| PEOPLE |
YEAR: 2008
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| Mark receives congratulations from wife Vicki |
Mark Purdon became the 16th New Zealand reinsman to notch up 1000 wins when he steered Doctor Mickey to victory at Ashburton on Labour Day. And just as quickly he began chipping away at the next 1000 when he proceeded to salute on Imagine Me, Auckland Reactor and Ohoka Utah on what was yet another stella day for his and training partner Grant Payne's Rolleston stable.
As a son of legendary horseman Roy Purdon and younger brother to Barry, it's hardly surprising that Mark longed to follow in the same footsteps and make harness racing his career as well. "I never thought about anything else," he said, recalling his childhood days. "One of my earliest recollections is sitting on the jogger with Uncle Sandy when I was about ten, and at the age of twelve I used to brush Sole Command every day after I came home from school. He was a wonderful horse, I really loved him. Besides, I was only average at school anyway...just there making up the numbers," he smiled.
Purdon gained his first win behind Dark And Dusty at the 'red clay' Northland circuit in February 1982, and within a couple of seasons he was soon compiling large totals on a regular basis. His best tally is the 75 winners he drove in 1988/89 and he went close again with 74 five years later; twice he's topped a million dollars in earnings during a season. "I get a kick out of any win really, but I suppose the prestigious races do mean a bit more to you," he said.
On the big days is where Purdon seems at his brilliant best, and there's no end to the amount of Group races he's racked up so far...110 of them in fact, including two NZ Cups, an Auckland Cup, an Inter-Dominion Pacing and Trotting Final, numerous age group Classics with both fillies and colts - not to mention the NZ Derby, a race which he's made his 'own' having partnered eight winners of the event since his first with Mark Roy in 1993.
Of all the 16 illustrious horsemen in this country's 1000-win Club though, Purdon is second to none when it comes to his amazing UDR, which highlights his strike rate. Currently at .4952 this season, it's at its highest yet. "I've been lucky with the sort of horses we've had over the years, because there's usually a lot of depth in the team," he said. "Plus your staff play a big part with the preparation of them all. But the UDR is something I'm conscious of, because you know that you've got a lot of following with the punter out there. So there's a certain pride involved, and you are always trying to do your best."
Credit: John Robinson writing in HRWeekly 30Oct08
YEAR: 2010
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The Mark Purdon and Grant Payne-trained Kotare Mach won his fifth race this season in the Vero 3YO Flying Stakes. The Mach Three colt has had a topsy-turvy season where he has either confidently won, or over-raced for a non-placing. However with two consecutive wins, the latest being a Group 2, Kotare Mach looks to be back on track.
Race favourite, Kotare Mach, quickly left the gates with Purdon at the reins to move toward the lead, before Sir Lincoln crossed him to take control out front. The pace was slow before the pressure came and Sir Lincoln quickened, whilst Purdon sat quietly in the trail.
Heading for home, Purdon sped Kotare Mach up as they charged through on the passing lane. Sir Lincoln looked to have a hold over the favourite before a surge from Kotare Mach saw him nudge out in front and take over the lead. Kotare Mach crossed the line with one-and-a-quarter lengths to spare over Sir Lincoln, making it a Mach Three quinella. Five Star Anvil finished half-a-head back in third.
Friday’s win was Kotare Mach’s second Group victory, with his first being the Group 1 2009 NZ Welcome Stakes. In his two seasons of racing, the three-year-old colt has won eight of his 16 starts and $151,460 in stakes for Kotare Downs Ltd. Next on the cards for Kotare Mach will no doubt be the Christian Cullen NZ Derby, which Purdon and Payne have won the last two years.
Credit: HRNZ
YEAR: 2010
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Because numbers are thin at the top end, I Can Doosit will line up in the Group 1 NZ Trotting Championship at Addington this Friday night. That's half the reason why, the other is the horse's undeniable talent - which was on display again in no uncertain terms when I Can Doosit waltzed away with last Saturday's $25,000 Lone Star Bar & Cafe 4-Year-Old Trotters Championship. The son of Muscles Yankee joined in and breezed on by near the business end of the 2600m Group 3 event, putting away his stablemate Pocaro and the rampant pacemaker McCready with ease as he won in a super quick 3.18.
Co-trainer Mark Purdon wasn't in the sulky this time, the reins instead being handed to Blair Orange as Purdon sat behind Pocaro, and he got to experience I Can Doosit's continuing dominance from another perspective. This was win number eight from just 12 starts and the fifth in succession for I Can Doosit, who was having his first look around Addington after a northern assault that saw him burst onto the trotting scene.
"There's been real improvement in him over the last eight to ten weeks," Purdon said, not meaning to state the obvious. "And there's some very nice horses in that intermediate grade in Auckland, but at his last start before returning south I was just so impressed with how he picked them up inside the last one hundred and fifty metres. He's a very, very promising type."
I Can Doosit is the third foal of Chiola Hanover mare Sheezadoosie, following in the footsteps of Continentaldoosie (1 win) and his highly regarded year-older full-brother Sno's Big Boy (11 wins to date). Purdon knows the breed well too, because he trained Sheezadoosie throughout her career and drove her in all but one of her seven victories. "She was never a naturally-gaited trotter," he recalled. "She's got better as she got older, but she was never fool-proof and wasn't one of those horses you could throw the reins at. So she did pretty well to get as far as she did."
Purdon considers himself "very lucky" to have I Can Doosit in the stable. The gelding was bred by Ken Breckon's company Breckon Bloodstock Ltd and is owned by a syndicate he manages called Breckon Bloodstock, and if I Can Doosit hadn't been a late withdrawal from the Sales as a youngster he could have well been doing all his winning for someone else. "He got hurt, doing significant damage to the tendons around the fetlock in a hind leg after being caught in a fence," Purdon said. "I had inspected him at Yarndley Farms leading up to the Sales, and he was a real standout. There's no doubt that he would have been a $100,000 yearling had he not got injured."
I Can Doosit began his career at Winton less than a year ago, running third on debut before winning at Oamaru and then Timaru during May. "He just scraped into the Jewels, but if anything he was on the way 'down' again because he'd done a lot in a short time. Tony (Herlihy) drove him for us that day, and he said the horse wanted to do it but just couldn't handle himself over a mile. Pocaro was way above him at that stage; he's really closed the gap now."
Purdon has both trained and sat behind some star trotters in his time, and even though he knows I Can Doosit's not quite up there yet, he says the 4-year-old's not far away. "He's such a great stayer, that's his forte, and I think his performance and time last week reflects that he's ready for the next level. You can do anything with him - go to the front or sit parked; he's a real nice horse. And we haven't ruled out this year's Rowe Cup with him either."
Credit: John Robinson writing in HRWeekly 8Apr10
YEAR: 2010
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Those who backed the winner of last year's NZ Derby would have probably cleaned up again in the Easter Cup on Saturday night. Because the same horse won both.
Sleepy Tripp emerged as a genuine open class force when he took out this year's $80,000 Stallion Station-sponsored Group 1, overcoming a lengthy enough early gallop to sprint past the more favoured trio of Baileys Dream, Bettor's Strike and Second Wind late in the piece.
It was a rare Easter time double and one achieved as quickly as possible by the son of Courage Under Fire, coming just 12 months since he was on top of the 3-year-old tree after his Derby victory, but it signalled that Sleepy Tripp has now furnished into the horse he promised to be all along.
Co-trainer/driver Mark Purdon didn't think it would be him doing the saluting at the end of the 3200m feature though. "I thought he'd blown it," Purdon said, referring to Sleepy Tripp's uncharacteristic early mistake. "Especially since he was so far from them once he settled. I know Bettor's Strike and Baileys Dream were still behind us when we got going, but we were giving the early leaders a fair start. And we were lucky the way the race panned out after that, getting the one-one behind Bettor's Strike for the last lap and a bit when Bailey crossed to the front."
By his own high standards, Sleepy Tripp had been slightly below his best in the weeks leading up to his first real test in the 'big time'. "His form had slipped," admitted Purdon, citing the race at Cambridge in January where he was beaten into fifth behind Tintin In America as being a point where the head-scratching began. I knew what my expectations of him were, and he wasn't living up to them. The night he ran second to Crystal Star at Forbury, Blair (Orange) said he probably should have won. But he must've picked up a bit of a bug in Auckland, and we've treated him three times since he returned home. Bill (Bishop) is very, very accurate in the blood tests he does, and there was just something lingering in the background. So we just did what we could, and I knew that in time his own system would fix whatever was troubling him. Prior to Invercargill was the first time there were signs his blood was coming right, and this week I could just tell by the way he was in the coat and eye that he was near his best again."
Raced by his Pleasant Point breeders Terry and Adrienne Taylor, Sleepy Tripp has now won 11 of his 25 starts and last Saturday night's victory tipped him over $520,000 in stakes. Three of those victories have been at Group level, with two 1's and a 2 in the cabinet so far, and Sleepy Tripp will give the couple every chance of adding to that when he heads north again shortly for the Taylor Mile and Messenger double-header followed by the Harness Jewels. "He's a lot stronger to sit behind now," said Purdon, comparing Sleepy Tripp this term to what he was like at three. And I'm really looking forward to next season with him, especially since the Inter-Dominions are here too."
Credit: John Robinson writing in HRWeekly 8Apr10
YEAR: 2010
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Week after week, Mark Purdon gets to sit behind some serious horseflesh. And for that reason, the uneducated amongst us might think it's 'easy' for him to drive as many winners as he does - and that he doesn't have to bring much to the table himself. But even the harshest armchair critic couldn't help but be impressed by the role Purdon played in winning the $80,000 Stallion Station NZ Welcome Stakes at Addington last Friday night, because it was a display of sheer split-second brilliance.
Purdon was on the hot favourite Major Mark, and after drawing the inside of the second row in the Group 1 feature he could forsee two things happening...firstly that the horse he followed out, Amazing Art, would lead; and secondly, his driver Robbie Holmes would more than likely take a trail behind something soon afterwards, leaving Major Mark three-deep and needing luck. It's what any rival would have done in the same situation, and it is exactly how things went over the early stages - Amazing Art handed up to Night Of The Stars as the field turned into the straight the first time, and Purdon was suddenly in a precarious position, his chances of winning the 1950m left in fate's hands.
Unbeknown to most though, Purdon was actually more concerned about holding his position on the back of Amazing Art. "On two previous occasions when I'd asked him to run early he'd gone rocky. I didn't want us to be any further back," he said. Safely through that hurdle, Purdon had no choice but to sit and play the waiting game as the race unfolded; 400 metres from home, he knew he was in trouble. "Everything else around me was flat," he said. But my fella was still in third gear. even as far back as that I didn't think we'd get a run."
Sticking to 'Plan A' and following Amazing Art into the passing lane, Purdon's one remaining hope was that his talented rival might ease out just enough to allow him and Major Mark through. That he did, inside the final 100 metres, but no sooner had Purdon pushed the accelerator on his Art Major colt in tight quarters when the unthinkable happened - Art Major's sulky wheel jammed inside Amazing Art's. It should have been enough to give the latter a well-constructed victory in the Welcome Stakes, but somehow Purdon managed to drag the horse back, unhook the sulky wheels and then extract one last-ditch lunge to snatch victory right on the line.
In his typically reserved manner, Purdon opted to praise his horse rather than pat himself on the back. "Amazing," he said, adding that he thought the winning post was coming up too soon. "I've never driven one that's been able to pick himself up and dive like that. Even as far as four hundred metres out, if you lock wheels or lose momentum for any reason, normally that's it."
If anything, Major Mark's performance on Friday was an indication that he had turned the corner again and reclaimed his title as the season's top 2-year-old. After all, this is the same horse that trailled in the Sapling Stakes at Ashburton on February 13 yet couldn't get near the eventual winner Terror To Love, finishing nearly three lengths away in third place. "He obviously just wasn't a hundred percent on the day," Purdon said, not being able to put it down to anything else. "One of his owners said to me at the time that he didn't seem to have his usual shine in his coat or that sparkle in his eye. And I see him every day, so I suppose it was a bit harder for me to notice any difference."
"Tonight was his most tradesman-like performance so far though, because he just didn't do a thing wrong out there. Obviously he's one of the best 2-year-olds we've had. There's just an 'X-factor' about him. He's got a brilliant turn of foot, but is also a really great stayer. He's got the all-round game."
Purdon's and Grant Payne's stable has been in sparkling form over the last couple of weeks. On the first night of the Easter Cup Carnival they won races with Russley Rascal, I Can Doosit and Sleepy Tripp, the last Friday they won five more - Addington wins by Major Mark, Emma Hamilton and Pocaro being matched by further victories at Alexandra Park with Lancome and Joyfuljoy.
Credit: John Robinson writing in HRWeekly 14Apr10
YEAR: 2010
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Mark Purdon is enjoying a real purple patch of form with the progeny of former top trotting racemares at the moment. On the first night of the Easter Cup carnival 10 days ago, his and training partner Grant Payne's representative I Can Doosit took out the Group 3 Four-Year-Old Trotters Championship at Addington. I Can Doosit is a son of the seven win mare Sheezadoosie, and last Friday night Purdon took major honours again in another Group 3, the $25,000 Dream With Me Stable/ NZ Trotters Trust NZ Trotting Oaks - this time with Emma Hamilton, a daughter of Miss Whiplash, who won on 13 occasions.
Friday's event was notable also for the fact that hot favourite Shezoneoftheboyz experienced defeat for the first time, breaking and losing all chance after 400 metres as she jostled for a position, and then repeating the misdemeanour swinging for home. Purdon himself had "a couple of hairy moments" early, Emma Hamilton threatening to bobble soon after the mobile was released. "She's not perfect yet," he said. "And I had to hang on to her until she got balanced up; once we'd gone three hundred metres we were alright though."
Drawn the second row Shezoneoftheboyz couldn't be in the picture early but Purdon always expected her to show up at some stage. She never did. "I had a couple of looks, and I could see Davy (Butt, driving Kahdon) but not the other filly. So I knew something must've happened to her. They were the two to beat." Wheeling past the 400m mark, Purdon had Emma Hamilton outside the leader Dixie Commando and poured the pressure on, and afterwards he said the Earl filly felt strong and was "doing it well within herself." At the finish Emma Hamilton had a length and a half to spare over Kahdon, with smaller margins back to Continental Auto and Dixie Commando, the latter doing a sterling job to stick on so well considering she's a maiden that was making her third appearance.
For Emma Hamilton, this was win number three from five starts, and now with just under $26,000 in stake earnings she is guaranteed a start in the Harness Jewels at Cambridge. Raced by Purdon and his wife Vicki together with the filly's breeders Tony and Anne Parker, the same couple that bred and raced Auckland Reactor initially, Emma Hamilton started her career in the North Island. Fifth on debut in January, she put together stylish back-to-back victories at Alexandra Park during February but then wrecked the formline with an early break next time out at Invercargill last month. "She's young and still learning, and it was just one of those occasions where she lost balance after trying to hold her spot early," Purdon said. Given a run against the pacers at the trials after that, specifically to get experience behind the mobile, Emma Hamilton "really impressed" he co-trainer/driver when finishing second to Born Again Cameo.
Her immediate programme from here is in the north again now, and she left yesterday (Tuesday) bound for familiar surrondings at the northern branch of Purdon and Payne's All Star Stables. "Before the Jewels, she'll line up over the Rowe Cup Meeting and then start in the Great Northern Derby," said Purdon, who has no qualms about taking on the 'boys' of the 3-year-old trotting ranks. "Considering what Shezoneoftheboyz and Kahdon have also done so far, the girls look a bit stronger this season. Emma Hamilton is tall and athletic-looking, but she's still not physically strong as yet. And I've always said to Tony (Parker)that if we look after her this year she could furnish into a really nice horse later on. One of her greatest attributes is her attitude; even when things got a bit dicey early on in the Oaks, she tried really hard to stay on her feet."
Credit: John Robinson writing in HRWeekly 14Apr10
YEAR: 2009
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First called upon to fill a seat due to sheer weight of numbers, Jimmy Curtin has again been handed the reins behind Sleepy Tripp for this Friday night's NZ Derby.
Curtin has teamed up with the Courage Under Fire gelding twice so far...in the Sires' Stakes Final on Cup Day last November (when trainers Mark Purdon and Grant Payne sent forth nearly a quarter of the field), finishing ninth - and again last week at Addington, where Sleepy Tripp produced a jaw-dropping performance to win the 3YO Flying Stakes from the parked position after the last 800 metres sizzled by in 54.8.
The Inter-Dominion suspension of Purdon has necessitated a need for Curtin's services once more, and he is the right man for the job. He couldn't recall how many times he has driven in the Group 1 feature race to date, but was quick to add that he had "never looked like winning it" in the past. Things are totally different this time around. "He went super last week," Curtin said of Sleepy Tripp's latest victory and final sectionals.
"I knew we were doin' a bit, especially over that last half, because he was a little flat until I pulled the plugs turning for home - and then he kicked again. The distance of the Derby should suit him; there's no doubt that he has got speed and can stay as well, so he has got a few things going for him. But it's a pretty good field too, and of course it all depends on the draw and what sort of luck he gets in the running."
Luck - all of it bad - kept Sleepy Tripp from being a major player in the finish of the 1950m Sires' Stakes Final earlier this season, but the extra three and a half furlongs of Friday night's contest should ensure that every contender gets their chance. "He never got into the race that day," Curtin said, thinking back to November. "He was a victim of circumstances really though, and was now show at all."
Credit: John Robinson writing in HR Weekly 1 Apr2009
YEAR: 2009
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When it comes to Sleepy Tripp, not much has changed in three years. As a foal he was almost impossible to catch in the paddock, and these days his rivals on the racetrack have trouble getting near him too. That sheer tenacity was again on display at Addington last Friday night, when Sleepy Tripp kept all challengers at bay and won the $300,000 Christian Cullen NZ Derby.
Bred and raced by Pleasant Point's Terry and Adrienne Taylor, Sleepy Tripp was providing the couple with one of their most cherished moments in life when he took out the Group 1 event last night. So they must shudder at the thought that they could have easily sold him early on. "He was a little bugger," Terry recalled. "He would always keep at least an arm's length away from you, his mother was the same. Of the four horses we bred that year, I remember thinking he would be the first to go."
The Taylors had been dairy farmers in the Bay of Islands and Whangarei for 30 years, where they also had a Jersey Stud. Shifting south at the turn of the century in search of cooler weather, they originally settled in Oamaru before purchasing a 350 acre beef farm at Pleasant Point in 2001. They opted for a lifestyle change soon afterwards though, selling off the bulk of their new property but leaving themselves with enough land (50 acres) to run a few cattle, build a new home, and pursue one last passion which had been only a dream up until that point - breeding racehorses.
"Adrienne had been my 'right-hand man' on the farm all those years," Taylor said with a smile. "And you can get a bit sick of it (the lifestyle) after a while. We are both in our seventies, so we decided we may as well sell up and enjoy ourselves."
Terry and Adrienne have always enjoyed going to the races, and when living up north they tried to get along to Alexandra Park "whenever we had the time". Now that chance to breed some horses had finally arrived, they were going to need some broodmares, so Terry started attending Mixed Sales and picked up the odd mare here and there. Admittedly knowing very little about harness bloodlines, the Taylors stuck to the basics and what they remembered from three decades of dairy farming - plus the advice of a learned friend: that producing quality stock was "ten percent breeding and ninety percent feeding".
Some good luck never goes amiss either though, and in this regard you would almost think that the Taylors were blessed with the 'Midas' touch, because just about every one of the of the dozen or so horses they have bred since they began has either won or been sold overseas - and their good fortune started right from the word go.
One of the first mares they purchased was Sleepy Tripp's dam Fancy Fitch, outlaying $1200 to secure the daughter of Fitch II and Happy Widow from a mixed sale when she was in foal to Mystical Shark. "There's a bit of a long story about her," Terry said. "When she came home from the stud after giving birth, she had the wrong foal on her; there had been some sort of mix up in the paddock, and the foals must've swapped mothers. The horse turned out to be Franco Smoothie (Holmes Hanover-Smooth Performer), and he won a couple of races for us before we sold him to the States. The Mystical Shark foal out of Fancy Fitch never even made it to the trials, and actually ended up dying."
The Taylors then bred Fancy Fitch to Live Or Die and she produced Dead Or Alive, who won races at two, three and four here before they sold him to Australia in May last year. Waiting in the wings at the same stage was Fancy Fitch's then 2-year-old by Courage Under Fire, the Taylors choosing to stick with Nevele R because "they'd been good to us", and he was named after the famous American speedway driver Sleepy Tripp.
Broken-in by Maree Price, she had thought enough enough of Sleepy Tripp early on to suggest that the Taylors go straight to the top and ask Mark Purdon to train him, and after joining the roster at All Stars Stables he had caused a few headaches there as well. "He was a bit silly," Purdon said. "He'd shown a bit of speed at two, but he wasn't coping mentally with the work as we were stepping him up. He was too fierce, and just wanted to run all the time. He'd rear up at the start on occasions too - just hypo, really." Purdon and training partner Grant Payne had pretty much ironed out Sleepy Tripp's idiosyncrasies by the time he debuted at Addington towards the end of October last year, and after being sent out a red-hot $1.60 favourite he won with a leg in the air despite being three-wide and parked throughout.
So emphatic was the victory, even a reinsman the ilk of Mark Purdon was left reaching for superlatives. "He really impressed me that night," Purdon said. "It wasn't just a good maiden win. Tim (Butt) had lined up one with a bit of a reputation, but we'd sat outside him and beat him easily. I thought then that he'd be able to step up to the better 3-year-olds."
Such a display of raw ability hadn't gone unnoticed by the talent scouts out there either, and within days Purdon was on the phone to the Taylors with the news of a six-figure proposition. "Mark rang and said he'd received a big offer," Terry said. "But we didn't need the money, and I remember thinking that if someone else thought he was that good - we may as well keep him." Neither his trainers or his connections could've predicted a NZ Derby victory within six months though, but Purdon is now adamant that Sleepy Tripp's going all the way to the top. "He's gone to another level again. He's just got that 'all-rounder' quality, and definitely looks like a Cup horse in the making."
Sleepy Tripp's now won eight of his 12 appearances and nearly $390,000. After the icing on the cake last Friday night, the Taylors have yet to come back to earth. "It's a huge thrill for us," Terry said. "Some people try for years to breed a horse like this; we definitelty didn't think it would happen so soon."
Credit: John Robinson writing in HR Weekly 8 Apr09
YEAR: 2009
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Despite the myriad of training successes they have enjoyed, something still manages to keep Mark Purdon and his training cohort Grant Payne guessing. Her name's Pocaro. The Sundon filly enjoyed being back against her own gender again in last Friday night's NZ Trotting Oaks at Addington, and after getting around from her unruly draw to lead the 1950 metre Group 3 event, she clung gamely to the task to hold out a spirited bid from Jumanji Franco. Both horses broke late in the piece, and Purdon was left scratching his head about the winner's performance.
"On her training this week I thought she would've won for fun," he said afterwards. But it was a better showing from her, because at least she (almost) got around in one piece." As a 2-year-old Pocaro had one speed - full bore. She's calmed down a bit in that regard this season, but has still got a tendency to voer-race early, which is why her trainers placed her on the unruly in a bid to curb that enthusiasm.
As Pocaro has shown throughout her career though, when she's good she's very good, but the trouble in more recent times has been her breaking during the running. All Stars Stables has left no stone unturned trying to get to the bottom of the problem, with Purdon saying that she has undergone extensive examinations on numerous occasions with her vet Bill Bishop, also having her joints injected and even having a chiropractor look over her. But he still believes that the Sundon filly may be sore somewhere. "Sher would be a great candidate for that treatment where they pump a blue dye through a horse's system and it shows up all the hot spots. I think it's something I'll have to talk about with the owners."
Pocaro is raced by Trevor Casey, Jim and Tim Wheelan, Stephen Ward and Shane Hausler, and so far she has won the quintet over $85,000 - the result of seven victories from 13 outings, two of the Group 3s. "She is a very strong trotter, with a lot of speed," Purdon enthused. "We will go up north with her now, for three races. She thrives on trips away, and has won up there before so she could well be safer the Auckland way around."
Credit: John Robinson writing in HR Weekly 8Apr09
YEAR: 2009
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Since then and until now, it has been a long time between good horses for Tony and Gay Abell. The space has been occupied by one or two handy horses prefixed with 'Kotare' but none as classy as the first one.
Nearly 40 years ago, the Abells struck it rich with Kotare Legend, a horse they bred. The son of Fallacy won 14 of his 56 races while trained by Leicester Tatterson, but none of them in three light racing campaigns after he turned five and ended at seven with Gary Hillier. He had a bumper season at three, winning nine races but not a Derby, and finishing ninth on the all-time money list that season behind Arapaho, Robalan, Young Quinn, Easton Light, Koarakau, Noodlum, Bachelor Tom and Speedy Guest. It was hard to find one half as good after that, although the ill-fated Kotare Testament went close to doing so.
But Abell had many more strings to his bow and harness racing, to its benefit, found them out. He waited longer than most to become a member of the NZ Metropolitan Trotting Club. "There was a waiting list when I wanted to join, and I gave John Osborne a cheque - which he discovered in a trouser pocket eighteen months later." After serving as a steward and then as a committeeman, he went on to become President of the Club and these were good years. He was Chairman of the Inter-Dominion Harness Racing Council - now defunct - and he was Chairman of the NZ Sires' Stakes Board - all posts that took a man of merit to handle. These were front-line jobs, and Abell said it was nothing for him to be in and out of town three times a week.
He still holds his AI ticket, and it's probably true to say that no-one has had it longer. "Back then, I stood Bay Foyle, Brad Hanover, Estes Minbar and Dominion Hanover, and when AI came in that was pretty much the end of it for back-yard breeders. It was time to give up. It was work for the vets, but I asked Cliff Irvine why it couldn't be done by others, and Cliff said there was no reason at all why not. So I went on the first AI course, and being an 'A' followed by a 'b' my name was the first on the list, and I was the first to get a certificate. I still do it now, for my mares and a few who are nearby."
One of them is Extra B G, the dam of Kotare Mach, a 2-year-old colt by Mach Three. In winning the $100,000 Bromac Lodge NZ Welcome Stakes at Addington last Saturday with crushing ease against moderate opposition, Kotare Mach has signalled that the Abells have one with the talent that could match what Kotare Legend did. It would also be a just reward for the countless hours and effort that Abell has given to harness racing as a distinguished administrator. As sponsor Bob McArdle said: "One can't measure the influence Tony has had on the industry, and I know we will be seeing a lot more of this horse in these circumstances."
The Abells bred Kotare Mach, but it was the late Peter Andrews, who followed Tony as the Chairman of the Met, who started the ball rolling. He bought Tanisa Vance as a yearling at Auckland although the official owners when she first went to stud were Graham Heenan, Keith Miles and Graeme Hawkins. "I can recall how tiny Tanisa Vance was, and she was tried and was no good, so they bred her to Pathfinder," said Abell. "I remember the foal was a thin, terrible looking thing, and they asked me to look after her. The mare was in foal to Butler B G, so I also reared and weaned the filly she had, and it was broken in and tried but didn't race."
In the meantime, Abell had leased Tanisa Vance and bred two from her - the smart Kotare Jaeger by Andrel who won eight, and Kotare Jay, and Jane Moody used her later to breed Ross The Boss. Having taken over the Butler B G filly, named Extra B G in return for looking after her, Abell sent her to Camtastic, Falcon Seelster and Presidential Ball for filly foals, Armbro Operative - to whom she left a capable horse in Kotare Jago - and a filly by Village Jasper before he settled on Mach Three. "Extra B G was from a strong family and she was a good size herself. She hadn't had many colts, just one in fact, and I really like Mach Three from the start. I actually had a booking, but when they put the fee up from $6000 to $8000 I didn't take it up. Then, we were up at Auckland for the final night of the Inter-Dominions, and Mach Three was advertised at a special rate of $6000 just for that night. I booked in Extra B G then."
The mare left a brown colt and if Abell didn't know he had something a little extra then, the figuring came soon enough. "He was a little bull, always strong and capable. I liked him right from the start and I told this to my neighbour, Dennis Bennett. And he looked bigger than he's turned out to be. I thought he might be half a hand taller than what he is." Abell broke him and did all the early work with him. "As is my habit, with anything I think a bit of I send to Mark Smolenski for evaluation. He usually has them for a month. He got very excited about him, and of course that didn't surprise me."
"He was just a happy, easy-going horse. And my question to Mark was 'will we qualify him?" He did that well enough; Dexter Dunn driving him for Smolenski in a qualifer he won by 11 lengths on November 1 at Ashburton. There was talk of big money for him after that. "We had three approaches before he raced, and the answer to each of them was no. We really breed horses to sell and shouldn't fall in love with them, but with this one we did. Mark suggested even then, before he raced, that Mark Purdon should have him, but we were happy to leave him where he was for his first start. He got a rough run in that, and a punctured tyre, so we left him there for the Sapling Stakes and Mark took him after that."
From three starts for Purdon and Payne, Kotare Mach has won three, setting a New Zealand record over 1700m at Invercargill, a win in a Sires' Stakes Heat and then his wholesale destruction of the Welcome Stakes field. From the sidelines, and being a horseman himself, Abell had mixed feelings of losing his young star. "He looked forward to his work every day, and I do miss him. But I suspected he could be a bit special, and I knew I had to give him up. My only hope is that I get him home to look after at some time, but then I might not."
Always enthusiastic, Abell is not slowing down at 74, and is handling six yearlings. Extra B G has a filly foal at foot by Live Or Die and her next mating will be back to Mach Three in 2010. They will all carry the 'Kotare' moniker, but it will be 'Mach' who should continue the legend.
Credit: Mike Grainger writing in HR Weekly 16Apr09
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