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VICKI BURNETT

The death occurred suddenly last month of Leeston trainer Vicki Burnett. She was 40. Burnett took out a licence after the death of her former husband Peter Cowan. In five seasons, she trained seven winners and drove five.

Burnett grew up in Auckland, and despite no family involvement developed a passion and infinity for horses at a young age, competing in pony club, eventing and show jumping. She qualified as a veterinary nurse and attended courses in equine massage. She gained a reputation for her work and Mark Purdon used her services when he was in Clevedon and when he moved south.

She met Cowan when he campaigned his top mare Flying Sands in the north, and eventually they married. Among there good horses were Trotupastorm, Cullens Pride, Uroc Amy and Joy Boy, although her pride and joy was Niburu, the winner of one race, which she brought south.

In April, 2008, when Peter passed away suddenly, Vicki was left in control of a 30ha property, responsible for training, preparing sales yearlings and doing an AI course to ensure all mares could be bred on the property, all while being mother to Thomas (7) and Ellie (3). Ten mares are to foal this spring, with both Flying Sands and Flyin Score in foal to Rockin Roll Hanover.

Horses she bred included Supreme Gem and Sunday's impressive debut winner, Machs A Flyin. Torias Secret was sent to Luke McCarthy and has won over $100,000 this season and Vicki was at Menangle last month to see her run second in a Group race. On Target, racing as Im On Target, is also with McCarthy and is unbeaten in two starts. Vicki's last drive was on Dutchess at Rangiora on July 15.

Although she had battled ill-health in the past 18 months, she appeared stable and her death was unexpected. "She had an amazing attitude to her illness, never complaining and working incredibly hard," said family friend, John McDermott.

Vicki married Rick Burnett, NZ champion amateur driver in 2010/11, in September last year and they formed a training partnership last season.



Credit: HRWeekly 1Aug12

GORDON MIDDLETON

Gordon Middleton, who died last week at the age of 95, was a renowned and successful trainer of juveniles. Most of them raced with the 'Fancy' prefix, most were from mares by Truant Hanover, and the list of major wins in that category included the Welcome Stakes, Leonard Memorial, Kindergarten Stakes, Golden Slipper Stakes, Timaru Nursery Stakes and the Rotorua Futurity Stakes.

"Basically, he was before his time," said his son Carl, a high achiever as a trainer of trotters. "He would wean, gait and put them in the cart while they were still weanlings, and after that they were forever in and out of the paddock and in the cart. You'd know when they started racing at two, they'd never miss away...first out and hard to catch."

Middleton was born in Methven, one of 10 children, and left school when he was 12 to dig potatoes by hand and bag them. He became a shearer, and with his brother Clarence, set a Mid-Canterbury record of shearing 372 sheep. "Clarence was quicker, but on this day they equalled each other," recalled Carl. In the off season he worked as a bulldozer driver and drag line operator before four years in the army, serving in Egypt and Italy. On returning home, he bought a farm alongside Clarrie May and then one at Highbank where he stayed until his retirement.

His first horse was Marawiti, a filly by Lucky Jack he bought off Jack Kennedy for £100. Much to the distress of his brother-in-law Jim Nordqvist, who wanted the colours himself, he was able to register the colours of Sweden, blue with gold crossed sashes. Marawiti was notable for winning two trots on the Waimate card in 1957 and did better when sold for £1600, which was a small fortune then. Gordon later bought her back for 100 guineas when she was offered at a mixed sale in Christchurch and to Light Brigade left the open class trotter, Laplander.

Laplander won eight races including the West Coast Trotting Stakes from Briganelli and Beau Winter. He also provided Carl with his first driving win, at a Cheviot meeting held at Rangiora, and just before he left to work in the US.

He is also survived by Carl's brother Ross and sister Clare Ede, six grandchildren and four great grandchildren.

Credit: Mike Grainger writing in HRWeekly 8Aug2012

WRACKLER & HARRY NICOLL: CHAMPIONS BOTH

What a combination it was. On our left was Wrackler rated "on all evidence available the world's best double gaited horse" and still the only one to win both the New Zealand Cup pacing and the Dominion Handicap trotting. On the right was his owner Harry Nicoll, arguably the greatest administrator in the history of the harness sport. An autocrat, he was the president of the New Zealand Trotting Conference (HRNZ) for over 25 years and of his Ashburton club for a staggering 48 years. Without Harry Nicholl the Inter-Dominion Championships would never have got off the ground.

An oarsman of international standard in his youth, it was said that Harry had never been to a trotting meeting until 1906 when the Ashburton club invited him to its meeting. It was not quite true. But the club was almost broke and Nicoll, a local business who successfully raced gallopers as "Mr J Case" and ran the local Racing Club was seen as a possible saviour.

Within two years Nicoll had embraced trotting and won the New Zealand Cup with Durbar, a 12-year-old he had bought here from an Australian and who raced on until he was 18. Nicoll was soon the leading owner and leading the code into class racing and handicapping by yards instead of clocks. After being thwarted by politics from heading the NZ Trotting Association he upset the famed Aucklander James Rowe for the chairmanship of the Conference in 1922 and won every election held from then until retiring in 1947.

By 1931 he was an honorary life member of every trotting club in New Zealand, joint president of the NZ Metropolitan club and later Predident of the Australasian Trotting Association. It was his offer to bankroll New Zealand horses going to Perth for the first Inter-Dominion which made the concept feasible. His Ashburton club was offering £3000 for three classic races in the 1920's making it the most successful in Australasia regardless of size.

Nicoll's Durbar Lodge near Ashburton was the leading stable with the renowned Andy Pringle as his private trainer. Nicoll bought from the United States the free-legged pacer, Wrack, by the world's leading sire Peter The Great, and the first genuine Grand Circuit horse to come to this country. He had paced 2.02.4 in Ohio shortly before his arrival - faster than later pacing supersire Hal Dale. Nicoll charged 40 guineas a service, a fee not matched for over 25 years and one Wrack could not sustain. History records he was a great success but for a time he was rejected by breeders until trainers like Bill Tomkinson, Don Warren and Roy Berry realised they did not handle high speed work and the tide was turned.

Nicoll was no sentimentalist. He sold up a lot of his horses during the Depression including Wrackler, and filly freak Arethusa, both retained by his son, Arthur. He sold his boom youngster, Indianapolis, Wrack's greatest son, knowing what he might become. In 1938 after the stallion had served 72 mares Nicoll sold Wrack to Tasmania. He died in Sydney in virtual exile the following year. It was a finale which did not sit well with many sportsmen here.

Nicoll was also controversial when Maurice Holmes, having knocked down half the field in the New Zealand Derby driving Nicoll's Arethusa, was given a suspension which ended the day before he was to drive her in the Northern Derby. "The judicial decision" raged the Truth newspaper, "could not have been more ridiculous had it decreed that in future Holmes was allowed to carry a sawn off shotgun to assist him bringing down what he desired."

Wrackler was all American-bred and his dam Trix Pointer the only Cup winning mare to leave a Cup winner. He was the champion 3-year-old and at four won the New Zealand Trotting Gold Cup in Wellington, a unique achievement for one that age. Wrackler was prepared by Don Warren to win the 1930 NZ Cup easily. It was a vintage pacing era so the Cup was run in divisions and Wrack horses thrived on hard racing. The day produced an amazing double because the Derby was the same day and won by Wrackler's sister, Arethusa, also driven by Maurice Holmes. Both horses wre typical Wracks - plain as pikestaffs, lean as whippets but with great stamina.

Warren was an expert and popular horseman with heart and personal problems. In August 1931 he was demoted by Nicoll as the Durbar Lodge trainer in favour of his assistant Jackie Behrns. A few weeks later Warren made a cup of tea for his wife and Behrns, chatted for a while and then went behind the barn and blew his head off with a shotgun. His health and demotion had devastared him. He was only 43.

At a War Relief meeting at Addington in July 1932 Behrns, having persuaded Arthur Nicoll who now owned him to try Wrackler as a trotter, won a feature at Addington at 8/8 in the betting which qualified him for the Dominion Handicap which he won four months later. At Addington about the same time he finished second in the big trot and in the very next race took on the "cream of the Dominion's pacers" in a high class race. His mixing of gaits could confuse him. In the 1934 Dominion he slid into a pace and lost his chance.

Wrackler was retired in 1935 but later returned to racing under Lester Maidens and won top trotting races at Addington as a 10-year-old. He lived a long and contented retirement carrying children to school on his back daily for many years before dying at the age of 27 in 1951.

It is virtually impossible his feat can be repeated in the modern era. Nor will any of Nicoll's successors be permitted to hold office for a quarter of a century. Wrackler and Harry Nicoll certainly like setting records.

Credit: David McCarthy writing in HRWeekly 8Aug2012

NOREEN STIVEN

Special significance surrounded the debut win of Arden Rooney at Addington last week. He raced in the ownership of the estate of the late Noreen Stiven, who sadly passed earlier in the month, aged 70.

About 40 years ago Noreen and her late husband Doug established the Arden brand and through the deeds of Kindergarten Stakes winner Arden Bay, West Australian Derby winner Arden Meadow, Great Northern Derby winner All Hart, Sales Series Final winner Arden's Darlin, Sires' Stakes Fillies Championship winner Arden Banner, Victoria Cup winner Bettor's Strike and many others, Arden has seldom been far from the headlines.

A West Otago resident practically all her life, Noreen was born in Gore in July 1942, went to Kelso Primary School and Gore High School. A keen sportswoman, she partook in rifle shooting, athletics and tennis and got down to a 22 handicap in golf. She married Doug in December, 1961 and had son John, and daughters, Leanne and Nadine.

John, who continued to work alongside his mother after the death of Doug in 2001, said neither of his parents came from a harness background but Noreen's father Henry Kirk had trained thoroughbreds. He said joining up with friend Blake Eskdale, who had standardbreds in the district, had helped his parents into the game. At the time they operated a milk run and the section across the road from their house in Tapanui had been their horse base. Treesnable was the first horse trained there.

Commentator Dave McDonald first met Noreen at the 1976 Tapanui races. It was his first day calling gallops and Noreen "mothered me the entire day and told me how well I was doing". They were good friends from then on and before her death, Noreen requested Dave be asked to speak at her service. Dave was able to shed light on Noreen and Doug's entry into harness racing courtesy of her brother Bill who recalls taking them to the races one day. Doug, who had never had a bet, apparently put £2 on a horse he liked the look of, even though it had no form. Experts tried to dissuade him but he invested regardless. The horse won, the collect was £42 and the pair's equine-interest was up and running. When their horse operation eventually moved from the section in Tapanui, their new establishment was named Arden Lodge, but conjecture as to how and why remains. Light Pointer was a foundation mare, followed by Bayswater, dam of Arden Bay.

Noreen was diagnosed with cancer more than 16 years ago and not everyone knew. Dave did, but it didn't surprise him many didn't because that was how Noreen was. Every time you met her you felt better, she put a smile on your face and lifted your day, he said. In 2008, during a period she was quite sick, Noreen was able to make a hectic trip to Auckland and experienced one of her proudest moments in harness racing. Arden Banner won the Sires' Stakes Fillies Final from Arden's Darlin, and she had bred them both. Arden Banner was out of Arden's Dream, named Southland Broodmare of the Year in 2008. Five years earlier Arden Regal took out the same title while just over a month before Noreen's death, Winter Rose made it three for her.

Known also for her ability as a musician, her baking, her rose growing and her hospitality, Noreen Stiven will be sadly missed. As Dave put it, a most remarkable and beautiful lady, a legend.

Credit: Mac Henry writing in HRWeekly 19 Sep 2012

INTERVIEW WITH BOB McARDLE

It was nearly 40 years ago when you and Wayne Francis started Nevele R. Where do you see the stud in, say, 10 years time?
It won't be there.

Are the days of big stud farms fading in favour of stallion station type operations?
Advances in genetic techniques and the shuttle stallions have changed it. But the full stud operation still has a lot to offer if it stays at the top of its game especially in the fertility area. When you have sharebrokers, bankers and lawyers handling off-site semen in their back yard you are going to have lower fertility.

What would your late patner Wayne Francis have thought of the present stud scene?
He would be ecstatic. Many of the best stallions in the world available to breeders here was his dream. He died in 1998 and I remember telling him not long before the end we might be able to get (AI) straws for Life Sign and Abercrombie. He just said, "Wouldn't that be something" - and look at it now.

But those advances have come at a cost to breeders and the industry?
A lot of money is going out of the country and American studs now dominate our industry. Some years ago when I was at Nevele R I worked hard to combine four of the leading breeding establishments in Australasia into a syndicate. My idea was to buy the leading US 3-year-old every second year so we could be the masters of our own destiny. We could each have had 50 services and 50 more for Australia, shuttled to America and the profits would be retained here.

What happened?
One horse I had in mind was Badlands Hanover and I went to America to do a deal. While I was there I found two of the four proposed syndicate members had made individual approaches to the owners to buy the horse themselves. So I thought "stuff that" and bought the rights for Nevele R there and then. I thought we missed a great opportunity not doing something like that. Now Blue Chip Farms in the States is sponsoring the Breeders Crown in Australia.

How did you set stallion fees in Nevele R's heyday and what do you think of fees now generally?
Breeders are hving a really tough time. If you are in the $5-10,000 range of fees to get commercial stock you need a $30,000 sale to break even. That is around the average. The delay in paying fees which has come in now is some help but you still have to pay. Breeders are dreamers and always have been. By the time you take a horse to the sales from a first season mare you are probably up for three service fees and without knowing how any of them might sell plus the risks involved. Wayne and I used to set fees by asking each other what we would be prepared to pay for a horse of the quality in question and go from there.

Through Bromac Lodge you are also in the dreamer category?
To some extent yes. But I am breeding 25 mares this year - I own 60 but have leased 35 out - and every one will be bred so that I have a sale market even if selling a filly. Actually we have probably done best with fillies recently but naturally we keep one filly from our top mares.

Your split from Nevele R was not amicable?
No. It ended in court. I said to the Trustees "there are no winners here just two losers." It could have been sorted and a lot of my dreams ended when I left there. I love going around selling semen. It was a great challenge mentally, you had to know everything that is going on and you had to think quickly on your feet when doing deals. I might travel 100,000km a year and I put my heart and soul into it. It gives me no pleasure to watch Nevele R not being the industry leader it was. It saddens me actually.

But you still sell semen?
I got Falcon Seelster as part of my settlement with the stud. He only lived another year but we still have 1300 straws of semen left. If you work on an eight straw per foal average that could be around 100 services and he still has strong appeal. There are two people in Australia who are just geniuses when it comes to frozen semen. They have been getting some mares in foal with one or two straws and so the numbers fluctuate. Mike Hill of Nevele R in also outstanding with frozen semen - the best in New Zealand I believe.

I seen to remember a few stories about Falcon Seelster. Was he a savage horse?
No, territorial, like most stallions. There was an incident with him, he was no boy's horse but the only knowledge you can trust about stallions is that you can never trust a stallion. Boyden Hanover was a laid back horse who suddenly hospitalised a handler one day. We had a policy at Nevele R that even if a stallion did not have a paid service that day we gave him a service because they know when they are not in the team and it makes them mean. Even Wayne, od all people, walked into a paddock at an American stud one day to look at Soky's Atom without thinking and got bowled over and ended up in hospital. Soky's Atom was a pussy cat most of the time but ook out if he was not first into the breeding barn. Not trusting any stallion is lesson number one in the stud business.

Falcon Seelster is now your only stallion property?
Yes. "A geriatric semen seller flogging a dead horse" is the best quote I have heard about that. But I believe in him. He is an amazing horse in that he was foaled in 1982 and he is still high up in the sires list and with a leading New Zealand Cup chance this spring (Franco Ledger). Because he is such an outcross from all the Meadow Skipper blood in our mares now he is a last chance saloon for many breeders.

What changes to the sales pitch do you have to make?
I don't go after the commercial breeders looking for sales toppers. His foals are never going to do that. I concentrate on the smaller breeder with a few mares looking for a cross from a horse like Falcon while it is still available. I get multiple bookings from breeders in that area. They desperately want a filly but his colts are tops too. I'm sure the commercial breeders will be knocking on the door when the semen stocks get low. I would have done 15,000km on the road on my last trip to Australia. You need to reinforce to some people that frozen semen from Falcon is no different to frozen semen from any living stallion - which is fact anyway.

How did you come to get him? He was already a successful stallion in the US.
One of those freaks of chance. He was doing a great job up there but his owner died and we happened to get on to the case from something I heard very early. We got the deal done quickly with the estate which was keen to sell. There were some very disappointed people around when they found out. We shuttled him for two years then he got EVA up there and had to stay there for four years. He sired McArdle there. He was the first shuttle stallion, in reality, and owned in New Zealand. That showed what could have been done.

That race at Delaware when he ran world best 1.51 on a half mile track (1985) before a crowd of 55,000 and held that record for nearly 20 years is still great iewing on You Tube - goose bumps stuff. What made him special as a racehorse and stallion?
His breeding cross(Warm Breeze over an Overtrick mare) is an outcross, but a proven cross and as I said mares with Meadow Skipper blood gave him a lot of options. There were thousands of them. Gait and soundness were two of his biggest attributes. His horses have a lot of stretch in their stride so that even if they were smaller than average it didn't affect their gait stretch. Courage Under Fire has a similar attribute. The other thing about Falcon Seelster horses is soundness. He ran in 51 races himself and his stock proved durable on the racetrack.

The drop in the number of mares available must make your job more difficult?
There used to be 9000 mares being bred from when Nevele R started and Australia had 19,000. There were 2800 here now two; 2200 yearlings and there will be 2000 foals this year. The same thing has happened in Australia. It has gone from 14,000 foals then to just over 5000 now. It does make things harder now but it is really bad news for racing people of the future.

The Australians prefer to come and buy made horses here?
Some of their leading figures tell me they are going to give up breeding and buy. But as the number of horses for sale drop so the prices will go up and it won't be so good for them then.

How do you get the message across?
I talk to trainers about it a lot. I tell them they should be working on their owners getting them to breed horses because otherwise in five years they won't have a business to operate. There can't be a better time in history to invest in the breeding industry. People who do are going to be rewarded.

The worry is that numbers have continued to drop since 1987 even through good economic times. Is your industry irrelevant to more people?
I don't believe so. As I said breeders have been hurting and they probably can't see any way out. Costs are high. Prices are good but not all that much higher compared to the rise of returns in other industries. Now is the time to return.

You spent many years dealing in horses for export. You and your brother John were pioneers sending top Austalians to Yonkers back in the 1960's (Apmat, winner of an International Series). How active are you now?
I have virtually given up that side of it. If I act as a go between now it is usually over breeding arrangements rather than selling. I used to love it but you can only do so many things when you get a little older.

Of course you raced and sold thoroughbreds too and was it a Hobart Cup which was one of your more memorable wins?
I came from Tasmania and did some amateur riding there. I bought Sir Trutone especially to win the Hobart Cup which he did(1973). A big thrill and a big day. I sold Butternut from Canterbury and she won a Moonee Valley Cup and many others. One of the first deals John and I did was sell a horse called Northern Demon from Ireland to a Whitney family stud in the States. That was big time then.

You have won nearly every award and honour going in harness racing and apart from having a sales toppers at the PGG Wrightson Sales you seem to have done it all. What now?
Topping the sales would be nice but I am changing my focus. My son and daughter now both live in Europe and I am aiming to organise the business so I can spend three months a year up there. I have been blessed to still have the health and energy to carry on and the enthusiasm is still there. But you have to remember the time comes to smell the roses along the way. That is my focus now.



Credit: David McCarthy writing in HR Weekly 19 Sep 12

GEORGE SHAND

George Shand, who died in Invercargill on his 83rd birthday, was a successful horseman and administrator in harness racing.

Shand was a former president of the NZ Trotting Owners, Trainers and Breeders' Association and president of the Waitaki Trotting Club when living at Waskdyke, where he operated a successful stable and farrier business.

Shand drove his first winner Lochella at Wanganui in 1951. He rode in jumping races for amateur riders about the same time. Lochella was trained by his father-in-law, Peter Gallagher. Shand was raised in Waikouaiti and shifted to Washdyke to complete an apprenticeship as a farrier with Bill Gallagher, brother of Peter. He married Peter's daughter, Aileen.

Shand won 373 races as a reinsman. Shand rated the 1976 Ashburton Flying Stakes with Mighty Gay as his major training and driving success. He bought Mighty Gay for $250. "I always had a soft spot for Mighty Gay," Shand said. Mighty Gay won the 1973 Waikouaiti Cup as a 3-year-old, the only horse to win that race at such an age. Gay Gordon, the sire of Mighty Gay, won the TAB double including the Waikouaiti Cup at the Waikouaiti meeting in 1965.

Another big thrill for Shand was winning a race at Mildura with Eastwood Jaunty, whom he raced with his daughter Pauline Hillis, of Invercargill. Eastwood Jaunty won 13 races including the Methven Cup in 2001 and 2003 and the inaugural Green Mile at Methven in 2000. Eastwood Jaunty won the 2001 Timaru Cup from a 45m handicap. Shand had his last race drive at Methven on Eastwood Jaunty when close to his 76th birthday.

Shand trained and drove Satyr to win the McCloy Memorial Handicap, the main race at Methven in 1960. He also won a race with Satyr at Forbury Park despite mistaking the number of rounds and easing up with five furlongs (1000m) to run.

He drove Dreamy Morn to win the 1973 Hannon Memorial at Oamaru. He trained and drove Borana to win the Forbury and Oamaru Juvenile Stakes and NZ Champion Stakes in the early 1980s. Borana won the 1985 NZ Cup when trained and Driven by Peter Jones at odds of 75 to one.

Shand had worthwhile success training for Timaru breeder Sam Woods snd racing the horses in partnership. He trained 10 winners out of the broodmare Worthy Scott, owned by Woods. They included open class trotters Pointer Hanover, About Time and Conclusion and Glentohi (1973 Kurow Cup). Pointer Hanover won the 1979 Canterbury Park Trotting Cup when driven by Peter Shand, a son of George. Another son, Gary has also had success as a reinsman.

George trained the galloper Waitohi when she won three races over two days at Westport in October, 1964. Co-owned by Woods, Waitohi won twice on the second day of that Westport meeting.

Credit: Taylor Strong writing in HRWeekly 19 Dec 2012

JOHN BURGESS

The death occurred recently of Leeston trainer John Burgess. He was 85, and when he drove a winner in the 2009/10 season he was the oldest driver to win a race in NZ.

Since 1985, he trained 36 winners, including four with Ready Money, by Nevele Gourmet, who he leased off his breeder, Bill Doyle. He also won four with Silverdale Pride, by Holdonmyheart, two with Katie May and John's Buddy, and one with La Finale.

His small stable was invariably trotters, and for nine successive seasons this century he never missed driving a winner.

Credit: HR Weekly 19 Dec 2012

DEXTER DUNN

Dexter has his 1000 wins.

It doesn't really seem that long ago that he was a "skinny kid" just getting his driving career underway. And here he is, seven years and 5664 drives later, and the number has raced past 1000.

This fast train of success started in New Zealand when Dexter was 17, winning at Addington with Crusader Franco, trained by his father, Robert. It peaked in the first race on the same track last Friday night when his 1000th winning salute came with the maiden trotter, No Potato.

The hard facts in between this show of remarkable youthful talent are these:

* his first winner was The Ultimate One at Geelong in September, 2006 - one of 24 drives when he was working for Andy Gath.

* three times he's driven six winners at a meeting, and it's been five on 10 occasions.

* 285 winners have been at Addington, 168 at Forbury Park and 101 at Ascot Park.

* HRNZ's marketing department reports that 366 winners have been trained by Cran Dalgety and 66 for Graeme Anderson and Amber Hoffman.

* He's just over 23. Mark Jones, who was the previous fastest to 1000, was 29 and took 12 years.

* He has won five premierships, and is on the way to winning a 6th.

* His UDR of .2817 has only been bettered by Mark Purdon (.2976) amongst those who have won 1000 races.

* his main horse helpers have been Donegal Delight(13), Texican(12), Smiling Shard(11) and Bettor's Strike(11).

While winning 1000 races is a huge feather in the cap of achievments, it joins others of equal significance, notably says Dexter: "Winning the Victoria Cup with Bettor's Strike was special. Representing New Zealand in the World Drivers' Championship was another. Getting on the front page of 'The Press' during Cup Week was good for everyone, and winning the Sportsman of the Year award here and beating Richie McCaw was up there, and he is my hero."

Dexter said it has been "a great journey. A far as my horses go, Smiling Shard has been pretty special, and of course the help I've had from Cran, that's really been everything to my career. I've had great support from so many people, but I also go to meetings and have my share of bad drives, too," he said.

The guiding hand and influence of Dalgety cannot be understated. "He's been with me the best part of five years and considering the high success he's had, it's in no way altered his personality. When he came here and was making nistakes in those first six or 12 months, my owners were saying 'who is this skinny kid you're putting up'. It was an issue, so I was doing a bit of patch-up work behind the scene." said Dalgety.

It didn't last long. Dexter went from four wins one seson to 146 the next, and in demand. "that also brought some jealousy, people wanting to give him bottom rib jabs. It happens everywhere when there's success. He was trying so hard and doing his best, but you still get the rock thowers . That hurt him. But we worked on that and he got hard and rode it through."
Dalgety said it came with being the 'Dan Carter' of the business. "And it's been good for my side of it. It has attracted new owners who see the chance of having Dexter on their horse, and it's had a snowball effect."

Another plus Dalgety has noticed is the development of Dexter's brother John. "They are very close, and if John was an adequate driver before, he has gone past that now, and it's apparent they now complement each other in the background."

Also on the cheerful side of Dexter's maturity is his ability to handle the banter when it can be sensitive. "We can get a big crew in for morning tea and there's a lot of chat that's usually healthy. He can get a bit of flak and he takes it."

In seven years, it's been a slick and focused performance. For the complete package of professionalism, Dexter has set the bar at a level that few, if any, will reach.


Credit: Mike Grainger writing in HRWeekly 5Dec12

DOUG MANGOS

Doug Mangos, who drove major winners in the 1960s and 70s, died in Christchurch on Friday (6 Jan)at the age of 76.

Constantine Ronald Douglas Mangos (licenced as D R Mangos) was employed at Roydon Lodge, Yaldhurst for some 35 years. The establishment was operated by Sir John and later Sir Roy McKenzie with George Noble the trainer during the time Mangos was there.

Mangos was licenced to drive at trials in 1954 and he was granted a probationary drivers licence two years later. He was an open horseman from the 1957-58 season when he drove Highland Air to win the Winter Handicap at Forbury Park. He drove La Mignon to win the main race, the C F Mark Memorial Handicap and the Farewell Handicap on the second night of the Auckland winter meeting in 1958.

La Mignon became the dam of Roydon Roux, whom Mangos drove in her seven wins, including the NZ Golden Slipper Stakes at Waimate, Princess Stakes in Auckland and the NZ Futurity Stakes at Rotorua, at two. She won the 1971 Great Northern Derby and the Wraith Memorial in Sydney the following season. She had to be destroyed after she shattered a pastern in Melbourne in March of her 3-year-old season.

Mangos drove Scottish Laddie to win the 1963 Great Northern Derby. Scottish Laddie was trained at Trentham by Jack Hunter for Roy McKenzie. Mangos drove General Frost to win the inaugural NZ Juvenile Championship in Auckland in 1968. The Noble-trained General Frost also won the Golden Slipper Stakes and the NZ Futurity Stakes at Rotorua with Mangos in the sulky. Mangos drove Vista Abbey to win a heat of the Inter-Dominion in Auckland in 1968.

Mangos was granted a professional training licence in 1969 to prepare the Roydon Lodge horses in the absence of Noble. He drove Jay Ar in three wins in top company, the season after the gelding had dead-heated for first with Robin Dundee in the Inter-Dominion Final at Forbury Park in 1965 with Noble in the sulky.

Brent Mangos, a son of Doug, is the Pukekohe trainer of Bettor Cover Lover, who made a notable retun to racing to win the Group 1 Queen Of Hearts at Alexandra Park on December 16 after a life-threatening injury to a foot eight months earlier.

Doug Mangos had his last driving win with Initial Thought at Addington in July, 2004. He trained Talaspring to win at a Franklin meeting in March, 2010.

Credit: HRWeekly 11Jan2012

DOUG MANGOS

Doug Mangos, who died in Christchurch recently aged 76 had the unusual distinction of being widely known harness horseman in Canterbury over a long period without ever operating a professional stable of his own.

He was an employee for 35 years of the famous Roydon Lodge establishment at Yaldhurst presided over by George Noble and, later, with his son, John, on behalf first of Sir John McKenzie, then his son Sir Roy, and finally Wayne Francis. Mangos did manage Roydon Lodge for a period in 1969 while George Noble was in the United States but his public profile was as a race driver.

"It was really the only job I ever had and I wouldn't have swapped one day of it," he recalled in retirement. "My wife Eileen and I had a family to bring up and it was too great a risk financially to set up our own stable."

Born in Lyell, he was christened in honour of his grandfather, Constantin, a gold assayer in the area where the Mangos family were prominent. He preferred his third given name, Douglas. The son of Lyell storekeepers who moved to Inangahua in the 1940s, he helped a local trainer "Plugger" Taylor after school, before shifting to Christchurch in 1950. He found a junior position at Roydon Lodge largely thanks to the brother of his future wife, Eileen. "We were paid three pounds a week and we had 15 horses in work but it wasn't what it seemed. The boss [Noble] used to work each horse twice and ungear and wash them down after each heat so it was like having a team of 30."

Mangos, a talented sportsman in his younger days, had his first winning drive behind Highland Air in Dunedin in the mid 1950s. "You had to wait your turn then. Young drivers didn't get much of a go. The driving fee was equal to a week's wages so it was a thrill to get one."

Roydon Lodge was the leading stable in the country in that era, noted for its brilliant younger horses. Noble, an Australian, took a shine to his young employee giving him greater driving opportunities than was normal for senior professionals at the time. "The boss was a qualified architect and applied his education to training like few others. He loved talking about horses and appreciated good listeners. I was a good listener and I never stopped learning." Mangos recalled.

He found out how thorough Noble was after he had beaten the champion Lordship in a Wellington Cup with Samantha in the early 1960s. Showered with congratulations at the time, the young driver was summoned to the Noble residence a few days later for a chat, which he gradually realised was actually a severe dressing down. "There were no videos then but the boss had seen a photo of the finish somewhere published a few days after the race, which showed me holding the reins in one hand ans weilding the whip in the other. He quietly said he couldn't be giving drives on good horses to people who did that. I never did it again."

Mangos had his first New Zealand Cup drive for the stable in 1957, aged just 22, behind the Roydon Lodge mare, La Mignon, which finished third, and he later won major races behind her two best foals - the ill-fated Roydon Roux, a filly Noble rated as the best he trained but which had to be destroyed after it fractured a pastern in Melbourne at the height of its career; and Garcon Roux, the first New Zealand three-year-old to beat the then hallowed mark of two minutes for a mile.

Jay Ar, a later Inter-Dominion champion, General Frost, Julie Hanover and Garcon Dór were just some of the headline horses Mangos drove for Roydon Lodge, while Holy Hal, Sapling, Rain Again, Master Alan, Danny's Pal and Garry Logan were top outside horses he was associated with. "I won a New Brighton Cup with Garry Logan when it was on the old grass track there. He was part of a four-horse bracket Felix Newfield had in the race. Felix was away and Maurice Holmes was on the best of them, Great Credit. Doug Watts, a terrific horseman, was driving another one, Guinness, and said to me at the start at least he had not been engaged for the worst one. Garry Logan shot straight to the front and was never headed." Mangos recalled.

Doug Mangos enjoyed a rewarding period as a freelance driver in Auckland in later years and then trained a few horses at a time in Canterbury on his own account, chiefly for sale overseas. Isa Rangi and his last winner, Talaspring, were among the best known.

Combined with his acknowledged skills with horses and his loyalty to family and employers it made Mangos a widely popular figure in the racing fraternity.

Credit: David McCarthy writing in the Press