| FEATURE RACE COMMENT |
YEAR: 2002
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Has David Butcher ever driven better? Regardless of whether he has or not, he can claim to be in superb form.
After driving 33-to-one shot Purr Along to victory at Alexandra Park on Thursday night, he was a Addington the next night, to settle a score with Disprove. The son of Camelon had raced without luck on either of the first two days at the Cup Meeting.
Again Butcher found him in fine fettle. He was quite relaxed about sitting in the open over the last lap of the SBS Banking Like It Should Be/ Heller Smallgoods Free-For-All, and he responded generously in the straight to win by two lengths from Mister D G, with a tiring Stars And Stripes all-out to hold third from Eastwood Jaunty.
Possibly in the best form of his career just now, and with an obvious liking for he big Addington track, Disprove went a super time for the 2600m mobile, taking 3:10.7. His programme now includes the Auckland Cup meeting, which trainer Nicky Chilcott is doing with some reluctance. "He is so much better going this way round, but what can you do? We can't really be sitting at home with a horse like him when that is going on," she said.
Chilcott again said how touch and go it was to have Disprove at the meeting. "I panicked early on. I was really worried about him. To be honest, I really wasn't that keen on coming south," she said. She chanced her arm on the environment at David and Catherine Butt's where she thought the beach work would be the tonic he needed. "Back home, he walks in the water, and that is about it," she said.
While the Auckland carnival is on the agenda, and that is about all, Melbourne is a firm one. "The Hunter Cup and the Victoria Cup are definitely on for us," said the pacer's part-owner, Wellington real estate agent Louis Newman, who races the horse with taxi driver Tony Jack and Lyn Jacobsen.
"They have had a lot of trouble with him, and twice he nearly died," said Newman. "Nicky has been superb with him, and David has given a lot of advice as well," he said. Newman was generous in his praise for Peter Jones, who gave the horse one race "then advised us to have him trained up north."
"It was just luck that I stumbled on him," said Chilcott.
Credit: Mike Grainger writing in HRWeekly 27Nov02
YEAR: 2001
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There were plenty of reasons why Nicky Chilcott couldn't win the Easter Cup. Firstly, he representative was Disprove, a mere C6 pacer up against ten others who, between them, had won every major Cup that exists on the Australasian calendar. Secondly, Disprove had endured a horror trip south, being stranded on the wharf at Wellington after leaving Bulls at 4:30am on Wednesday morning, two days out from the race, and not arriving in Christchurch until 7:30pm that night. And lastly, Nicky didn't have anywhere near the same big-race experience as the Purdons, the Butts and the De Filippis; the biggest event she had ever won was the $25,000 Country Cups Championship with Disprove at Alexandra Park just a week earlier.
Nicky was a bit out of her league, wasn't she?
Definitely not. History will show that in the 2001 Easter Cup Disprove defied all the odds, giving her trainer the biggest thrill of her life. Despite an uncharacteristic break at the start, he and his under-rated driver David Butcher managed to secure the one-one over the last lap after moving around the field starting the last mile. From there they pounced and left everybody else to it, winning the two-mile event in a pedestrian 4:10.7 which was embarrassing for the sit-sprinters behind them.
"I will treasure this for ever," Nicky said afterwards, still sporting a glazed look of disbelief on her face. No-one probably deserved the victory more than her though, because while every trainer works hard to get their horses to the post, Nicky works twice as hard. "It is a tough industry to get ahead in whether you are male or female, but being a woman you sort of have to prove yourself that much more," she said. "It has it's positives and negatives though. Egos do come into it - some guys don't want their horses trained by a female - but then again there's the owners that prefer their horses having a woman's touch."
And there is the "huge hours" that seem to go hand in hand with the job. Nicky rises at 5:00am every morning, seven days a week, and at the end of the day when she has checked the horses, mucked out the boxes and done some bookwork, it's rarely before 11:00pm when she puts herself to bed again. This is a heck of a lot of dedication, especially from someone who has had to pick herself up and start again after breaking her back in a horrific race smash. "Some people only see the glamour side of harness racing," she says. "But it's hard, and there is not a lot of money in it. If I had have been working for the money I would have been out of the game a long time ago. No, I am in it for the love of the game. I am very passionate about my horses and I love them."
Nicky says she got the right break at the right time when first starting out, because a couple of friends wanted to race a horse and that is all the encouragement she needed. Waharoa put her on the map - she trained him for the last six of his 10 victories - and he was followed by Shredder, who won all but one of his 11 races in Nicky's tangerine and white silks. Yet to complete her fourth full season, Nicky has notched up 78 victories already, 22 of them in this term alone - all at an excellent UDR rating of .3876.
Placing variety at the top of her priority list, she strives to give her horses as much of it as possible, going from swimming one day to trackwork the next, roadwork on another occasion and even a ride under saddle at the end of the week. Nicky spends a lot of time at Raglan Beach, one hour's drive from where her horses are stabled out the back of the Cambridge Raceway, and they seem to thrive on it. So much so, that she has quickly gained a 'Warren Stapleton-like reputation for rejuvenating broken-down horses. "You are lucky in some respects, because when you get horses from other trainers you have got nothing to lose. It's very satisfying winning races with them though."
Nicky says there are so many people to thank for making her Easter Cup victory possible, including her long list of helpers, Disprove's owners Lou Newman and Tony Jack for their faith in her and their horse, Colin and Julie De Filippi for their hospitality, and David Butcher for yet another masterful drive. "I love driving, and drive most of mine, but some horses just suit certain drivers better and Disprove is one of those.
"Where a lot of horses I get are broken down or sore I have had none of these problems with him, touch wood, it has mainly been a head thing. It hasn't been easy.
Credit: John Robinson writing in HRWeekly 11Apr01