| PEOPLE |
YEAR: 1985
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The former leading horseman Colin Reynold Berkett died at his Yaldhurst home last Thursday. He was 65.
A son of the late Leo Berkett, who trained the champion Highland Fling, Colin was the leading trainer in 1948 and 1949. He handled many top horses in those years, driving Highland Fling to win his first NZ Cup in 1947, while two years later he trained and drove Loyal Nurse to win the same event. Between them, Leo and Colin Berkett won three consecutive NZ Cup.
Colin Berkett established himself as one of NZ's leading horsemen after shifting from Richmond, near Nelson, to Yaldhurst in 1945 with his father. He set up a stable on his own account and won the trainers' premiership only a few years later. He was also the leading reinsman in the 1947/48 season.
Other notable performers from Colin's stable were Young Charles (second in the 1954 NZ Cup to Johnny Globe), Battle Cry (1953 NZ Trotting Stakes), King's Brigade (1949 NZ Trotting Stakes), Bellisima (1948 Rowe Cup), Great Credit (Dunedin Cup), Consistent (Golden Slipper Stakes), Tough Going (Rosso Antico), Smokey Range, Apollo Fifteen, Mighty Lee and There And Back, while he owned and trained the top trotting mare Tronso, who won the Dominion Handicap in 1966.
In the mid-1960s Colin took over the management of the Rolleston Hotel and maintained a small team, but ill-health in recent years saw his activities in trotting curtailed. In the late 1960s and early 70s, Colin also owned the top trotter Waterloo, who won 16 races in a vintage era of trotters. Many of Colin's horses were trained at the time by Leicester Tatterson, who trained at Yaldhurst before moving to his present Rangiora property, and Tatterson trained Waterloo for his first ten wins. When Tatterson shifted, Colin took over the training of Waterloo for the remainder of his career.
He was still a licensed trainer at the time of his death, 40 years after first gaining a professional horseman's licence. Colin drove regularly for about 20 years and was never suspended. On two occasions he was found £1/-/- for "looking around". Colin last had success as a part-owner of the useful trotter Be Game, who won three of his six starts from Derek Jones' stable last season.
Credit: Frank Marrion writing in NZ Trot Calendar 28May85