| HORSES |
YEAR: 1998
 |
Waipounamu, winner of 17 races trotting in the 1970s, has been put down at the age of 29.
"The winters were getting harder on him with his bad arthritis," Bill Sutherland, a son of Waipounamu's late owner Gordon Sutherland, said. Waipounamu had been running at Riverdale, where Gordon Sutherland farmed.
"He (Waipounamu) was a bit of a character. 'Old Jack', as we called him, was still jumping the odd gate to get into a better paddock until a couple of years ago." The jumping habit was a characteristic of Waipounamu when he was in the Duntroon stable of the late Stewart Sutherland, a brother of Gordon.
The Aksarben-Tataus gelding, bred by Stewart, was 11 when he recorded his final win, the 1980 Canterbury Park Trotting Cup with Jack Smolenski the driver. Inter-Dominion winners Hano Direct and No Response were among the beaten division.
Waipounamu had his first win as a 4-year-old at the 50th jubilee meeting of the Wyndham Trotting Club in March, 1973. He won each season he raced, except as a 9-year-old. He was retired in 1980 with a record of 203 starts for 17 wins and 73 placings for $72,075 in stakes.
His other good wins were the NZ National Trot at Alexandra Park, Ordeal Cup at Addington and the Banks Peninsula Cup. He ran second to Ritch Hill in the 1978 Rowe Cup in Auckland and he filled a similar placing behind Maori's Idol in a heat on the Inter-Dominion at Moonee Valley in 1978.
Credit: NZ HRWeekly 17Jun98
YEAR: 1992
 |
| Stewart Sutherland and Hickory Stick |
North Otago trainer and popular identity Stewart Sutherland died on Monday after a short illness. Aged 64, Sutherland passed away almost a year after winning the feature trot at the Forbury Park Trotting Club's meeting with Hickory Stick.
Sutherland was a good man with a trotter, his best win being the Canterbury Park Trotting Cup with Waipounamu, a son of Aksarben. He fared well with Aksarben stock because Screws Loose was an open class daughter of the sire, and finishing second in the Rowe Cup. Screws Loose won eight races, her major one being the Greymouth Trotting Stakes in 1975, but she won at least two at Addington and in one of them defeated Castleton's Pride.
A big man, Sutherland started off as a musterer and later became the private trainer for Bill McCone, a past president of the Oamaru Harness Racing Club. Sutherland was a steward of the club. Young Atlas and Hazel Grattan were notable winners from the stable, but his best performer was probably Frown, a son of Dillon Hall. Racing in the late 50s Frown won 11 races, four of them at Forbury Park, where he won the Flying Handicap from Arania, Sun Chief and Thunder. His only win at Addington was as an 8-year-old when he took the New Year Handicap, but he was still going at 10, and finished fourth in the Lightning Handicap to Cardigan Bay, Samantha and Lordship.
Only A Rose (6 wins), Tintern Pride (3) and Black Moss (3) were some of the more recent winners, and Dodge City was handled by his daughter Karen to win the night Hickory Stick won the Forbury Park feature. All told, Sutherland trained 262 winners, his best totals were 19 in 1975/6 and 17 in 1959/60. He drove 190 winners.
He is survived by his wife Colleen, son Roger and daughters Karen and Jan Meikle.
Credit: NZ HRWeekly 29Apr92