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Golden Reign outfinishes Victor Supreme

CHRISTCHURCH - GOLDEN REIGN
In what could easily be described as the most controversial Inter Dominion of them all Victorian Golden Reign scored from Victor Supreme and Young Mister Charles. Golden Reign had to survive a protest from Anthony Butt for alleged interference to local mare Blossom lady before being declared the winner while both placed horses were later disqualified for returning positive swabs.

SYDNEY - WEONA WARRIOR
The training and driving skills of New South Wales horseman Brian Hancock, a former coalminer who had already etched himself into Australian harness racing history, enabled him to score an upset win in the 1994 Inter Dominion Pacers Grand Final in Sydney with Weona Warrior. Ultra Jet finished second with Valley Champ next home.

BRISBANE - JACK MORRIS
Jack Morris, virtually unknown anywhere else but in Western Australia before finishing third in the Miracle Mile, was a worthy winner of the 1993 Inter Dominion. His trainer, Sean Harvey because of incurring his second six-month suspension within a nine-month period, was unable to drive his representative in the series. Rod Chambers was entrusted to handle the horse and they proved the toast of Australasia. Blossom Lady ran third for the second year on end.

MELBOURNE - WESTBURN GRANT
Enabled only by the wonders of modern science to even be competing, 6yo stallion Westburn Grant and 51 year old New South Wales trainer Vic Frost teamed for a triumph in the $400,000 1992 Final in Melbourne. Those closest to this brilliant horse and his master were almost overcome with emotion. Westburn Grant had undergone expert surgery to pin a shattered pastern following a training accident in Perth in January 1991.
Best of the Kiwis was Blossom Lady, who ran third.

AUCKLAND - MARK HANOVER
In many ways, Mark Hanover's win in the 1991 Auckland Inter Dominion came as a highlight for Roy Purdon's illustrious career. He part owned the horse and trained him along with his son Barry. The horse was named after another son, Mark who drove him to victory. For good measure the stable provided the quinella with Christopher Vance being driven by Roy's son in law, Tony Herlihy.

ADELAIDE - THORATE
Howard James, a 32 year old rookie teamed up with Thorate to win the 1990 edition of the Inter Dominions. Trained by Brian Hancock who won with Koala King in 1980, Thorate was one of two representatives from the stable in the Final with Brian electing to drive third placegetter Weona Chief. In winning, Thorate established a new track record at Globe Derby Park rating 2.00 minutes for the 2645 metre event. Tough Kiwi Gaelic Skipper split the pair.

PERTH - JODIE'S BABE
The 1989 Perth Inter-Dominion had everything; drama, suspense, action, outrage and upsets. Victory went to a bonny mare named Jodie's Babe in the hands of Scott Stewart while Vin Knight, this time aboard stablemate of the winner Our Maestro finished second just a neck away after attempting to lead throughout. The Final in Perth carried a stake of $420,000. Kiwi Kylie's Hero was third.

1988 SYDNEY- OUR MAESTRO
The fickleness of harness racing and its crowning glory, the Inter Dominions, were again perfectly illustrated at Harold Park, Sydney in 1988. Vin Knight had desperately tried to win an Inter Dominion on eight previous occasions, the previous seven years in succession. Along with his father Bob they combined to provide two finalists from their Kilmore stable. Victory went to one of them Our Maestro in the hands of John Binskin while Vin's drive, the favourite Bag Limit finished last.

INTER-DOMINION

Never before in the history of Inter-Dominion conflict has the cream of NZ pacing and trotting talent been so comprehensively beaten on its own soil as last Saturday night at Addington.

It was all "Waltzing Matilda" as Victorian 4-year-old Lightning Blue, Paleface Bubble fron New South Wales and Queensland's Sunset Candios outgunned the Kiwis (headed by Skipper Dale, Luxury Liner and Master Mood) in the $350,000 1987 Lion Brown Inter-Dominion Pacing Championship Grand Final. It was "Irish Eyes Are Smiling" for Lightning Blue's likeable Melton trainer/driver Jim O'Sullivan who produced a 100% result also carrying off the First Consolation with the Grand Champion's stablemate Quite Famous.

And it was "Victorious Victoria" as Game Ebony, trained and driven by Dick Lee, triumphed gallantly in the $35,000 Curtins Farm Trotting Free-For-All, thereby halting the outstanding winning streak of champion NZ mare Tussle. The only crumb from "the Met's" lavishly-laid Inter-Dominion table salvaged on the night for NZ was Saucy Star's win for the Ian Cameron stable in the Second Consolation. And, on reflection, the Kiwis were probably saved from a complete whitewash by the fact that Lightning Blue had the wonderful fortune to graduate from Saucy Star's race into the Grand Final with the scratching from the big event of Lightning Blue's arch rival, the brilliant fellow Victorian Bag Limit.

"Thank goodness they didn't bring any 3-year-olds over here," said Tai Tapu trainer Bill Denton at the end of the night. He was inferring, no doubt, that Emcee, his stable's winner of the $25,000 National Bloodstock 3-Year-Old Championship, as impressive as he was, was probably lucky he had to face no opposition from across the Tasman.

Not counting Junior's Image (who won and was disqualified on dope charges in 1971), this was Australia's first Pacing Grand Final win in six series at Addington. But they have had better luck at Auckland, scoring with First Lee in 1968 and Gammalite in 1983, and Australian stables have produced the winners of the eight Pacing Grand Finals at other venues since Rondel scored for NZ at the previous Addington Inter-Dominions eight years back.

Admittedly, the three latest Grand Champions - Preux Chevalier, Village Kid and now Lightning Blue - were all bred in NZ; and this is going to have an excellent spin-off from the point of view of Australian demand for our stock. But what must be a source of consternation to the NZ harness racing fraternity in general is the supremacy of the Australians over us now showing on the results board. The honours list reveals that the Inter-Dominions have been run 46 times; NZ has produced 13 outright Grand Champions as well as the 1965 Dunedin deadheaters; Australia's tally now advances to 32 - New South Wales and Victoria eight apiece, South Australia and West Australia six each, Tasmania four. NZ produced six of the first 10 Pacing Grand Final winners, and from 1960 to 1965 it had three outright winners and two deadheaters. This was the purple patch for us.

What do we have to do to reassume such dominance? It could well be that, with such a busier roster of feature racing from State to State for the top horses, and with competition for these so fierce, the Australian horses have to train and race harder a lot more often than is the case here. Vinny Knight, at one stage of the Addington carnival, when speaking admiringly of his outstanding representative Bag Limit (who must have been the one to beat had he not been forced by injury to stand down from the Final) referred to "Aussie guts". At the time it sounded like a bit of skite. After Saturday night it seems a very accurate way of describing something the Australian horses were able to produce at the end of this testing four-night series that the Kiwis appeared not to be able to find.

Credit: Ron Bisman writing in HRWeekly 19Mar87

Jim O'Sulivan & Dick Lee savour the triumph

CHRISTCHURCH - LIGHTNING BLUE

"It's the biggest thrill ever; he's the best horse I've had, and I've had some good ones," said Jim O'Sullivan, returning with his 1987 Lion Brown Inter-Dominion Grand Champion.

In his regular acquisition of NZ horses, O'Sullivan almost invariably uses the services of former Australian John Devlin, professionally known as the South Auckland Standardbred Agency. Devlin, who in the last 10 years has secured something close to 80 horses for O'Sullivan's clients singled out Lightning Blue for him. "He was trained by Mike Berger at Morrinsville," recalled Devlin after the Final. "I watched him at the trials, saw him win at an on-course-only meeting at Cambridge and then run an unlucky second at Alexandra Park before recommending that Jim come and trial him.

Of the three owners only Mr Conidi was at Addington for the Grand Final. "Alan will be very upset about not being here," he said. "He saw all the bad luck in the heats, got called back home on urgent business and was unable to get back here for tonight." Although his horses have won many hundreds of races, Alan Hunter's biggest victory prior to Saturday night was in the $43,000 Cranbourne Cup last December with Saturday night's First Consolation winner Quite Famous, whom he owns outright.

Apart from securing Lightning Blue (who races in Australia as My Lightning Blue) from the O'Sullivan stable, Delvin is a quarter-share owner of the 4-year-old's sire, the Meadow Skipper horse Lonero. Lightning Blue's dam Lightning is by the good Hal Tryax horse Holy Hal (second to First Lee in the 1968 Inter-Dominion Final in Auckland and winner of two heats at the 1971 Addington Inter-Dominions). Lightning's dam Lightning Lass was by Lighterman Tom, remarkably still alive in South Canterbury, aged 40. By Light Brigade, Lighterman Tom is a half-brother to Cherry Blossom whose daughter Robin Dundee shared the Inter-Dominion title in Dunedin in 1965 with Jar Ar and was fifth in Melbourne in 1964, second to Chamfer's Star in Sydney in 1966 and fourth to Binshaw in Perth in 1967.

Lightning was the first venture into harness racing of Peter and Mrs Doris Miller, semi-retired farmers of Mystery Creek, near Hamilton airport. The bought Lightning on the advice of Ngaruawahia trainer Joe Goodyer after she had won a 2-year-old parade from the Mataura stable of Dave Todd, of Cardigan Bay fame.

Goodyer won two races with Lightning for the Millers, but her race career was cut short by injury incurred in a training spill. Before putting Lighting down in 1983, the Millers bred five foals from her, the three to have raced being Lightning Blue, Rainbow Light (winer of three before injured) and Millertime (sold at two and the winner of two races so far). The Millers are breeding from Rainbow Light (by Adover Rainbow) and are looking forward to racing with Mike Berger's wife Brenda and his father Geoff her first offspring, a yearling Tudor Hanover filly they have named Lightning Belle.


Credit: Ron Bisman writing in HRWeekly 19Mar87