| PEOPLE |
YEAR: 1982
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If Noel Berkett stopped training and driving tomorrow, his name at least would be around for some time to come. For one thing, the Richmond trainer's son, also Noel Leo, is training a small team at Yaldhurst. Working on some promising material, too, according to his father. And for another, there's a youngster being educated in Richmond who, if he's as good as his older sister, should win a few races. The yearling belongs to Noel Berkett's wife Dawn. And his name? "Berkett" "She couldn't think of a name for him so she applied for that one...and got it," the trainer said last week.
Berkett, the horse, is a son of Scotch Abbe and Tui Winter and therefore a brother to Bonnie Lass, winner of three races so far and lots of times placed. Berkett, the trainer and driver, was in the news again the other day when he trained and drove Game Pride filly Chesapeake to take the top plum for 3-year-old trotters, the NZ Trotting Stakes at Addington. It's a race in which the Berkett family has had as much success as anybody over the years.
Noel's father Leo drove later Inter-Dominion trotting final winner Aerial Scott to take first prize in 1945 and, two years later, won with his own horse Temple Star. Brother Colin won the race with King's Brigade in 1949 and then again with Battle Cry in 1953. Chesapeake wasn't Noel's first taste of victory in the event. Back in 1963 he drove Bill Doyle's Asia Minor to win the race. A few years ago, eight it was, he had Chesapeake's dam Susquehanna in the Stakes but could finish only fourth that time. One of the horses Noel junior is training at Yaldhurst is a 2-year-old by Some Evander out of Susquehanna. "Noel was hoping she'd start in the 2-year-old trots but the filly, Graceland, went slightly sore. It'll just be a matter of time, but it is disappointing when that happens," the young trainer's father said last week. "Just so long as she's right for the next Trotting Stakes," he said.
Noel junior uses his grandfather's colours of navy and sky blue, the colours of the Nelson rugby team. Which is appropriate. The Berketts have had a long association with that area. The family farmed at Hope, about three miles down the road from Noel senior's present property. "Dad always had about ten or a dozen in work in conjunction with the farming," Noel said last week. "I've been interested in horses ever since I knew what a horse was." Two other brothers, Ivan and Earle, were more interested in farming than the horses on the place. Those same racehorses, though, also had their use around the farm. "One team would pull the plough or harrows or drill for half a day; then there would be a new team in the afternoon. Dad grew all his own feed and was the biggest pea grower and lamb producer in the district. The racehorses used to do all the work. It would do a lot of horses good today," is Noel's opinion. Training was completed with three fast workouts a week.
It was Noel's father who gave Noel his first horse. He turned out to be a good sort too. "Dad bought out a chap in Westport, horses and all his gear. The one he gave me was Bulldozer who won quite a few races for me and then did well for Vic Alborn who had him later. Noel worked for his father until he married Dawn and moved down to Canterbury to start training for himself, first at Weedons and then later at Yaldhurst on a property previously used by Roy Berry and later Morrie Holmes. Dawn came from a family which raced gallopers, her father winning both the Nelson and Marlborough Cups. She is still intensely interested in horses, driving work whenever she can.
They moved south 35 years ago. Noel remembers well his first winner. "I will never forget her," he said last week. "She was Anne Scott. She won the first start I gave her and paid £167 at Addington." About 'six or seven' when Noel got her, the mare had won several races when previously trained in the North Island. "She started from 36 behind that day in a field of 20 or more. Dad's horse Snowflake went out favourite in the same race." That big dividend pales into insignificance when compared with the price Leo Berkett got with the first horse he ever trained. Back in March, 1920 Wairoa Belle won at Nelson and paid £1033/5/- to win. That is still a record.
Since that first win, Noel Berkett has been associated with a lot of horses. Highland Fling was probably the best of them. Noel didn't train the champion, but drove him down at Forbury Park and won three times. "I just wish I had one like him now," he said last week. "He was a bit slow off the mark. If they'd had mobile starts for him, he would have been almost unbeatable." Then there was Real Light, "the gamest horse I've seen. He won ten or eleven races in a year including a Dunedin Cup and at Auckland. I had problems with him for a start, but after that he was a great horse to train." There were a few problems, too, getting Mobile Globe to go away, but once they were sorted out, he went on to win the NZ Cup in 1952. "He wasn't a brilliant horse but on his day he was pretty good. He beat a good field that day, the likes of Johnny Globe, Young Charles, Soangetaha, Tactician, Burns Night, Van Dieman..."I love driving, especially if the material in front of you's right. That win would be my biggest thrill in trotting."
Prince Polka won the Auckland Cup for Noel back in 1955 while Denbry was another top performer. Berkett took Scottish Light through to Cup class too. Back in 1962 he made his mark by beating Lordship and Falsehood in the Louisson at Addington and followed this up by winning the big sprint of the day, the Lightning Handicap, four races later. More recently, there have been horses like Doctor Voss, a big winner in America and the speedy but unsound No Truant keeping Berkett's name to the fore.
Berkett moved back to his home territory eleven or twelve years ago. The climate in Christchurch got to him. "I got sick of it. I decided I could train just as well in Nelson and enjoy a decent climate at the same time." At the moment he has only a few racing but about eight in work, mainly youngsters. As well, the Berketts are breeding from Susquehanna, of course, Husleen, a good racemare by Court Martial, and Tui Winter. Noel has high hopes next season for a 2-year-old by Game Pride out of Husleen, Ol Fella he's called. "He's a fine little pacer. He has been placed at the trials and I think he'll be right next year." Then too, there's Berkett.
Chesapeake, Red Peter and the speedy filly Lady Eastburn comprise the current racing team. Chesapeake, who qualified as a 2-year-old in 3.24 at Blenheim, has done everything right all through. "She's given me no problems at all." A 3-year-old filly by Timely Knight, Lady Eastburn has won three races out of six this term, the last two on end. She'll probably line up in the DB fillies' race at Timaru on Friday. In the meantime, Berkett is still thinking what he will do next with Chesapeake, who is raced by his daughter, Mrs Petina Gaugler. "The filly's having a few days off," he said last week, "even though she is still very fresh after her run. I'll just have to think about it." And he's still thinking about his win the other night. "It's always good to win, but to get one like that..."
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Article in NZ HRWeekly 21Apr04
Harness racing lost one of its true ambassadors when Noel Berkett passed away on April 9 after a long illness. He was 82.
Berkett belonged to a family that left an indelible mark on the industry, because they won a remarkable four New Zealand Cups in the space of six years in the late 1940s and early 1950s. A son of Leo and brother of Earl, Colin and Doris, Noel was the last surviving member at the time of his passing.
Leo trained the legendary pacer Highland Fling, and drove the son of U Scott in the second of his back-to-back NZ Cup victories in 1947 & 1948. Colin partnered him in the first of those, and followed with another victory behind Loyal Nurse in 1949.
Noel was not to be left out either though, and his crowning moment of glory came in 1952 when he trained and drove Mobile Globe to power over a rain-soaked Addington surface and win the NZ Cup by four lengths. Noel also won the Auckland Cup with Prince Polka on the grass in 1955. His other notable achievements in the sport were being the leading driver of trotting winners in the 1953/4 season, with nine victories; winning the NZ Trotting Stakes in 1963 with Asia Minor, and then again in 1982 with Chesapeake, a fine Game Pride mare bred by him and his daughter Petina who ended up winning six races. Noel also broke-in and qualified the fine trotter Eastburn Grant as a 2-year-old.
Son-in-law Murray Pash says Berkett was a very family-orientated man, and he loved his grandchildren and great grandchildren. Berkett is survived by son Noel Jnr, daughters Cheryl Pash and Petina Gaugler, seven grandchildren and five great grandchildren.
Credit: Graham Ingram writing in NZ Trotting Calendar 14Apr82