a very fast mare, but she pulled like billyo. She'd do a mile and a half at home in 3:15 with you hanging on to her."

Her first foal was Spark Whip. He won a 2-year-old heat and showed a lot of promise. But he never made it to the races proper. "He got kicked on the stifle and it was so bad we had to put him down. We'd turned down good money for him too," Gillespie said. A friend, Charlie Turnbull then bred De Kaye (a winner when trained by George Shand) from the mare before Gillespie and his partner, Mrs Violet Shortland, got another filly. Bonnie Countess was her name. She never raced either, after being hurt as a foal. "She was never ever broken in," Gillespie recalled. "She put her hip down and the veterinarian told us to shoot her. We wouldn't do that." Bonnie Countess was later sold to Mrs Bonnie McGarry of Timaru. And what a gem she's proved. She's only had three horses to the races so far - champion mare Bonnie's Chance, her little sister Steve's Chance, also a recent winner, and the promising Federal Skipper, placed early this season at Addington.

Countess Ada's fourth foal was Gliding Light, a top race-horse for Gillespie as a youngster. He lined up four times at two and won three, and the next season, won another five races. But he, too, suffered at the hands of ill-fate. "He hurt himself as a 3-year-old and had to be put out for twelve months. That was the finish of him." Gliding Light is now at stud in Australia and he has left winners. "Richard (Brosnan) saw him when he was in Australia a while back and according to him, the horse still looks in good shape," Gillespie said. Gliding Light provided a younger Brosnan with some of his early wins...and he's driven for Gillespie ever since. "In my book, he's the best driver in the country," Gillespie contends. "He never knocks a horse about."

The trotter Count Arben came next. He was raced by Gillespie's son Ron and his wife with some success. He too was hurt and had to be put down. "He didn't want to give him away to anyone." The next two foals were both winners...and both were 2:00 performers. Gillespie raced Gliding Guy before selling him to Roy Purdon. Gliding Star was also sold to the northern horseman before eventually racing in America. Gillespie wasn't as lucky with his next filly from his fine mare. Gliding Queen, she was, and she too cut her legs badly in a fence. "I had her in work and I'm sure she would have been a top filly. "She was in her paddock and quite okay when I went down to Temuka for a beer one night...and by the time I came back, she'd got into trouble. She went to the horse as a 2-year-old." Her foal was Gliding Chase who, according to all accounts, is going along well for Murray Butt.

Current 3-year-old Gliding King was broken in at Pleasant Point before he too was sold to Purdon. And he's looking the goods as well, after qualifying impressively recently. And then, the current little star, Gliding Princess. "You know, she's the only filly I have been able to race without her getting hurt," Gillespie said. And even that's not her fault, for in the early days, she'd get up to all sorts of ahtics. "Like all fillies, she could be a bit temperamental. She'd slam her boots into you before you knew what was happening. She never actually smashed a cart but she's kicked dust sheets to pieces. And she never wanted to pace. She would do everything she could to get out of it. She would fight you to the last. She must have a heart like a lion. There's a bit of fire in the breed. But you need that. She gave me a real run for my money."

If nothing else, Gillespie is sure Gliding Princess is a two minute filly. "She's all heart. What a wonderful motor she's got." She still keeps Gillespie on his toes. "I have to work her in the cart seven days a week. I've only got to give her Sunday off and I'm in trouble on Monday." Gillespie has to work the filly on her own. "She doesn't want the others with her." Which perhaps is why she is still a little green. "She's just starting to learn what racing is all about. She's improving all the time," her trainer reckons. He's been made some good offers to sell Gliding Princess, but Gillespie won't be tempted. "I turned down $50,000 for her the other day. But she's not for sale at any price. We sold the others to help pay the mortgage on this place (Gillespie has a forty acre property at Pleasant Point) so we decided we might as well have some fun ourselves with this one. "There's some good money to be won with 3-year-old fillies. She could easily pick up $50,000 if she stayed sound next season. "And then, of course, she'll be the next Gillespie broodmare."

Gillespie grows all his own feed on the property and "getting close to sixty," recently gave up a job with an aviation company based at Levels. He's been training for a good number of years, buying his first mare when he was a shearer and selling her progeny for £200 a time. "I'd always loved horses," he said last week. "I worked for a long time as a teamster, starting off at about ten shillings a week. "I used to enjoy that work." He picked up the horse training business by helping out local horsemen as he went along. "I picked it up pretty quickly. It didn't take too long to grasp it," he said.

Gillespie likes to drive now and then at trials but he's not fussed about the actual raceday business. "I drive if I have to, but I like to leave that to Richard. He is the best man for the job." He's adamant on that score. He's just as determined that he won't sell Gliding Princess. "I want to keep her and Gliding Queen as broodmares." He's got two more fillies from Countess Ada at home, Gliding Dawn, who's rising two, by Good Chase, and Gliding Countess, not yet one, by the same sire. "Gliding Dawn's extra good. She'll do 3:45 for a mile and a half without much trouble. They should both make good broodmares too. They must, with two strains of U Scott, Jack Potts, Light Brigade and Volomite in their blood."

Countess Ada is in foal to Keystone Provider and she'll return to Transport Chip in the future. Gliding Pricess saw to that by winning a free service to him when winning in Southland. "He's making a big impression that one. He seems to be the horse to go to if you want a top filly."

Meanwhile Gliding Princess is getting the run of the Gillespie place, running and bucking in her paddock as though she owns it. "She comes home after her races still full of fire. She thrives on it now." And she eats to match. Apparently she's a great doer. "I feed her heavy," Gillespie said last week. "I have to. She eats like a poor relation."

Credit: Graham Ingram writing in NZ Trotting Calendar 11May82

DEREK DYNES

It was a lucky day for Derek Dynes that time back in 1958 when he ran across Southland owner and breeder Andy Wilson in the street in Wyndham. "You know, I wouldn't mind selling that mare of mine," Wilson happened to mention. He'd had some success with the mare's earlier foals and he had sold them previously. She had a filly foal at the time and was in foal to Hal Tryax.

Derek Dynes had just bought his first farm in the area so naturally there wasn't all that much spare money around. Especially for another horse. But he didn't hesitate on hearing Wilson's plans. "I'll have her," he said. A few days later the price was agreed and Derek Dynes had paid over his cheque for £800. With that, he owned the mare, and Andy and Mrs Wilson kept the filly. It was a move which did all parties a lot of good.

The mare was Tactics. The filly was Deft. The foal she dropped in the spring was Tactile. By Light Brigade from Nell Grattan from that breeding gem First Water, by Harold Rothschild, Tactics had left Adroit, who had won the Golden Slipper Stakes by that time, Guile, who also went on to be another good winner in Australia, and a filly, Astute.

Derek then sold a half share in the mare to his cousin Jim. The two raced a number of horses in partnership after Derek got a licence to train about 1956. Among them, Derek recalled last week, were such horses as Forest Hill and Glenoware, both by Bill B, and both winners of three races, and Agean who won "five or six". There were many others eventually, but none were as important as that 12-year-old mare Dynes bought off Andy Wilson. She and her daughters have left a string of winners as long as your arm and, assuredly, there will be many more from the line. The latest to bring the name into the winner's circle has been the fine 3-year-old filly Tact Boyden, Derek's representative in the DB Flying Fillies' final at Addington in a few days time after winning two of the four South Island heats.

Derek, farming then at Wyndham, but now just out of Ashburton, trained Deft for the Wilsons. She didn't show too much early, winning only a maiden race at Invercargill as a 3-year-old. "She was spelled when she didn't kick up, but she won three or four the following year," Dynes recalled. She raced eventually against the best in the country, finishing second in Jacobite's Easter Cup at her second to last start. Then, in her last race, she beat Jay Ar and the brilliant mare Robin Dundee at Wellington. "She led all the way. The other two were off marks though."

Deft then went on to make her mark as a broodmare. She left Fool Proof, Eligo and Canny, all winners, before dropping Noodlum. There is no need to dwell on his exploits. Sufficient to say he was a champion racehorse in his own right (and if he had stayed sound he could have been even greater) and the list of winners he has sired since grows longer every day. Deft left two other winners, the speedy Olga Korbut and the Lordship horse Understudy, before her death several years ago.

But back to Tactics. Her next foal was Tactile, a colt who looked good right from the start. Derek trained him for himself and his cousin. "He was a great-mannered colt. He didn't have the speed of this filly (Tact Boyden). He had a paddly way of going but, goodness, he was a tough horse. He could do a quarter in 30...but not just one. He could run them one after another." According to Dynes, Tactile didn't 'kick' before the end of October. But when he lined up for his first race he was ready.

Driven by Kenny Balloch, he won the Golden Slipper in December by two and a half lengths, the Rangiora Raceway Stakes, when driven by Doody Townley, by four, the Geraldine Invitation, the Nursery Stakes, the Kindergarten Stakes and the Welcome Stakes all in a row. He finished second then in the Oamaru Juvenile Stakes before being just beaten by outsider First Battle in the Sapling after almost falling. He started the 3-year-old season with a second and a third before winning the NZ Derby, the Champion Stakes and, by seven and a half lengths, the Great Northern Derby. "He won the Derby in a bit over 3:10. The fillies beat that now," Dynes observed. "But he just plugged away in the trail behind Vanderford and, when the others were stopping, he just kept going."

That was the last NZ fans saw of him that season. Soon after Auckland he was shipped out of Bluff to take on the best of his age in Australia. Jim Bond was looking after him on that trip. He won the South Australian Derby - "Minuteman had it won until he broke at the top of the straight" - the New South Wales Derby after Doody Townley managed to get him around a skirmish, and then the Victorian Derby.

As a 4-year-old he ran second to the mighty Cardigan Bay in the Auckland Cup before heading across the Tasman once more for the Inter-Dominion series in Melbourne. Driven by Robert Cameron himself a near neighbour now of Dynes on the Ashburton-Methven road, Tactile won a heat and then finished third behind Minuteman, who led all the way, and the fine mare Angelique. "He was a top horse that Minuteman. He went all the way at a great rate." Derek was not in Melbourne at the time, Cousin Jim was. A friend, Bob Norman, with whom he had stayed in Adelaide, persuaded him to take Tactile back to South Australia for a couple of races. They went, but the horse broke a pedal bone and was out for the rest of the season.

The following year he won a heat of the Inter-Dominion at the Forbury Park Inter-Dominions and again, at six, a heat in the Sydney series. Tactile went to America soon after and took his lifetime earnings close to the $200,000 mark. He won a lot of races and ran second to Bret Hanover the time that champion took his world mark. The Dynes sold Tactile to the States on condition that he would return to NZ at the end of his racing career. But, before coming home, he stood at Martin Tananbaum's White Devon stables for several seasons. "He left a swag of winners in America, but many of them were minor winners who couldn't get a race here."

Back home, he left some good horses - he has six 2:00 performers, among them good juveniles Ryal Pont and Wickliffe - but, in Derek's own words, some were not much good. An old horse now, Tactile is still alive and spending his days at Jim Dynes' son Ross' place at Ryal Bush. "He was a very fertile horse but he went off overnight. We don't know why. Perhaps it was hereditary. His old sire did the same."

The Dynes put Tactics first to Garrison Hanover and then again to Hal Tryax. Tactus was the Garrison Hanover colt. He won five races and has since made a successful sire in New South Wales. Tacwyn was the sister to Tactile. But did she turn out to be a champion? Far from it. "She was a dirty thing. She would kick the shafts to pieces. We found out later she had a cystic ovary, so I suppose she had an excuse," Derek said last week. She was put to stud as a young horse and produced Exmoot to Hi Lo's Forbes. That first foal has left several winners, Elderberry being the most recent. Put then to Hundred Proof, she left US winner Tactual and then Tacten, the dam of the current stable star.

Tacten, too, gave Derek Dynes more than his share of troubles. "She was a headstrong thing. She was absolutely hopeless from a stand. But she did win one race as a 3-year-old...by twenty lengths or so at Winton." She never did more on the track. But she's continued the family tradition at stud. Back to that soon.

Tactics meanwhile, went back to Garrison Hanover to produce Tactena, Greek March to Caduceus, Tactess to Flying Song, Five Score and Master Proof to Hundred Proof and then Tacmae by Yankee Express. Tactena, Greek March, Master Proof and Tacmae were winners themselves, Tactena, Tactess and Five Score producing their share of winners. Tactena, who won three races, left Tactless, Tact Lady (dam of a 1:58.2 winner in Tact Henery), Tact Command (1:59.6US) and another American winner in Scottish Tact. Tactess left Tactful, a winner now being bred from, Ryal Ann and Ryal Tar, both winners.

It was when the Dynes' partnership dissolved 'about ten or twelve' years ago that the cousins split the mares between them. One of the ones Jim got was Tactwyn and she produced two more winners for him, Ryal Mood and Ryal Lady. Derek got Tacten and Five Score. They have produced winner after winner. To Tacten first. Tact Del was her 1973 foal. She ran second to Ruling Lobell in the Leonard Memorial and is now at stud herself. Tact Knight, her next filly, won two races here and then went to West Australia where she won seven or eight. Tact Hanover was sold as a youngster and later died. At that stage, Derek, by now established at Ashburton, decided to send the mare to Australia to be mated with Overtrick. Very smart filly Tact Over was the result. Back home in NZ, she won a couple of races before she, too, went to stud last season. "She had plenty of ability, but she used to be a hard drive. She pulled like anything," Dynes said. "Robert used to think she was extra good, but I think he thinks Tact Boyden's better now. But then, she's always been a nice horse." Tact Over has a foal by Valerian and is in foal to Lordship. Tact Boyden is Tacten's first foal since coming back from Australia.

And if Derek is delighted with the way things have worked out with that mare, and there's no doubt that he is, then the exploits of Five Score have given equal satisfaction. Fourth herself in Rossini's Golden Slipper, her first foal was Yankee Score who won the Leonard Memorial in 1973 for Dynes. Later she left the winner One Score, herself now at stud. Then came Bachelor Score who, while she didn't race, is already proving a useful broodmare. Her first foal was Ryal Scott, bred by Ross Dynes, and he won in America.Then came Nibble Score, also a winner before going amiss. Bachelor Score's current 2-year-old is Patron Score, a promising young horse who damaged a tendon. "He looks extremely smart but once he was injured we decided to put him out for at least six months. It wasn't that bad, but that time off will be an 'insurance'.

High Score, a colt by Tarport Coulter, was Five Score's third foal. "Hell, I put the time into him, the useless brute. He took ages to catch on. By the time he was five he had been everywhere, to a lot of trainers in Australia. And the next thing, here he is running 1:57 and a bit at the Meadowlands." Timely Score was Five Score's next racehorse. He won three here as a 2-year-old, including the NZ Sires' Produce Stakes final by four and a half lengths from Hanover Don, Beaufort, Lord Module, Montini Bromac, Roydon Scott and company. "Soon after that, he popped a tendon so we gave him 12 months off," Dynes recalled. The horse then went, like many of the breed, across to Roy Annear in West Australia who swam him and got him going again to be one of the best horses in the state. He's won dozens of races and his earnings are getting up towards the $100,000 mark.

Scottish Score, by Scottish Command, didn't race but was put to HT Luca, a stallion Dynes himself imported to NZ, two seasons in a row. Her second foal was Two Score who ran second to brilliant filly Time's Up at Addington in his first start. He is now in America. Sent to Australia several seasons ago, Scottish Score has an Overtrick filly at foot and is in foal to Adios Vic. Meanwhile, the last of Five Score's progeny to get to the races, Nevele Score, by another Dynes import Nevele Bigshot, is also racing in Australia where, as well as a number of wins, she ran third in last year's West Australian Oaks. This year, Nevele Score is proving a sensation on the track. Just recently she broke Paleface Adios' Australian record for a mobile 2500 metres, rating 2:01.8, in her seventh or eighth win in row. Right now, Five Score has a rising 2-year-old by Nat Lobell and a colt by Boyden Hanover. Whichever way you look at it, those two mares and their progeny have given Derek Dynes a huge amount of success.

Now 51, he farms his border-dyked 200 acres at Ashburton and, assisted by his daughter Elaine, works his horses as well. He moved to Ashburton because "it's handier to the races - and the stallions." He has got a fine half-mile track which can be used winter and summer, is in the process of increasing his boxes to twenty and is just finishing a new wash and gear complex. His racehorses, and those mares and weanlings, which aren't either in Southland or Australia have all the green grass they want in his irrigated paddocks.

Derek Dynes enjoys both aspects of his life, the farming and the horses. "It's good when one can give the other a boost," he said last week. These past few weeks, there has been a lot of effort going into getting Tact Boyden right for Friday night's assignment. It is her toughest yet. After that, Dynes has nothing mapped out. "I might even send her across to Australia to be mated with Adios Vic," he said. "He was a top racehorse and he's left a lot of winners." It's a pattern Dynes has followed with some success before. He won't be keen to change a winning formula.



Credit: Graham Ingram writing in NZ Trotting Calendar 4May82

PETER COCKS

Perseverance is virtually a necessity if you wish to race horses. Peter Cocks needs little reminding of that. He's given up, given away and even shot more horses than he cares to remember. However, patience is a virtue that has been very rewarding over the past 12 months, and the future's looking even better.

Peter got off to a good start as an owner, his first horse Lady Estes winning a couple of races as a three-year-old about five years ago. However, a number of horses and years went by before success came his way again. But now it's something he is quite used to. In the past two seasons she's had five winners who've won 14 races and almost $34,000 in stakes.

The first of them was Timely Frost, who two seasons ago won four races and has been a regular placegetter since. This season he also won a race with Julie Harper before selling her to America. Last season Timely Frost's younger sister Nightania won another three, while the promising trotter Aggressive notched up four wins, including a deadheat, in a brief stint for Cocks. Timely Frost and Nightania have already been back in the money this season, while the latest winner, four-year-old trotter Ranger Globe, has shown considerable promise in winning two of his first four starts.

Apart from Timely Frost, Nightania, Ranger Globe and Aggressive, who all look in for a good season, Cocks has two other promising youngsters in Lumber Leon and Lady Jay to follow with anticipation as well. Lumber Leon, a two-year-old colt by Lumber Dream, is held in particularly high regard by part-owner and trainer Colin De Filippi and was a most impressive winner of a juvenile parade at Addington trials last week, while Lady Jay, a trhee-year-old filly by Some Evander from Lady Estes, was placed as a juvenile trotter at Addington last season.

Peter has always been interested in horses, but waited until he was well and truly on his feet before he began breeding his own. His father Doug was a close friend of Bob Mayne, the owner of Young Charles. Peter started out as a plumber and has for the last 20 years owned a hot water cylinder fitting firm. Vice-President and treasurer of the Canterbury OTB Association, he was caught in his regular role as timekeeper at the Addington trials last week.

He breeds from five or six mares a year, including the fine racemare Gay Tennessee, whom he bought from her breeder, the late Fred Smith, for a substantial sum. Gay Tennessee raced briefly but successfully in Australia before returning to New Zealand with a colt at foot by champion American pacer Adios Vic. Called Tennessee Waltz, a favourite tune of Smith's, he injured himself on a fence early on but has had a run at Sunday workouts this season. The three-year-old is still particularly green and Cocks doesn't expect him to really come into his own for another 12 months yet. "The breed has always been slow maturing," Peter said last week.

Gay Tennessee won eight races in New Zealand, including the mobile mile S J Moore Stakes at Addington, beating New Zealand Cup winner Trusty Scot in 1:59.8. By Fallacy from a good racemare in Gay Alabama, Gay Tennessee also has a yearling colt by Waratah. Peter said he took a fair amount of criticism for sending the mare to Waratah, but it was a gamble he's glad he made. "I always had a lot of time for Miss Pert, who was bred on the same cross, and the colt's a particularly nice one." Gay Tenessee is due to foal to El Patron, while she's got an engagement with Smooth Fella next year.

Peter is also breeding from Proudly, who has plenty to recommend her as well. The winner of six races, she had already produced winners in Majestic Pride (2.06.2), Proudlight, Mindoolah, Proud Hanover and Palface Princess before Cocks put her to Bye Bye Song to get Ranger Globe. By Johnny Globe, Proudly is one of five foals left by a top racemare in Gough's Pride, who was by New Zealand Cup winner Red Shadow from the Jack Potts mare Homelover.

Gough's Pride won eight races as a four and five-year-old, and then had eight starts as a six-year-old for six wins and two thirds. In the last of those wins she beat Chamfer in the £2750 Easter Handicap, fore-runner to the Easter Cup. Gough's Pride failed to produce the same form the following season and was soon bred from, but left nothing approaching her own class. Peter was rather surprised when Ranger Globe trotted, but hasn't really minded. "It's much easier to get starts for them," he said. Ranger Globe revealed considerable potential in beating promising four-year-olds Game Greg, Spangled Pride and Black Soil at Addington last month.

Aggressive is another trotter who has shown a lot of promise, but he too should have paced, being by Noodlum from a top pacing family. His dam Local Rani, is a half-sister to Canis Minor (1:57.4) and Sakuntala, dam of Abbe Princess, Brad Adios and Tuapeka Star. High hopes are also held for the five-year-oldwho has just returned from a spell.

Recently acquired is the trotting bred mare Single Event, who is in foal to Game Pride. By Tuft from the Court Martial mare Fair Court, Single Event is a sister to the Banks Peninsula Trotting Cup winner Tough Girl winner and is closely related to top trotters Fair Play, Merrin and Topeka. Cocks is also breeding from Lady Estes, whose first foal is Lady Jay, and Lady Leon, whose second foal is Lumber Leon. They are also from noteworthy families.

With such well bred mares, Peter Cocks has obviously always been on the right road to success and can look forward to another profitable season.

Credit: Frank Marrion 5 Oct 1982

KEVIN HOLMES

Cambridge trainer Kevin Holmes died at Waikato Hospital on Monday, October 12. Holmes had been there for treatment to severe facial gunshot wounds and it was felt by members of his family he had made tremendous progress, so naturally his death came as a great shock.

Holmes, 38, was a son of Yaldhurst trainer Allan Holmes, a nephew of 'The Maestro' Maurice Holmes and a grandson of the legendary 'Old' Free Holmes. Kevin, then aged 18, emulated his grand-father when he drove his first winner at Ashburton. In getting Implore home first in a division of the Tinwald Handicap on June 3, 1961, Kevin turned back the clock to 1884 when Free Holmes rode his first winner, a galloper named Our John, when just 13.

Kevin won a trot with Ahumai, later the same day as Implore while other winners in those early days were scored behind Hancove, Dame Margot and Gildirect. The latter gave him his first winning drive at Addington (April 14, 1962), winning the Williams Handicap and beating his uncle Maurice (Master Alan) and his boss Ces Donald (Dandy Briar)

While working for Donald, Kevin continued to rack up the winners. He took the Nelson Caltex Gold Cup in 1962 with Congo Boy, then began his association with the Jim Wilson-trained trotter Flaming Way. Behind this talented son of Stormyway, Kevin won the 1963 Canterbury Park Trotters Cup and a notable double at the 1964 New Zealand Cup meeting when he scored in the Worthy Queen and Dominion Handicaps.

In April, 1965, Holmes appeared as the trainer-driver of Rannack Song, who won at Addington. He next cropped up training and driving a two-year-old filly named Brilliant Rose at Alexandra Park in May the same year. Later he drove Captain Hal and Persistent for R J Kemble. In the 1970's Kevin trained in partnership at Cambridge with Colin Butler and, at the time of his death, was training with his brother Colin Holmes.

The pinnacle of his career came in 1978 when he won the World Drivers Championship contested in North America against high class opposition. The following year he defended his title in New Zealand and Australia, finishing second.

Apart from those already mentioned, Holmes was associated with some top horses during his career. Two of the best were speedy mare Ripper's Delight and the outstanding juvenile Testing Times. Ripper's Delight beat some classy colts in the 1975 Great Northern Derby and later added the North Island Oaks. She eventually reached New Zealand Cup class, providing Kevin with his only drive in that race when unplaced in 1976.

Testing Times was the top two-year-old of the 1976-77 season, posting a national juvenile race record of 2:01.6 and winning 14 races in New Zealand and Australia (unbeaten in four starts). Taken to America in July of 1977 for the $280,000 Woodrow Wilson Pace at The Meadowlands, Testing Times ran second for Holmes in a $20,000 heat to No No Yankee, clocking 1:58.4, but finishing 11th in the final to the same horse.

Tonton Macoute, the 1973 New Zealand Messenger winner, was another fine winner for Holmes. In the provincial Cups in the North Island Holmes fashioned a fine record, winning three Hawera Cups - Scottish Crusader (1972), General Gyrone (1973) and Waiata Nui (1975) - two Rotorua Cups - Marshall Hanover (1975) and Vanavara (1976) - a Taranaki Cup with Hanover Scottish (1979) and the Masterton Cup with Chet Hanover (1979). As well he won the McMillan Trotters Mile at Cambridge twice - Uteena (1970) and Flagon Wagon (1975) - and picked up the 1973 Cardigan Bay Stakes at Hutt Park with Lordy Boy.

Holmes, who also drove winners in America, Europe, Australia and Macau, won approximately 500 races in New Zealand and trained about 300.

Credit: 1982 DB Trotting Annual

NOEL BERKETT

If Noel Berkett stopped training and driving tomorrow, his name at least would be around for some time to come. For one thing, the Richmond trainer's son, also Noel Leo, is training a small team at Yaldhurst. Working on some promising material, too, according to his father. And for another, there's a youngster being educated in Richmond who, if he's as good as his older sister, should win a few races. The yearling belongs to Noel Berkett's wife Dawn. And his name? "Berkett" "She couldn't think of a name for him so she applied for that one...and got it," the trainer said last week.

Berkett, the horse, is a son of Scotch Abbe and Tui Winter and therefore a brother to Bonnie Lass, winner of three races so far and lots of times placed. Berkett, the trainer and driver, was in the news again the other day when he trained and drove Game Pride filly Chesapeake to take the top plum for 3-year-old trotters, the NZ Trotting Stakes at Addington. It's a race in which the Berkett family has had as much success as anybody over the years.

Noel's father Leo drove later Inter-Dominion trotting final winner Aerial Scott to take first prize in 1945 and, two years later, won with his own horse Temple Star. Brother Colin won the race with King's Brigade in 1949 and then again with Battle Cry in 1953. Chesapeake wasn't Noel's first taste of victory in the event. Back in 1963 he drove Bill Doyle's Asia Minor to win the race. A few years ago, eight it was, he had Chesapeake's dam Susquehanna in the Stakes but could finish only fourth that time. One of the horses Noel junior is training at Yaldhurst is a 2-year-old by Some Evander out of Susquehanna. "Noel was hoping she'd start in the 2-year-old trots but the filly, Graceland, went slightly sore. It'll just be a matter of time, but it is disappointing when that happens," the young trainer's father said last week. "Just so long as she's right for the next Trotting Stakes," he said.

Noel junior uses his grandfather's colours of navy and sky blue, the colours of the Nelson rugby team. Which is appropriate. The Berketts have had a long association with that area. The family farmed at Hope, about three miles down the road from Noel senior's present property. "Dad always had about ten or a dozen in work in conjunction with the farming," Noel said last week. "I've been interested in horses ever since I knew what a horse was." Two other brothers, Ivan and Earle, were more interested in farming than the horses on the place. Those same racehorses, though, also had their use around the farm. "One team would pull the plough or harrows or drill for half a day; then there would be a new team in the afternoon. Dad grew all his own feed and was the biggest pea grower and lamb producer in the district. The racehorses used to do all the work. It would do a lot of horses good today," is Noel's opinion. Training was completed with three fast workouts a week.

It was Noel's father who gave Noel his first horse. He turned out to be a good sort too. "Dad bought out a chap in Westport, horses and all his gear. The one he gave me was Bulldozer who won quite a few races for me and then did well for Vic Alborn who had him later. Noel worked for his father until he married Dawn and moved down to Canterbury to start training for himself, first at Weedons and then later at Yaldhurst on a property previously used by Roy Berry and later Morrie Holmes. Dawn came from a family which raced gallopers, her father winning both the Nelson and Marlborough Cups. She is still intensely interested in horses, driving work whenever she can.

They moved south 35 years ago. Noel remembers well his first winner. "I will never forget her," he said last week. "She was Anne Scott. She won the first start I gave her and paid £167 at Addington." About 'six or seven' when Noel got her, the mare had won several races when previously trained in the North Island. "She started from 36 behind that day in a field of 20 or more. Dad's horse Snowflake went out favourite in the same race." That big dividend pales into insignificance when compared with the price Leo Berkett got with the first horse he ever trained. Back in March, 1920 Wairoa Belle won at Nelson and paid £1033/5/- to win. That is still a record.

Since that first win, Noel Berkett has been associated with a lot of horses. Highland Fling was probably the best of them. Noel didn't train the champion, but drove him down at Forbury Park and won three times. "I just wish I had one like him now," he said last week. "He was a bit slow off the mark. If they'd had mobile starts for him, he would have been almost unbeatable." Then there was Real Light, "the gamest horse I've seen. He won ten or eleven races in a year including a Dunedin Cup and at Auckland. I had problems with him for a start, but after that he was a great horse to train." There were a few problems, too, getting Mobile Globe to go away, but once they were sorted out, he went on to win the NZ Cup in 1952. "He wasn't a brilliant horse but on his day he was pretty good. He beat a good field that day, the likes of Johnny Globe, Young Charles, Soangetaha, Tactician, Burns Night, Van Dieman..."I love driving, especially if the material in front of you's right. That win would be my biggest thrill in trotting."

Prince Polka won the Auckland Cup for Noel back in 1955 while Denbry was another top performer. Berkett took Scottish Light through to Cup class too. Back in 1962 he made his mark by beating Lordship and Falsehood in the Louisson at Addington and followed this up by winning the big sprint of the day, the Lightning Handicap, four races later. More recently, there have been horses like Doctor Voss, a big winner in America and the speedy but unsound No Truant keeping Berkett's name to the fore.

Berkett moved back to his home territory eleven or twelve years ago. The climate in Christchurch got to him. "I got sick of it. I decided I could train just as well in Nelson and enjoy a decent climate at the same time." At the moment he has only a few racing but about eight in work, mainly youngsters. As well, the Berketts are breeding from Susquehanna, of course, Husleen, a good racemare by Court Martial, and Tui Winter. Noel has high hopes next season for a 2-year-old by Game Pride out of Husleen, Ol Fella he's called. "He's a fine little pacer. He has been placed at the trials and I think he'll be right next year." Then too, there's Berkett.

Chesapeake, Red Peter and the speedy filly Lady Eastburn comprise the current racing team. Chesapeake, who qualified as a 2-year-old in 3.24 at Blenheim, has done everything right all through. "She's given me no problems at all." A 3-year-old filly by Timely Knight, Lady Eastburn has won three races out of six this term, the last two on end. She'll probably line up in the DB fillies' race at Timaru on Friday. In the meantime, Berkett is still thinking what he will do next with Chesapeake, who is raced by his daughter, Mrs Petina Gaugler. "The filly's having a few days off," he said last week, "even though she is still very fresh after her run. I'll just have to think about it." And he's still thinking about his win the other night. "It's always good to win, but to get one like that..."

-o0o-

Article in NZ HRWeekly 21Apr04

Harness racing lost one of its true ambassadors when Noel Berkett passed away on April 9 after a long illness. He was 82.

Berkett belonged to a family that left an indelible mark on the industry, because they won a remarkable four New Zealand Cups in the space of six years in the late 1940s and early 1950s. A son of Leo and brother of Earl, Colin and Doris, Noel was the last surviving member at the time of his passing.

Leo trained the legendary pacer Highland Fling, and drove the son of U Scott in the second of his back-to-back NZ Cup victories in 1947 & 1948. Colin partnered him in the first of those, and followed with another victory behind Loyal Nurse in 1949.

Noel was not to be left out either though, and his crowning moment of glory came in 1952 when he trained and drove Mobile Globe to power over a rain-soaked Addington surface and win the NZ Cup by four lengths. Noel also won the Auckland Cup with Prince Polka on the grass in 1955. His other notable achievements in the sport were being the leading driver of trotting winners in the 1953/4 season, with nine victories; winning the NZ Trotting Stakes in 1963 with Asia Minor, and then again in 1982 with Chesapeake, a fine Game Pride mare bred by him and his daughter Petina who ended up winning six races. Noel also broke-in and qualified the fine trotter Eastburn Grant as a 2-year-old.

Son-in-law Murray Pash says Berkett was a very family-orientated man, and he loved his grandchildren and great grandchildren. Berkett is survived by son Noel Jnr, daughters Cheryl Pash and Petina Gaugler, seven grandchildren and five great grandchildren.

Credit: Graham Ingram writing in NZ Trotting Calendar 14Apr82

Ernie Trist at one of his machines

TRIST & SMALL

Even before the turn of the century, E Trist & Co., the well known 'saddlers etc' were begging to announce that they had the 'Largest Stock of Trotting, Racing and Polo Boots to select from in the Colony and every description of Trotting Boots are manufactured on the premises...' And now, eighty years afterwards, those at Trist & Small reckon they're the only saddlers in the country dealing in and manufacturing only trotting goods.

"Some of the boots, of course, can be used by other horses, but they're the exception - and then only by coincidence," one of the present principals in the company, Laurie Trist, explains. The other partner is Chris Owen, with Trist & Small since leaving school more than eleven years ago. There is not a Small in the place. There was once. But that was a long time ago, even before Laurie's dad Ernie can remember. And he's been taking notice of what went on in the firm since he was a youngster old enough to be taken into town by his mother and later to work there after school.

Ernie's grandfather, John Trist, started it all off. More than 100 years ago, 109 would be closer to the mark. "He was a tent and sailmaker by trade. I never knew him, never spoke to him...only ever say photos of him," the current senior Trist said when the Calendar visited the saddlery last week. That John Trist's business was eventually taken over by Ernie Trist's father John ('known as Bill') and uncle Ernest. Again they were into tents and sails as well as holding the 'largest stock of Trotting...' and so on. "They must have made good equipment. Only a year ago we had some harness in here to repair and it still had the 'E Trist' label on it. It must have been made last century.

Ernie Trist doesn't know when it was exactly that his father left the original family business and set up with a certain George Small. "It must have been round the turn of the century because they took a Gold Medal award at the 1906 NZ Exhibition," he explained. There's a faded, yet still impressive, framed certificate on the workshop wall to prove it. And an invoice sent out to a client in 1905 for work done on various pieces of leatherware. Working almost solely with leather has been the hallmark of the Trist & Small business almost from the beginning. Ernie Trist began a 5-year apprenticeship making racing and trotting equipment from leather in 1928. "And everything was done almost exactly the same way then as it is now. One of the few differences is that all the leather then was hand-stitched; today machines play a bigger part."

The firm had a name change for a couple years before Ernie Trist started work. For a while it as known as Trist, Smith and Jarden. Smith and Jarden were well-known names in trotting circles in those days. Robert Smith was an American who had a great influence on trotting here, being the man responsible for the importation of sires like Jack Potts to NZ. Jarden was a well-known trotting writer of the time as well as a handicapper and judge. But the partnership did not last all that long. Trist bought the others out after a couple of years and shanged the the name back to Trist & Small.

From the time the business was established until just after the war, it was located next door to Tattersalls Horse Bazaar, in Cashel Street in the heart of Christchurch. Regular sales took place there every Friday as well as the more spectacular events like the annual yearling sales. The bazaar was run by the Matson family, a name which has very strong links with the industry in NZ. Allan Matson was one of its leaders in the 1950s, president when the NZ Trotting Association and Conference combined. Trist & Small's had Tattersall's Hotel, itself gone now, on the other side. "We used to reckon all we had to do was knock a hole in the wall whenever we wanted a beer," Ernie Trist recalled with a smile. He also has a wealth of tales about the fun and games which often took place on sale day, the day when dozens of horses and gigs would be lined up after bringing prospective buyers and interested onlookers to the auction.

Horses weren't the only animals to be put under the hammer at the bazaar. Occasionally bulls took everyone's attention. "The bull sale at show time seemed to be of interest to the whole town. Crowds thronged to it." Perhaps it was excitement the people wanted , the minor chaos created when occasionally a recalcitrant bull would put his hoof down and refuse to go into the ring. Ernie Trist remembers one particularly wild specimen actually getting away from the bazaar and careering through the streets of downtown Christchurch before being caught. But all this was in pre-World War II days.

During the war Ernie Trist seved in the Pacific before coming home and being pressed into service under the 'manpower' regulations. Essential industries got the manpower they needed to meet wartime requirements, industries like mining and butter and cheese. Ernie Trist, leather worker, put in for the latter only to be told by the Labour Department that there were no vacancies there and he'd have to go into the coal mines. "There was no way I was going down into the mines and I told them so; I eventually ended up in building industry working for my brother until the restrictions were lifted."

Still, he used to work at the old firm on Saturday morning keeping his hand in. His father had operated the business throughout the war. And even then he was hard pressed at times to keep up with the orders. "I remember getting one letter while I was overseas which said he had 21 sets of hopples on order and six set of harness. The difficulty in those days was getting materials, especially English leather. We have always imported a certain percentage of leather from England, especially for overchecks, reins and tie downs. Trade and Industries have tried to convince us we don't need to but we have proved to them otherwise. When it comes to races, you have got to do everything you can to alleviate breakages which could have disastrous consequences."

When Ernie Trist started with the firm again it had orders for thirty sets of harness and a hundred sets of hopples. There was a waiting list of a year sometimes. Even now clients sometimes have to wait. It takes one man at least 45 hours to make a set of leather harness. "And even then you can never get a whole day devoted completely to the one job," Laurie Trist, 26, explains. It took one man the same amount of time years ago. The harness man worked on the 'black bench'. Chris Owens worked on that exclusively for three of four years when he first joined Trist & Small. He remembers it well. Remembers getting his hands pretty dirty. Ernie Trist, too, remembers what it was like in the early days. "We were the popular jokers in the dance hall. Funny how that stuff is hell of a hard to wipe off your hands and yet it got so easily onto the girls dresses.

The gear's the same now as it was fifty or sixty years ago. There haven't been many radical changes. Only hopple shorteners. And the price, of course. Ernie Trist recalled easily the times when a set of best leather race harness could be bought for £13/10/- or a couple of pounds cheaper for a lesser set. Hopples wer five quineas or £4/15/-, depending on the quality. That was round about the end of the war. Today leather race harness costs close enough to $700, hopples $250. "You could get a good class stock saddle for £13/10/-, a reasonable one for £8/7/6. Now they're hundreds of dollars, too." Trist & Small these days don't make or sell saddles but they did in the old days. And this highlights, perhaps, one way the trade has changed over the years.

Now, any one of the three men at Trist & Small can make a set of harness - or all three can work on the one set to get a rush order through. Back then, the saddler made all the straps and things. No saddles though. The saddlehand made those. The collar makers made the collars. It seems there must have been a bit of a class system in operation then. "The collar makers had the toughest time. He would freeze in winter, have sweat poring off him in summer. His was really hard yakka. I think there is only one alive in the country today, but I don't think he's working," Ernie said. "We on the racing side of things were regarded as 'refined' gentlemen of the trade."

Plastics have revolutionised the industrybut the Trists are convinced that nothing will ever replacereal leather for it's wearing qualities, among other things. Ernie Trist brings up about that recent repair job on harness that must have been well over eighty years old and still going strong. "Plastic is cheaper and it's easier to keep clean. But leather is the best." And while leather might be the best, the three tradesmen working away at their benches agree, too, that the quality of tools they have to work with has deteriorated over the years. Laurie Trist thinks he knows why. "In those old times, makers knew exactly what the tools were going to be used for. Saddlers were big business then. Now there's a small demand for specialist equipment so sometimes it is not as good."

The business is no longer near what used to be Tattersalls Bazaar. That was sold after the war and Trist & Small moved around the corner into Mancester Street and widened its scope to deal also in fancy leather goods, suitcases and the likes. Ernie's father retired from the business in 1956. Renie took over. Ten years later, another move, this time to their present home, upstairs premises in the industrial section of St Asaph Street on the outskirts of the city centre. With the move came a parting of the ways from the fancy goods side of the business. That remained with new owners in Mancester Street. The Trists wanted to concentrate solely on trotting goods. It was also Ernie Trist's intention to concentrate on manufacturing and selling wholesale. "There was such a phenomenal demand for out stuff then; there were no plastics to compete with. We wanted to get away from the mainstream retail trade, but before very long customers approached us directly. And we couldn't turn down old customers so we have remained retailers."

Chris joined the company straight from school in 1969 and five years ago bought into the business. Laurie started during school holidays when he was about 13 but went psychiatric nursing for two and a half years on leaving school. He then worked as a builder's labourer, getting his ticket later as a drainlayer before getting into the business, too, in 1976. "Too cold in winter" was his reason for getting out of the drains. Noe the senior Trist regards himself as "just the boy about the place. I'm convinced now that lives go in a complete circle." He doesn't have to get the lunches but he is the official tea-maker. "Mainly because he makes the best brew," the others agree. The others are three. Besides the two younger men there is Sadie Scott in the office. That's the total staff. At times there have been more. But for the next few months, things begin to slaken off a little and the present lot will be able to cope.

The company has a regular spot around the stables at Addington every racenight where they keep a range of their wares. The deal also in all facets of trotting goods and, for instance, are the only manufacturers of toe weights in Australasia. "We don't see as many races as we would like to, but we do have time for the odd bet. None of them owns a horse although Ernie's father owned a pretty useful trotter in Duke Bingen who raced uccessfully in the 1920s. The old chap was also a president at one time of the Canterbury OTB.

The workshop syndicate can't rate itself as one of the most successful around, but then it probably doesn't follow a system workers down in the Cashel Street establishment followed, especially on Cup Day. "For years, we would put out money on the horse whose owner bought new gear from us for the big race. It worked year after year. Indianapolis had new harness for his first two wins and again for his third. They probably didn't need that but they weren't going to take the risk," Ernest Trist, now 64, explained. "There were horses like Red Shadow, Lucky Jack...and more recently Lord Module." The system did come unstuck once though. Therewere four in the race with new gear. "And that confused us. We didn't know which way to go."


Credit: Graham Ingram writing in NZ Trotting Calendar 10Mar81

DAN GLANVILLE

A trotting enthusiast who saw 66 NZ Cups, undoubtedly more than anyone else, died in Christchurch a few days ago. Dan Glanville, a long time member of the NZ Metropolitan Trotting Club committee, was 94 when he died.

Born in South Canterbury, he later had a chemist shop in High Street, opposite one of J R McKenzie's chain stores, a situation which led to both men becoming life-long friends and racing partners. A top provincial tennis player in his day, Dan Glanville was in Akaroa for a tournament when he was persuaded by local breeder Etienne Le Lievre to part with £400 for a colt by Nelson Bingen out of Bertha Belle. While having some misgivings at the time, he later had little cause to regret his purchase. The horse was Great Bingen who would eventually retire having won more than £14,000, a record that stood for many years.

Initially he had the horse registered in J R McKenzie's name to avoid his mother finding out he had a horse. She apparently was dead against any form of gambling. Later he sold a half-share in the future champion to Mr McKenzie. After Great Bingen had won his first race, Dan Glanville told his mother about it and she later became one of the horse's more avid fans.

The winner of at least half a dozen free-for-alls, Great Bingen was a decidedly unlucky horse when it came to the NZ Cup. He was second to Ahuriri in 1925, fourth after being badly interfered with in 1927 and the next year was beaten into second by his brother Peter Bingen in that now famous controversial whisker-close finish. By running 4:19.4 from 108 yards behind at Epsom, he became the first horse outside America to better 4:20 for two miles. At the end of his racing career he stood at stud and, while not wildly successful, he did sire two NZ Derby winners.

Mr Glanville joined the Metropolitan Club in 1926, and became a steward in 1934. He was a member of the committee from 1935 till 1963 when he was elected a life member of the Club. He served for a long time on the club's programme committee and was its chairman for many years. He is survived by his wife.

Credit: Graham Ingram writing in NZ Trotting Calendar 6Oct81

WES BUTT

Wes Butt didn't get an awful lot of pay when he first went to work in a stable. Nor did he get paid very much for training his first outside horse. In fact, he got nothing at all. The veteran trainer, "the last of the old brigade" as he puts it, recalled last week how he'd worked for Dick Humphreys at Templeton for six months before he plucked up enough courage to ask for wages.

And then, a few years later when he was on his own, he trained a horse called Walter Wrack for nothing. "His owner would bring all the feed over and pay me something when he won." Walter Wrack did win, luckily. And, significantly, he was the first horse Butt ever drove in a race. Now, having driven in his last race, at Addington at the weekend, he recalled it was nigh on impossible for a youngster to get drives back in the thirties. That is, unless he had his own horses. "I worked for Dick Humphreys for more than three years and in all that time never drove in a race. That was left to the older men, the top drivers who drove race after race. "The owners always went for the experienced men and the punters would never bet on a horse driven by a youngster."

Wesley Richard Butt turned 65 last Christmas but he's had no misgivings as his turn to retire has come closer. After those tough initial years, trotting, he readily admits, has been good to him. Very good. He regrets nothing. Horses have been part of Wes Butt's life as long as he can remember. Raised in Blenheim where his father had a farm, he used to ride five miles to school every morning and home again at night. It would have been around 1928 when Wes' father sold the farm and the family moved down to Hororata where he was engineer and county clerk. It was school for Wes until he finished standard six and went to work on a farm - "I always liked the land" - and then as a "carpenter's boy."

Once again the family moved, this time to Templeton, a few miles down the road from where Butt is now well established. Jobs at that time were diffucult to come by. Certainly, there was nothing around he wanted in the building line. "I went down with Dad to see Mr Humphreys but we didn't hear anything for a long time. Dad went down again. Mr Humphreys told him this time to send me down for a while to see how I liked it." That was all the encouragement Wes Butt needed. He rode his bike to the stables every day for the week, with only Saturday afternoon off. And got nothing in his pay packet each week. "I had been there six months before I said to him one day 'do you think I'm worth anything to you Mr Humphreys?' 'Yes,' he said, 'ten shillings a week.' which wasn't too bad at that time."

Wes wasn't too much worried about the money at the time anyway. He was sticking to his father's advice. "Never mind the pay: just work hard and learn all you can so that you can get out on your own." He stayed at Humphreys for three years without any rise in pay. "I remember when I said I was leaving he told me I was just getting useful...and then offered me fifteen shillings a week to stay. "And that still wasn't too bad considering you could go to a good dance or the pictures for anything from sixpence to one and six." But the extra five bob wasn't enough to entice him to stay on permanently although he did go back from time to time just to help Humphreys out.

It was a pretty significant piece of trotting country that he was leaving behind. Those twenty-two acres Humphreys had were, in Butt's words: "one of the greatest spots in the country for trotting." Well known tainer Albert Hendriksen had the property and Dick Humphreys worked for him before taking over himself. Humphreys later trained the mighty Harold Logan on the place. Butt recalled his first fast drive, behind the top trotter Huon Voyage who later won a Dominion Handicap. Jim Dalgety owned the property at one time while Snow Upton, Derek Jones, Doug Watts and Jack Pringle were among other top names Butt associated with the stable.

Once away from Humphreys, the young Butt took up a job at the local pipe works, working mainly in the pumice factory and carting concrete pipes. "It was a tough place to work, but it was work which left me time to do the horses," Butt recalled. By this time it was 1936 and Walter Wrack was in his care. Forty-five years ago, so it's understandable if Butt's recollection of the time is perhaps a little hazy. By his calculations he lined the trotter up at Greymouth to finish second - "Humphreys beat me, too" - in the first race before winning later in the day. In fact: the records show Walter Wrack finished third both times that day: but came out the second day of the meeting to win his first race and beat good mare Violet Wrack, driven by Dick Humphreys, into second place. Since then Wes Butt has driven 760 more winners and trained another 704. Violet Wrack later went on to win a number of races for top trotting trainer Bill Doyle. Walter Wrack returned to Greymouth a couple of months later to score again.

The West Coast has always been a happy hunting ground for Butt, especially in those earlier days. Having succeeded with Walter Wrack (he eventually finished up with Roy Berry), Butt concentrated on horses he could race himself. His policy was to lease them and then get them going for a Coast campaign. "It was often the way that if they could finish round about fourth or fifth in Canterbury, they were always good enough to win on the Coast." Native Ruler and Wee Pal were this first of his own he ventured away with, in December 1938. A trotter, Native Ruler won at Reefton ("I think that was his only win.") while Wee Pal really provided the goods at Hokitika. "I think she came second in her first race and then dead-heated for first later in the afternoon. She won again the next day." Which wasn't exactly how it happened. Wee Pal, in fact, dead-heated for first first time out and then won later. She finished second the next day. But what Wes does remember to this day is coming home with "a terrible lot of money." Wee Pal's wins contributed a large part of the £174/10/- she won that term and Native Ruler, with a fair number of placings before the win earned more than £200 for the season. The first thing Butt did on his return from Hokitika, though, was to buy himself a new sulky. "It was a brand new Bryant and it cost me £32/10/-." That sulky is still in use although there's not much of the original left in it.

Butt still savours the memories of those trips away with the horses. No floats in those days, it was trains all the way...or on foot. "It's seventeen miles from here to New Brighton but everyone used to jog their horses in, give them a couple of races and jog them home again." Getting the 50 or 100 miles to Ashburton or Timaru, too, was a bit of an event. A train would come out from Christchurch on the Friday, dropping off boxes all the way down the line with instructions to have the horses loaded by a certain time the next morning. Templeton was one of the main muster points. "We would leave here at four or five in the morning, stopping to pick up more horses along the way. We'd get to Timaru just before the following passenger train. After the races it was the same in reverse. The passenger train would set off first, the horses following to arrive home near midnight. Once back we'd unload the horses and jog home in the pitch dark carrying all out gear on our knees. Even if it rained we didn't worry about it. It was just something that had to be done."

Getting across to the Coast especially to the Wesport meetings, was something more of an event. That train would leave Christchurch early in the evening, arriving finally at Inangahua about eleven the following morning. In between there would be a stopover at Reefton where the local club "would put on a huge spread for nothing. They were great trips," Butt recalled. "The men would play cards all the way, drink, tell yarns, skite...a really good time." Then, once through to Inangahua, the work would start. The horses would have to be unloaded and then jogged through the Buller Gorge to Westport where they'd arrive round about tea-time. The Club would send trucks out to cart all the feed and gear back through for the visiting horsemen. "Most trainers took a team over for the circuit in those days. It wouldn't have been worth while with just one or two horses."

The circuit provided a lot of races in just a few weeks. After the two days at Westport, there was a trek back through the gorge for the Reefton meeting, The on for two days at Greymouth, four races then at the gallops at Omoto, two days at Hokitika, one at Kumara and the two day galloping meeting at Reefton on the way home. If the racing wasn't exactly memorable for everyone, there were good times to compensate. And the occasional buying and selling.

Wes Butt remembered he and a friend buying a horse called Plentiful in Canterbury for £25 and being able to get it going along reasonably well before taking it over the hill. "It wasn't much good but it did run two thirds at Hokitika and then a second and a win at Kumara. I sold it that night for £10...and saved myself the £4/10/- fare home for it," Butt recalled. He must have bet a few bob on it to be pleased with that deal? No, he had been pleased enough to get the stake money which was close enough to £100 in all. Besides, he'd given up betting even at that early stage. "I had more to do with my money than to lose it. Yes, I had a few good bets early on...and missed. I learned early after several misses. Even now I'm not interested. Wouldn't even know how to put a bet on."

Wes Butt has another reason to think kindly about the Coast. For it was a soft drink manufacturer from Greymouth, one Andy Grogan, who really put him on to the road to success. He was the owner of Mankind, the first of two horses Butt was to train with that name and the one he named his property 'Mankind Lodge' after. Mankind, the winner of a couple of races earlier, was trained at the time by E J Smith "just down the road." Grogan asked Butt to get him a horse and Wes thought Mankind was the one. The £250 asking price wasn't too much, even though it was a fair price at the time, so Mankind changed hands. He was five at the time and a gelding. "From the time he came here, he just got better and better," Butt recalled. "He was a great beginner but you just couldn't touch his mouth. And this is where others had gone wrong." There was the day at Addington when Cyril Yeatman rode Mankind for Butt in the last race of the day, a mile saddle event. "I had told him to leave the horse's head and just hang on to his mane. He shot away to a big lead and as they hit the straight Cyril looked around to see where the others were. They were miles away but as he turned he must have pulled on the inside rein. His front foot hit the slippery clay, the horse slipped and dropped his rider."

But even though he lost that one, Mankind was to win a lot of races for Mr Grogan and Butt, more than £4,000 between 1940 and 1944. He was "a lovely horse around the place" who went through to the top classes. 1941 was an especially good year for the team. Mankind won the August Free-For-All, leaving the champion Gold Bar down the track at Addington. Three days later he finished second and third in successive races, the first over a mile and a half with Wes in the sulky, the next time over a mile from 24 yards behind with Jack Carmichael in the saddle. In November, again with Carnichael in the saddle, Mankind ran second to Gold Bar when Allan Holmes' champion ran a world record 2:03.6 for a mile from a stand. This was on the same day as Gold Bar set his world race record of 3:27 for thirteen furlongs at Addington.

Jack Carmichael did most of the riding for Wes Butt in those days and, when Wes was in the army, looked after the small war-years team. Wes remembered the day in September '41 that they took the two horses in the stable - Mankind and Brigadier - to New Brighton and won with them both. Mankind beat Gold Bar over a mile and a half that day, too. Jack had been working for some years with Butt. Originally he had come down from Wanganui for a holiday and he'd never gone back north. He was a cousin of the future Mrs Butt, Beryl Bennett. Wes, a neighbour, used to train on Mr Bennett's track in those early days, and that's how he became 'tangled up' with his wife. Mrs Butt recalled how Jack had lived with them for about thirteen years until he had branched out on his own. Wes was in the army at this time, stationed at Burnham. He was able to get home on Sundays to let Jack know what to do and occasionally at other times as well. "I was in pretty good with the lieutenant-colonel so I was able to get away now and again," he said. He remembered winning a race in 1940 with Mankind at Addington on the Saturdayand then being shipped up to Fiji for service in the Pacific on the Monday. The win was a good farewell present.

Butt used Mankind to illustrate how little young drivers were tolerated by the betting public in those days. Mankind wasn't at the top then but he was on the way up. It was on the old New Brighton track. He started in a mile saddle trot early in the day with Doug Watts aboard. Even from 24 yards behind, the combination won with ease in 2:10. Mankind was hot favourite. Later in the day he lined up in the last race and downed a top field of sprinters, beating the well-regarded Huguenot by a neck. Wes himself was in the cart. "I was just learning to drive then, but I still couldn't believe it. We were eleventh favourites and paid more than £36 to win. The public wouldn't tolerate any young drivers, no matter how good the horse was." Wes hardly ever got into the saddle himself. "I didn't like it. I just wasn't much good at it, I suppose," is his explanation.

But what he did like was a block of land adjacent to the blacksmith's shop further down the road from here he lived at Templeton. He'd had his eye on it for years. "There were 25 acres and it always appealed to me. But there was no way I could afford it at the time it was available." But Andy Grogan was at hand. "I asked him when I came out of the army if he would buy the place for me and I'd train for him until I had paid it off. He agreed straight away. It was he who got me started here." Those original acres have been increased to forty and there's the big covered barn and yards, five furlong track and house to complete the set up.

In the earlier days most trainers in the area worked their teams around the roads. "They were lovely roads then. Cars and trucks were no bother. Most of them belonged to horse people anyway so they did their best to make things easier for you. "Now, a lot of drivers see how close they can get to you," Butt said.

Wes and Beryl were married in July, 1942 and it was inevitable the Butt children would be interested in horses. The boys, Robin and Murray, have already made their mark on NZ trotting themselves as trainers, while the two girls, Christine and Margaret, are winning owners, having raced Right As Rain, a daughter of For Certain with whom Wes won the NZ Oaks. Wes remembered that Robin was especially keen, even helping out with the fast work while still going to primary school. It's Robin and Murray who'll carry on driving members of Wes' team in the seasons to come... and probably so will his seventeen-year-old grandson, Robin's son David, who will have a probationary licence in the new term. That's if he continues with his intent to knock off smoking. "I told him I wouldn't have any boy driving for me if he smoked; he said to me the other day he'd given up, so I'll have to let him drive, too," Wes said.

Wes has had a few men working for him over the years, and some of them have stayed a good long time. "We had the same gang for years and years," Mrs Butt said, while Wes recalled Jack Carmichael, Jim and Bill Smith, Snow Wright, 'Button' White - "he was with us for about 20 years" - Ralph Bonnington and Barry Hamilton. In the early days the team had built up slowly but once the wins started to come, Butt got more and more horses, up to thirty or so in the busier seasons. "We had to work pretty hard in the mornings but everyone was off the place by five. We had breakfast at seven and then got stuck in. He had his biggest teams in the period from the early fifties through to the mid-sixties. It was during this time he took six of his seven trainers premierships. The season immediately after the war gave him his first title with 36 winners. Butt took the crown again in 1952/3 (38 winners), '54/55(33), '55/56(46, his best season ever), '57/58(30), '58/59(23) and '61/62(33). He was also the country's leading reinsman twice, in 1945/46 when he tied with Fred Smith and Alan Holmes (28 wins each) and again in '52/53 when he drove 29 winners over the season.

Over the years Wes Butt has driven the winners of some of the most important events on the country's racing calendar, the Champion Stakes with Golden Oriole ( owned by Murray), three Sapling Stakes with Golden Oriole, Wildwood Chief and Spry Guy, two Rowe Cups with Battle Cry and more recently Even Speed, a Great Northern Derby, again with Golden Oriole, a Dominion Handicap with Johnny Gee, four NZ Trotting Stakes with Johnny Gee, Even Speed, Signal Light and Black Miller, a New Brighton Cup with Bright Highland, a NZ Oaks with For Certain, Timaru Nursery Stakes (Seafield Lad), a Wellington Cup with Anarca Direct, an Easter Cup with Wee Win and an Ashburton Cup with Van Rebeck. He also drove those last two to win heats of Inter-Dominion series.

Of course, he regards Johnny Gee one of the best of all the horses he's had anything to do with in recent years. He won the most money about $60,000, including $20,000 in place money. He won a dozen free-for-alls and went 2:01. He was a top horse. Wes Butt will always remember the 1970 Dominion Handicap when he trained both Johnny Gee, the winner, and Tony Bear (driven by Robin) who took second only half a neck back. These two made a formidable bracket in the big trots around that time, one which the punters could not often resist. The bracket was strengthened now and again with the addition of yet a third top trotter in the stable, Briganelli. Johnny Gee won a lot of races for Butt, including four races at Manawatu from his only four starts on the track.

Golden Oriole was "a nice mare" and Van Rebeck "a good old horse." And then the names of the top liners start running freely...Campbell King, Lucky Law, Jimmy Scott, Liberty Bond, Axis, Admit, Benghazi, Moss Hall, Courageous, Margaret Hall, Captain Sandy - "although he was just about finished here then" - and, about ten years ago, Partisan, who won nine of his seventeen starts for Butt. "If he hadn't been unsound, he could have been the best I ever had," Butt surmises. Easter Cup winner Wee Win would have been one of the toughest horses Butt ever drove, even though he didn't have a sprint, while Even Speed was a good horse, too.

Butt won races on most of the South Island tracks and on many of the northern ones too, even at Trentham. He won a race with good mare Zona Grattan by half the length of the straight there once. The same horse started from 96 yards behind at Forbury soon after the war and beat a top quality field into the bargain. White Angel was another mare he still has a lot of time for. "She gave me my only real chance to win the NZ Cup, but her chances were ruined by a wet track. She did win the Hannon Memorial in 1953." Earlier on, in the 1951 Cup Carnival, Butt started her three times and won each day. There's an asphalt tennis court alongside the Butt home now. It used to be White Angel's yard. The Butt children used to pay her a lot of attention and she'd be as gentle as a lamb with them. Put her around other horses, though, and "she could be a sour old thing." Wes remembers the day she provided the second leg of an £8,000 double at Ashburton. Piccolo, the rank outsider paying something like £96, won the first leg. And White Angel, about eighth favourite, won the second from 12 yards behind. "And she had to go around 39 others to do it."

And that's not the only long price he's been associated with. Two races after he had won the 1964 Sapling Stakes with Golden Oriole he came out and drove Mrs Butt's own horse Stormy Lad to victory. He paid £101/-/6 to win and more than £22 for the place. The next year at Hutt Park he drove Super Glow to win and pay more than £73. Back in April, 1947, for instance, there were two races for trotters on each day of the Nelson Trotting Club's meeting and Wes scooped the pool with Tu Rangi and Statesman. A few years later, he won four of the eight races at Canterbury Park, coming out on the second day to win two more.

So what makes a good driver? Wes Butt has his own ideas on that..."For a start he must be able to get his horse away and then he must be patient. He shouldn't burn a horse out by trying to rush around the world. A top horseman will always have his horse for another day." As for race tactics,"you can only go the way the horse goes best. Some need nursing until well into the straight, so you sit on the fence and take your chances as they come. And then there are the other types, like Wee Win, who like the pace to be on all the way. Then you get out there and battle and make it tough for the rest to keep up." Butt has no preference for either pacers or trotters. "I don't mind what they are if they are good. But I do get a lot of satisfaction from a good trotter."

He also thinks the younger drivers have an easier time these days than they did when he started. Probationary driver's races and series had helped a lot and many of the up and comers were getting a lot of experience even though they are young. "By the time they come out of their time, many are top men." The trend today was for owners to give the drives to the younger men, exactly the opposite situation as Butt encountered early on in his career. "It's not unusual these days to see Doody Townley, Derek Jones or Felix Newfield, all top men, left in the stands race after race."

He regards himself and Cecil Devine, who had to retire at the end of last season as "the last of the old-timers. We're probably the last to have raced against Jimmy Bryce and Free Holmes, for instance. They're a new lot now." Butt couldn't sort out the best he drove against but he had to mention Maurice Holmes, Doody Townley, Derek Jones, Bob Young and Doug Watts..."tough, hard-headed drivers." Himself, he had always done his best and "you can't do better than that." And now that his driving career is over, he had no regrets he'd had a great time all through.

He was just thankful he had come this far relatively unscathed. "I think you're pretty lucky if you can go till your 65 and still be okay. "It wasn't so bad in the old days when tracks were soft. These days the tracks are like shingle roads. If you hit them at 30 miles an hour and get dragged along, you feel it if you are getting on. It's nothing to the youngsters though. They're tough. He had been in hospital a couple of times and still had a little bother with an old injury to his back. But, he had been lucky.

Wes Butt can still remember, however, an aching arm after winning a race at Methven some thirty years ago. It was with the trotter Ascot, a good sort owned by Frank Woolley. Ascot was a 'highly strung' horse who, while a pacer, looked as though he could trot when Butt got him. And so it proved. He could trot very well as long as nothing else came up beside him. And then came the Methven race, September 27, 1952. Ascot started off 36 yards behind, sufficiently far back to avoid a mix-up soon after the tape went up. "We passed that okay and were going forward when Super Claim charged up to us without a driver and started to go round us. I remember thinking to myself 'this is lovely, he'll break my horse up if he comes any closer' so I grabbed him and held him in behind us. Old Ascot kept trotting and we hit the front with a round to go and stayed there. My arm was aching so much when we hit the post I had to let him go. The only reason I held on was to keep him away from my horse. He would have broken for sure." The feat of fine horsemanship was well written up at the time and the Methven Club itself recognised it for what it was with a fine trophy. It was another to add to the many which decorate the Butt home today, momentoes of those good days and some good horses.

So what will Wes Butt do now? Make more use of the tennis court? He has the cups to prove his prowess in that field too. No, Probably not. He will perhaps spend a little more time in the garden. And get his scrap-books and photographs up to date. But really, the horses will remain a seven day-a-week job. No, retirement won't mean much slowing down for Wes Butt. If any.

-o0o-

Article appearing in HRWeekly 15Sep99

The name Butt has flourished since Wes made his start in harness racing more than 60 years ago. After a career as a trainer and driver that few could match and fewer could beat, Wes keenly followed the fortunes of the succeeding Butt generations. Robin, Murray, David, Anthony, Tim and Roddy kept the founding father with continuing interest in racing. News of his daughter Chris's ill health nine months ago took the edge off him, according to his eldest son, Robin. He slipped quickly, and died on Tuesday, aged 83.

He was champion trainer seven times and champion driver twice.

Although he did not win a NZ Cup in 14 attempts, there weren't many other races of note that he failed to account for. He finished third with Wee Win and fifth with Mayneen, who strung together seven successive wins, but he always said his best show was with White Angel. "She struck a wet track the year Mobile Globe won. She was no good in that. She had won three out of three at the Cup meeting the previous year," he recalled.

In more recent times, the trotting triumvirate of Johnny Gee, Tony Bear and Briganelli were his notable colour bearers. They had a field day at the 1970 NZ Cup carnival when open class trots were held on all four days. Johnny Gee won the Dominion Handicap on Show Day. He finished second on the other days to Light View in the Worthy Queen, Inferno in the Free-For-All, and Tony Bear in the Greyhound. Johnny Gee and Tony Bear won 36 races between them.

The first job Wes got was working for trainer Dick Humphreys - no pay for the first six months, then six shillings a week - and his first winner was Walter Wrack at Greymouth in 1936. As a young fellow making his way against some hard heads, Wes developed his own style as a driver. "I would drive on the fence a lot; if you didn't get a go, there was always another day. The boys tell me if they used my style they wouldn't win a race today. We would be embarrassed to sit three wide in my day. I liked to sit and sprint," he said later.

Wes was good at it. He drove 762 winners including his very last drive behind Brow Raiser. He recalled getting lucky that night, hoping onto the back of a horse being driven up three wide by his son Robin, and Brow Raiser brought off a happy ending.

Another moment he cherished was competing in the Wes Butt Trotting Stakes at Addington in 1981 against his sons Robin and Murray and Robin's son David, who was having his first raceday drive.

He recalled jogging a horse from Templeton to the Port Hills, walking it over the Bridal Path, catching the ferry to Wellington, and then jogging the horse to Hutt Park. Wes had the same accommodation as the horse, a bed on the straw in the box next door.

And he would tell the story when times were tough, of racing Margaret Hall and Acropolis in an event at Auckland. Acropolis was the only threat to Margaret Hall, and Wes was driving him. Making his way from the back and chasing Margaret Hall, Acropolis was gradually taken off the track by a rival as he was closing in. The driver apologised to Wes and said he couldn't keep the horse straight. "I sort of believed him," Wes said. "Much later I found out that he had been paid to make sure Acropolis didn't beat Margaret Hall."

His major wins as a included the Louisson Handicap (Golden Oriole), National Handicap (Wee Win, Te Koi), Champion Stakes (Golden Oriole), Wellington Cup (Mayneen, Anarca Direct), New Brighton (Bright Highland), NZ Trotting Stakes (Signal Light, Johnny Gee, Black Miller, Even Speed), Easter Cup (Wee Win), NZ Oaks (For Certain), Sapling Stakes (Golden Oriole, Wildwood Chief, Spry Guy), Great Northern Derby (Golden Oriole), Rowe Cup (Battle Cry, Even Speed), Inter-Dominion heats (Wee Win (three) Van Rebeck, Johnny Gem).

He trained 710 winners, the best of them being Johnny Gee, Tony Bear, Mankind, Jimmy Scott, Stadium chief, Golden Oriole, Partisan, Te Koi, Liberty Bond, Axis, Margaret Hall, Trade Fair, Van Rebeck and Benghazi


Credit: Graham Ingram writing in NZ Trotting Calendar 21Jul81