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Aramid (inner) catches Cracker Nova

Ken Ford turned 57 last Wednesday, and the next night one of the stars of his small racing team delivered his own version of a present by winning at Addington. And it was a decent present too - victory in the $20,000 Ordeal Trotting Cup.

Aramid sat parked during the early rush for positions before Jimmy Curtin pushed him to the front nearing the 2000 metre mark, taking a trail behind Cracker Nova soon afterwards. From there the big Grant Our Wishes gelding had the best sit, all he had to do was lift himself at the business end, and Curtin timed their lunge to perfection.

The victory was win number 10 for Aramid, but just his third in the last two years, ending a frustrating run of poor form that have given his connections plenty of headaches. "We knew something wasn't right with him, but for a while just couldn't pinpoint what it was," Ford said. "There was trouble with his near-side leg, but he wasn't lame or swollen so it wasn't obvious. In the end Dave Senior scanned the leg and found he had a small tear in the suspensory - just the size of a matchstick head. Dave said that we could either push on and it would be alright, and he would probably win another race, or we could spell him and probably win a heap more."

That was last December. Aramid went out for a six-month spell soon afterwards, and the build-up to his two runs this campaign was long and methodical. "I felt for a while he was coming good," Ford continued. "He's just got some tightening up to do yet. He is fit, he just needs that sharpness back again.

Now a 6-year-old, Aramid is raced by Ford and his daughter Amanda Tomlinson, who's not too proud to admit that he is her favourite - or to give him some 'yell' at the end of a race either.

Credit: John Robinson writing in HRWeekly 21Sep05

Amanda Tomlinson & Ken Ford share the spoils

Ken Ford is taking a softly-softly approach with Aramid this season. He knows it is a tall order to expect the 5-year-old trotter to attend every big event, and he has already declared he won't be there. "He won't be going to Ashburton; no mobiles. I don't want to bustle him. Kaikoura might be next," he said.

Ford is aware that Aramid has been busy for one so young, and intends to give him a quieter season. "He rushed along very quickly when he started. It was perhaps a bit much for him. Now, he is looking a bit stronger on the front end."

Already he has started off his new campaign with a bang, a solid start for seventh at Motukarara followed by a tremendously good run to beat Zirinovsky in the Giannis Pita Bread Canterbury Park Trotting Cup at Addington last Friday night. He did some ground at the start, tracked up Castleton's Mission over the last lap, sat three-wide from the 800m, then ran clear when Jimmy Curtin told him there was some business to do in the straight.

It was Aramid at his best, and at his best he is very much in the top handful of trotters in New Zealand. "I was a wee bit confident before the race," said Ford. "He has never worked better; he's never been better round the place," he said. Ford said he was pleased with the way Aramid came through the race. He ate up everything and jogged up the next day. It was something I used to do as a rugby player, when I played sixteen years of senior rugby in Kaikoura. I had always have a quiet run the next day to get any soreness out of the body," he said.

Ford and his daughter Amanda Tomlinson, who part-owns Aramid, know what it takes to keep the level up. Tomlinson was a New Zealand 200 metre sprint champion on the track, and played for the New Zealand women's rugby team. Aramid couldn't be in better hands.

Credit: Mike Grainger writing in HRWeekly 13Oct04