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FEATURE RACE COMMENT

 

YEAR: 2004

Zuri winning the 2004 Trotting Derby
Zuri matched looks with performance with a superior showing in the $50,000 Christchurch Casino NZ Trotting Derby.

After drawing one, he kept the lead and held off the trailing Apache Blue Jean by a length and a half. Hurricane Flyer ran a safe third after a similar trip on the outer behind Sun Watch. It was Zuri's 10th start and seventh win. He was beaten once at two by Diedre Don, and twice this season finished fourth behind aged horses.

The chestnut son of Grant Our Wishes has won his last five on the trot, and will soon go north for excellent opportunities against those of his own age later this month. Trained by Ken Ford, Zuri was driven by Mark Jones who said it was never hard for him. "He is a grand stayer." His dam Midnight Saga, by Yankee Jolter, has also left good performers Bede ans Aramid. She lost her foal by Sugarcane Hanover last season and died not long after. Waiting in the wings are a yearling and a weanling out of her, both by Armbro Invasion.



Credit: Harness Racing Weekly 7Apr04

 

YEAR: 2004

Amanda Tomlinson & Ken Ford share the spoils
Ken Ford is taking a softly-softly approach with Aramid this season. He knows it is a tall order to expect the 5-year-old trotter to attend every big event, and he has already declared he won't be there. "He won't be going to Ashburton; no mobiles. I don't want to bustle him. Kaikoura might be next," he said.

Ford is aware that Aramid has been busy for one so young, and intends to give him a quieter season. "He rushed along very quickly when he started. It was perhaps a bit much for him. Now, he is looking a bit stronger on the front end."

Already he has started off his new campaign with a bang, a solid start for seventh at Motukarara followed by a tremendously good run to beat Zirinovsky in the Giannis Pita Bread Canterbury Park Trotting Cup at Addington last Friday night. He did some ground at the start, tracked up Castleton's Mission over the last lap, sat three-wide from the 800m, then ran clear when Jimmy Curtin told him there was some business to do in the straight.

It was Aramid at his best, and at his best he is very much in the top handful of trotters in New Zealand. "I was a wee bit confident before the race," said Ford. "He has never worked better; he's never been better round the place," he said. Ford said he was pleased with the way Aramid came through the race. He ate up everything and jogged up the next day. It was something I used to do as a rugby player, when I played sixteen years of senior rugby in Kaikoura. I had always have a quiet run the next day to get any soreness out of the body," he said.

Ford and his daughter Amanda Tomlinson, who part-owns Aramid, know what it takes to keep the level up. Tomlinson was a New Zealand 200 metre sprint champion on the track, and played for the New Zealand women's rugby team. Aramid couldn't be in better hands.

Credit: Mike Grainger writing in HRWeekly 13Oct04

 

YEAR: 2005

Aramid (inner) catches Cracker Nova
Ken Ford turned 57 last Wednesday, and the next night one of the stars of his small racing team delivered his own version of a present by winning at Addington. And it was a decent present too - victory in the $20,000 Ordeal Trotting Cup.

Aramid sat parked during the early rush for positions before Jimmy Curtin pushed him to the front nearing the 2000 metre mark, taking a trail behind Cracker Nova soon afterwards. From there the big Grant Our Wishes gelding had the best sit, all he had to do was lift himself at the business end, and Curtin timed their lunge to perfection.

The victory was win number 10 for Aramid, but just his third in the last two years, ending a frustrating run of poor form that have given his connections plenty of headaches. "We knew something wasn't right with him, but for a while just couldn't pinpoint what it was," Ford said. "There was trouble with his near-side leg, but he wasn't lame or swollen so it wasn't obvious. In the end Dave Senior scanned the leg and found he had a small tear in the suspensory - just the size of a matchstick head. Dave said that we could either push on and it would be alright, and he would probably win another race, or we could spell him and probably win a heap more."

That was last December. Aramid went out for a six-month spell soon afterwards, and the build-up to his two runs this campaign was long and methodical. "I felt for a while he was coming good," Ford continued. "He's just got some tightening up to do yet. He is fit, he just needs that sharpness back again.

Now a 6-year-old, Aramid is raced by Ford and his daughter Amanda Tomlinson, who's not too proud to admit that he is her favourite - or to give him some 'yell' at the end of a race either.

Credit: John Robinson writing in HRWeekly 21Sep05

 

YEAR: 2016

KEN FORD - Horseman

For three seasons, Arabess was left empty and the Ford family kept their distance. Loyal Clint was the only one who put up with her bad side. His parents Ken and Diane and sister Amanda Tomlinson, more concerned, used stern words that reflected their opinion and you might guess what they were. "She was very difficult to deal with," recalled Ken. "Hard to load on the float, always wanting to kick, and you could say we were all a bit frightened of her. She was more Clint's horse and he stuck by her, and his prudent and careful management paid off with a useful race career and a breeding one that has already topped that. After winning three races from 46 starts, Arabess was sent to Sundon, leaving a colt that was to be the brilliant young trotter, Marcoola.

As far as breeding went, that was the end of it, because Arabess was then left empty. But as Marcoola developed the Fords knew the mare had left something special, and there was a gap in the line. "We look a bit silly now, not breeding her, but we've always done the mares here," said Ken, indicating the battle ahead if they had tried again with Arabess at home. They didn't want to face that. So we sent her to Nevele R and they had no trouble with her and she's in foal to Trixton."

Marcoola set a 3yo c&g national record when he defeated High Gait in the New Zealand Trotting derby, running 3:13.9(1:59.9) for the mobile 2600m and he'd run 3:14.9 the week before, so he was only getting better. Since they were given Kahlum by close family friends Peter and Ellen Smith 30 years ago, the family has always cultivated their trotting breed, and while Marcoola is not the best - Zuri won 12 and Aramid 10 - he is hot on their tails.

Back then the Ford's lived in Kaikoura where Ken's father Bruce had a transport business; gravel and tip-trucks, and selling and servicing Holdens and Vauxhalls. When Bruce returned from the war, where he served in the Middle East, he tried his luck with a galloper. It was of no account, which caused his wife Margaret to tell him:"One more and I'll go." A threat that fortunately she never carried out.

Ken's schooling was at Rangiora High School as a boarder along with his brother Brian who still runs the trucks. Both were brilliant rugby players, first 15ers and both played wing; Brian went on a bit and played for the All Blacks. Ken's first career was shearing here and in Australia which gave them the equity to buy a dairy farm. During this time, their children Clint, Amanda and Trish were into riding, eventing and pony clubs, and the Smiths taught them how to ride. At one time Clint was a youthful assistant Clerk of the Course at the annual Kaikoura meeting. When they decided to ship south, the Smiths insisted they take one of their numerous mares and suggested one they had by Noodlum.

"It was Kahlum. They had just qualified a Roydon Glen pacer from her and they liked the way he went." This was Lyell Creek and a month later he qualified as a trotter. He would win 56 races and achieve greatness. Looking for 10 acres, the Fords bought the 120 acres in West Melton owned by former Met president Peter Andrews, on the condition he left a mare, which he dis - Evelyn's Choice.

Ken's first job was driving a delivery van around the city before work at Paparoa Prison as a prison guard for years. When Ken told near neighbour, Jim Dalgety he'd been offered Kahlum, Jim told him to accept at once; furthermore, he suggested serving her with his resident stallion, Wingspread. The Progeny from this mating was Laurel Creek, who didn't race but wouldn't have been a disgrace if she had. "She could run the time and had the potential to be real good," recalled Ken, "but she got hurt on the track and we never tried her after that."

Kahlum would leave 11 foals of varying talent; Jacquimo was a smart pacer by Courage Under Fire, The Iron Gate gave Clint his first win as a driver at Hawera. Little Mo is ready to step up to the middle grade, and they always rated Lumlum, an unraced daughter of Grant Our Wishes.

From her nine foals, Laurel Creek has left six winners, with Amaretto Sun the best of them. He has one five from 16 starts, and heads to the Jewels along with Marcoola. The last of them is Laurelson, a rangy 3yo filly by Monarchy who will get her chance.

Lumlum is the dam of Spirit Of Sun, a winning daughter of Sundon, and bred with the blood of two sires Ken is soft on. Spirit Of Sun foaled a filly this season by Superfast Stuart and is in foal to Peak. With Arabess back in business, Ken says, "There is every possibility he will use semen from the deceased Sundon next season, and maybe Zsa Zsa as well."


As well as the senior members of the family, the junior ones are up to their hocks in horses; Sheree, Amanda's daughter, is a promising junior driver with Murray Brown and her sister Keryn is helping Bruce Negus whenever she can. Keryn has won the Kids Kartz New Zealand Cup three times with Dimmy and Frisbee and her younger brother Zane won the race in November with Frisbee. Earlier this year Zane was invited to compete in an Australian competition over two days in Canberra, finishing well with a second in the consolation. Clint's young boys Lochie and Sam are now into it, giving certainly to the thought that the Ford family will flourish famously both on the track and off it.



Credit: Mike Grainger writing in Harnessed May 2016



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