 | RACING HISTORY |
YEAR: 2011
FEATURE RACE COMMENT
2011 NEW ZEALAND TROTTING FREE-FOR-ALL
Vulcan's win in the New Zealand Trotting Free-For-All might have been something of a farewell of sorts for driver Anthony Butt but most would view it as a reinforcement of a fine tradition. Vulcan, dual Harness Jewels champion, 4yo Trotter Of The Year in a voting clean sweep, is typical of the development of trotting talent which has been a speciality of the Butt brothers, Tim and Anthony for so many years. You hardly need to mention Take A Moment and the great Lyall Creek but there have been many more.
A touch of genius one might say in this case since Epona, the dam of Vulcan, is a sister to the trotter of that name which won 24 races and over $200,000 for Jennifer Butt and Don McKenzie who have bred from this family for several years, as Jenny's late husband Murray had previously. Abundant, the dam of Genius and Epona, was from First Prize, an enigmatic but highly talented trotter for Jennifer's father, Derek, a man whose Expertise with trotters himself went back to stars of the 1950's starting with Barrier Reef.
Tim Butt is not going into the Dominion Handicap with the same sort of confidence he has had in some years. "Ideally he is a year away. In fact I would probably not have run him today if horses like I Can Doo had paid up. But I suppose he is here and he is well and if he stays that way he can take his chance." The Dominion Handicap is almost in danger of being renamed the Butt Family Stakes. Anthony has won eight of them and seven have been trained by Tim. It is one hell of a tradition.
Tradition is something Anthony will break when he moves on a semi-permanent basis to Sydney on Staurday where stable stars such as Raglan are already in great form. He was the first to qualify for a start in the Miracle Mile beating Mr Feelgood in the Newcastle Mile. "I will basically be there full time until April perhaps coming back for some big races. You have to give it your best shot and we are hoping to build up a big team there over the next few months," Anthony said. "Quite a lot of New Zealand horses come in well under the handicapping system there. We have Trojan for example. He won nine here and is an M0 in Sydney. I think we will get plenty of support when people realise what is on offer there."
If Anthony, left parked with Vulcan for long enough to claim a well deserved win, was happy with another Group win on Cup Day (2003 is the only Cup Tuesday this century he has not driven a winner) Ricky May was not so happy with Stylish Monarch. "He just lost it after that false start," Ricky said. "The gate closed quite quickly and it seemed to spook him. He didn't recover. I didn't think I would get him up to the gate the second time and he just never got it together after that. He has never done anything like that with me before. Usually nothing bothers him."
Credit: David McCarthy writing in H R Weekly 10Nov11