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Queenslanders Norm Jenkins & Stu Hunter

Stu Hunter remembers the day he went to Tasmania to see if Flashing Red felt like a horse worth buying. "I had been in snow and blizzards while I was training in America, but on this day the track was a bog; I had three raincoats on and we didn't want to be there. But when I trialled him he did whatever I asked him to do, and I thought a horse who would do that in those conditions might be tough so we bought him."

Aged 53, Hunter had cut his teeth working as a groom for Ross Croghan, and after 18 years in the States and 18 years back home, it wasn't hard for him to know the feel of a good horse. "I had seen him race in Tasmania about four years ago, and I phoned a friend about him and he told me he wasn't for sale. But soon after Barrie Rattray brought him from his owner at the time, Eric Blomquist, for $20,000, and soon after that we heard he was on the market for $40,000. After going down there, the price didn't put us off, and he's been in the finish of all the big ones over home," he said.

That means placings in the Hunter Cup, South Australia Cup, Fremantle Cup, Victoria Cup, Tooheys Mile, Inter-Dominion heat wins, and beating Mister D G in the Ballarat Cup - 13 first three Grand Circuit finishes all told.

Hunter, who previously raced Hyperstat in the 1987 Cup won by Lightning Blue from Luxury Liner and trained former New Zealander Happy Sunrise after he finished second in the Miracle Mile, was keen on the Cup idea as soon as Anthony Butt mentioned it. "He is a horse that's always thrived away from home. I knew he wouldn't be gone when the other horse went past him at the 600m. I just wasn't concerned because I'd seen what he had done racing in the Hunter Cup against Elsu. When you click him up, there is plenty of try in him. It was a scary drive but a great one," he said.

Since arriving at Premier Stables two months ago, Flashing Red has found the regime most agreeable and the staff, especially Aimee Edmonds, quickly made him a stable favourite. "You only dream about getting horses like Flashing Red, and I knew how tough he was," said Tim Butt. "He came over in terrific order. We stuck to the game plan all through, with eleven days between races." Naturally, he was thrilled to win the race, one that his grandfather the late Derek Jones won with Hands Down and Blossom Lady. "It was terrific. We were bought up with the NZ Cup, and the Hands Down one was the best I've seen. I've had five previous starters, so it is good to get the monkey off my back," he said.

Flashing Red is owned by Norm Jenkins, a Queensland property developer.

While Butt said it was a team effort, he paid Flashing Red the ultimate compliment: "When he came to out place he was just another horse. What we got is a horse with a determination to win. There will always be a box for him at home."

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(Article but John Robinson, HRWeekly, 16Nov06)

It was fitting that Cobbity Classic should run second to Flashing Red in Tuesday's NZ Cup, because he's the main reason why the runner-up was even here in the first place. Cobbity Classic's connections watched with interest from across the Tasman as Flashing Red grew in stature in the weeks leading up to the Cup; in a way, he was their measuring stick.

"We've gotten pretty used to racing him at home, so we know what he's like," said John McCarthy, Cobbity Classic's Queensland-based trainer. "Yes, we've had a few duels. And I actually think they're pretty similar sorts of horses. I didn't realise it, but someone told me just recently that they've raced against each other twenty times, and Cobbity's beaten him in fourteen of them. so seeing how Flashing Red was going so well across here, we kept paying up for the Cup.Th otherv thing in the back of my mind was that I didn't want Cobbity and our other two Grand Circuit horses (Be Good Johnny and Slipnslide) racing against each other all the time."

In the wash-up, Cobbity Classic came up a length and a quarter short of beating his more favoured fellow Australian - meaning that New Zealand's biggest event was quinellaed by a couple of Queenslanders. "Why not? You blokes do it to us enough times," McCarthy smiled. "But no this is a big thrill, and we're ecstatic. Andrew (son) drove him perfect, and he's only twenty so he will learn a lot from the experience too. Prior to the race we did talk about holding Flashing Red out and trying to lead ourselves, but this is the biggest track he has ever raced on and Red was probably the right horse to follow anyway."

Cobbity Classic only arrived in New Zealand seven days prior to the Cup, landing in Auckland then getting a connecting flight to Christchurch where he stayed with Catherine and David Butt out at Woodend Beach. And despite the 'hit and run' nature of the trip, the McCarthy clan were confident. "He is a good two-miler, so I knew the distance of the Cup wouldn't worry him," McCarthy continued. "He'd had two Grand Curcuit races back home and went really good in both of them, plus we train them in the sand so they are always pretty fit. And even though he has won a couple of Sinshine Sprints, including this year's one in 1:54, staying is his forte."

McCarthy believes that Queensland pacers running one-two in the Cup just further emphasises how far the State has come in recent years. "People under-estimate Queensland racing, yet it's gotten really, really strong lately. From oue stable alone, we won five Grand Circuit races last season. And I don't think Flashing Red's gone any better over here; you've got to remember, he had won two heats of the Inter-Dominion."

Cobbity Classic will step out again in the NZ Free-For-All this Friday, where he is expected to acquit himself well again. This year has been his trainer's first taste of Cup Week in Christchurch, and it won't be his last. "We might have to come back again now," McCarthy said. "Probably with Cobbity, because he is only eight and a year younger than Flashing Red. Or maybe one of our other two. They are not as tough as Cobbity but they have got a bit of zip."

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Among the beaten brigade behind the two Queenslanders on Tuesday was favourite Mainland Banner, who finished worse than second for the first time in her 20-start career when coming home ninth. "She got a perfect walk-in start, and then galloped," driver Ricky May lamented. "Sheshould not have done it really. Waipawa Lad galloped too, and I ended up back with him so it did cost us some ground. After that I took my time getting around them. The pressure really went on all of us when Winforu went. We were following Ants (Anthony Butt on Flashing Red) round the last bend, but sh was under sufference by then. She battled on okay afterwards," he said




Credit: Mike Grainger writing in HRWeekly 16Nov06

Brendon Hill & Robert Famularo's daughter Sara

Baileys Dream won the first battle in the NZ Cup countdown after an enthralling contest during the $20,000 Avon City Ford New Brighton Cup at Addington last week, but Flashing Red confirmed it is going to be another long suffering war for his rivals before he's finished.

In race number 166, and attempting to make it a Cups double on the night for 10-year-olds after Some Direction had dominated the Ordeal Trotting Cup in her 138th start, Flashing Red drove to the front 1300m from home and a burner down the back in 27.4 had most struggling just to keep up. But Baileys Dream was still keen and indeed relishing the chase, and he came again up the passing lane to have Flashing Red covered quite easily in the end by a neck in a searching 3:11.7, a mile rate of 1:58.6 in cool and breezy conditions.

The last mile had breezed by in 1:55.8 and it will be a scary thought that the remarkable Flashing Red, off the back of one easy workout at Ashburton a fortnight ago, can only be expected to improve with the run. Ricky May for one remains in awe of the unfashionably-bred stallion, when he is one of those who will be most concerned by him. A year ago it was Flashing Red who effectively 'gutted' Mainland Banner when he fought back to down her in the Ashburton Flying Stakes in a world record of 1:57.3 mile rate for 2400m stand, prompting May to comment "he is like a disease - one that won't go away".

May knows that Baileys Dream may have got the better of Flashing Red on this occasion, when the draw enabled him to win a tactical battle of wits, but also that it will be entirely a different day whenever he comes up against him again from a stand and/or over two miles. "We got the drop on him and got to him pretty easy, but he just doesn't give up - he is just an amazing horse," said May. "Baileys Dream felt terrific and I had no idea we'd gone that quick overall (3:11), but I can see we are going to need to be at peak and have things going in our favour at any time (to beat Flashing Red)," he added.

What also remains to be seen is whether May is doing battle with Flashing Red behind Baileys Dream or Mainland Banner come Cup Day, and it could be quite late in the piece before anyone knows. Mainland Banner is almost certain to resume at Ashburton and be driven by May, and Baileys Dream is just as certain to be bypassing that race. "We definitely won't be going there - we don't see it as being a good race for him," said caretaker-trainer Brendon 'Benny' Hill. "A hard race at that point doesn't suit and the Hannon and Methven Cup are looking far more attractive options along with a final lead-up race at Addington," he added. The latter could either be a race on November 2 and 11 days before the Cup, or the Cup Trial, but the "hard yards" would have been done by then anyway.

"It's a bit difficult for the owners and trainers and I don't want to upset anybody either," said May. "The mare is going to have to come back very well and it's not going to be easy. You can't ask Baileys Dream to do anything more than he's doing either. In some ways you kind of hope the decision might be taken out of your hands, but I guess we'll just have to make a call when the time comes if we have to," he added. It does appear though that if May decides to handle Mainland Banner in the Cup again, where she will be back on the front line, that the Baileys Dream drive will go back to Todd Mitchell. That being the case, for Hill's part, he would hope that Mitchell "doesn't go into the Cup cold" and has a drive beforehand. That might seem to suggest that May might have to make a decision before November 1, regardless of whether Baileys Dream and Mainland Banner are both engaged in the November 2 race at Addington or not.

What May does know though is that Baileys Dream is "that fit and well he is jumping out of his skin, and that the credit must go to Brendon. He was very keen and actually wanted to over race when I handed up tp Flashing Red - that's why he was getting his head round a bit - although much of that was simply because Anthony (Butt) was driving to get past us. I'm sure the time off has been a blessing in disguise as I think he's probably going through a few growing pains. With no more problems, I can only see him improving with the racing because it will just serve to settle him."

What Hill knows is that from now on Baileys Dream will only be racing from stands, which will be as much about getting him off the unruly list as keeping him settled. "We've been told hat he will have to race himself off the unruly line, and we definitely want to get him off it as well. "He went away in the Cup last year from the unruly mark, but he has to learn the (standing start) game and be on level terms if he wants to win."

Hill says that missing the Flying Stakes has little to do with that being the track where he almost certainly hurt himself in an accident in a workout at the start of the year. "We were following horses at the start and there was a lot of dust. I was blinded and he couldn't see much either, and he paniked and knuckled over. We carried on to win the heat, but a couple of days later he was swollen and sore."

Hill said last Friday that Baileys Dream was bright and appeared to have come through the New Brighton Cup in great shape. "I'll still weigh him on Sunday though and keep an eye on that. Their weight can't tell you everything but it can tell you something. Every race now will be a stepping stone and a learning curve towards having him spot on for the Cup.

Credit: Frank Marrion writing in HRWeekly 19Sep07

Flashing Red had to run a NZ record over 3200m to win the $750,000 2007 Christchurch Casino NZ Cup last Tuesday.

Written off as a pale portrait of the horse he was when he carried all before him last spring, Flashing Red overcame a 15m handicap and 14 others in a punishing, grinding, desparate drive to the finish. He was beaten at the 100m; had seen young star Monkey King go past, and then, briefly his stablemate Tribute. This was as near as Flashing Red was going to get and everyone was proud of him. But old horses just don't go away, not when they're great and have done it before, and not when their name is Flashing Red.

With more determination than most have ever seen, Flashing Red must have sensed that Monkey King hadn't finished with the king-hit he needed. Not even gradually, he closed up again, and 20 metres from the finish he was slowly widening the margin to win a magnificent race.

Was there disbelief? Almost. Was there astonishment? Yes. Was there acknowledgement for the greatest staying effort ever seen in the Cup? Yes, yes.

Flashing Red got there the hard way. He made a fair beginning, passing the breakers Foreal, Awesome Armbro and It's Ella. Changeover had made a fast start, and led until David Butcher gave way to Classic Cullen two laps out. This left Baileys Dream parked out, Roman Gladiator inside him, and Sly Flyin on his back. For the first mile, Anthony Butt sat at the back with Tribute and Monkey King. It was quick enough, so there was no hurry to get moving. Just before the 100m, he knew it was time to go. He rattled up Flashing Red. They set off, and Tribute followed, and Monkey King followed Tribute.

They made good, steady progress, and Flashing Red was as strong of any of them on the corner, outside Baileys Dream and Classic Cullen, who were both spent or getting near it, and look! Monkey King has joined in and looking sharp. Sly Flyin is also in the picture, and so is Changeover but he's in a spot of bother behind the tiring Classic Cullen.

With 25,000 people makng noises of some sorts, Monkey King appeared at the 100m as if he had the race by the collar. Stephen Reid, his driver, must have thought so. Had it been anything other than Flashing Red, he certainly would have got away with it. But no-one tangles with Flashing Red at the end of 3200 metres in a record 3:57.8 and has his nose in front at the end of it. Ask Monkey King. He Knows.

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The Cup Flashing Red won as an old horse last year will stay where it is. As an older horse this year, he bucked the odds, silenced the young pretenders, and produced what must be the greatest staying performance seen anywhere, anytime. Could any horse have climbed the harness racing mountain from ground-zero that Flashing Red faced this season, as a 10-year-old? And when his campaign seemed as good as gone, could Tim Butt and Phil Anderson and Anthony Butt then pick him up from the canvas and turn him into the 4:00.3 two-mile mauler he was a year ago? When everything said they couldn't, they did.

His win over Monkey King at Addington last Tuesday was certainly a five-star, must-see wonderment. The old dog-over the hill, a handicap to overcome, no longer the mighty marathon cruiser he used to be; little leg ailments - much to much on his plate really. Tim Butt never dropped his guard that far. He was keener on his stablemate Tribute, never on Foreal, but he kept safe and coy with Flashing Red, saying there might be one big race in him somewhere. He never said it would be the $750,000 2007 Christchurch Casino NZ Cup, and only 50 metres from the finish did he know for sure that it was.

Unlike last year, when Flashing Red was more or less invincible and went into the Cup with three successive wins, this campaign and build-up had never reached any glitzy heights. Tim said it was almost as if there were two different horses. He was thrilled when he started his build-up to the Cup again, pretty much quickly on target with his second in the Avon City Ford Cup to Baileys Dream, but the run took the edge off him. He had three further races, and appeared to slip with each of them. Not only was the prospect of winning a second Cup fading by the week, but there was the daunting challenge after his fading sixth at Ashburton of not knowing for sure what was needed to turn him round, if indeed it could be done.

Butt could see it wasn't the same as what it was the previous year. He knew they had to do something different when it was taking him so long to recover from his races. "He was fit enough, we knew that, so we focused on eliminating anything that might have worried him. We took him to the beach for his training. We'd had a little problem with a front joint, we thought he might have had ulcers. We were really going into unchartered territory with him, but we've always had faith." With a new battle plan underway, and deciding that going into the Cup fresh was the only chance they had, they anxiously monitored his revitalisation programme. "In the last seven days, you could see the change," he said. "And for his last hopple, he worked super. I still thought we might have been coming a week too late."

When he assessed the race, Butt saw a few pluses. "He was off fifteen metres, but that didn't worry me. I thought that two miles might negate that handicap. He has shown before that he rises to the occasion in these big races. And I thought he was old last year at nine, and here he is at ten. I wasn't as confident as I was last year, but I felt he'd still go a cheeky race." Deep down, he suspected Flashing Red might prove him wrong, as he had done before. "I could see Ants was very patient with him over that final mile, and then he had to go when he did. In the end, you've just got to do it. You still know that when they get older, you can't go to the well every week." This was a day in the week when the well was full. "I was yelling for him; I knew Monkey King might come to the end of it."

While Anderson and the Butts will see the end of Flashing Red's NZ racing career on Friday, it will also signal the start of another because there is a plan to return him next season to stand at stud in the South Island. Former trainer and part-owner Stuart Hunter said he would compete next month in the Victoria Cup and other Grand Circuit races in Australia, and his Cup win has already gained him a semi-final start in the new version of the Inter-Dominions

Hunter always enjoys recalling the manner in which he and part-owner Norm Jenkins came by Flashing Red. "He was racing down in Tasmania and bought by Barrie Rattray for $20,000. He was quoted to me at $40,000, which I was told was far too much. Nothing happened for a number of months, but I was still keen and eventually said I was going to go down and if I liked him I'd pay the price. It was an awful day and he was running in mud, but I thought he had some try in him. He always wanted to give you something more. So I paid the $40,000. He can run four twenty-eight quarters, and that can break their hearts." Hunter said he was so much better racing on the bigger tracks in NZ. "He'll race in a fifty-five inch hopple back home, and here he can go in a sixty-one inch. He's exceptional like that, and can stay a lot better."

Jenkins, natually enough, is happy to leave it to those who know best. "They're the experts; I just listen to what they say. I couldn't believe it. I didn't expect him to fight back when he was headed."

Of course, that's exactly what Tim did expect. "He rates right up there with Hands Down and Blossom Lady as the great stayers I've seen. Fortunately I can do what I like without pressure, and that only comes with experience. He was down and out, and he came back."

Back to win another Cup - now that takes a special kind of greatness.

Credit: Mike Grainger writing in HRWeekly 15Nov07

COURVY KAZI - Mystery Mare

With all due respect to those dedicated Aussie breeders who produce the odd real marvel from unlikely sourses how do we explain Flashing Red? Well, let me tell you, not by pedigree.

He was the only named foal from several offspring of dam Courvy Kazi. She was by Golden Medoro, a New Zealand bred stallion, who left 114 foals, 28 of who won about $12,000. The next stallion in the pedigree was another Kiwi, Master Scott, who left only 25 foals, two of whom started(both won).

Flashing Red's Australian history is quite complicated but his sire Echelon is the story of the pedigree. Flashing Red was the only live foal left by that old style hard-hitting 1:50.6 American racehorse from Courvy Kazi. By Troublemaker from a Race Time mare, Echelon left 107 winners in Australia, a good strike rate. They won over $5m but of course Flashing Red won nearly half of that.

Flashing Red, so dominant after Tim Butt and Phil Anderson assumed command, was a marvel, winning two NZ Cups(one a surprise to us all but evidence of his thoughness) and an Auckland Cup, ending up Aged Pacer of the Year. Not many Aussies have done that.

Credit: David McCarthy writing in Harnessed June 2016