| HORSES |
YEAR: 1999
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No Response, the 1978/79 NZ Harness Horse of the Year, died last week. No Response, who turned 28 last Sunday, was in retirement on the property at Kerrytown where he was trained by Richard Brosnan for breeder Fred Black, of St Kilda and formerly Pleasant Point. The property is leased by Brosnan to David Gaffaney.
An electrifying run from the rear of the field at the 600m carried No Response to a two-length win in the Inter-Dominion Trotting Championship Grand Final at Addington in 1979. The Hodgen's Surprise-Cordsworth gelding had won his heats on the first two nights. He won the NZ Trotting Championship on the fourth day to post 10 successive wins and 12 fron 16 starts as a 7-year-old.
His achievments earned him the Horse of the Year title. His other major wins that season were the Benson and Hedges Stakes and NZ National Trot at Alexandra Park. No Response did not win in six starts as a 8-year-old but he came back at nine to win the J Rowe Memorial Cup at Alexandra Park, the NZ Trotting Championship and three other races.
No Response began his racing career at Waikouaiti in October 1977 as a 6-year-old when unplaced. He was then trained by Black and won at his next start at Orari. He won his next start for Black at Washdyke and then transferred to Brosnan, who was his regular driver. "I remember most of his wins, but one of his best efforts was his win in a free-for-all at Timaru before he went to Australia in 1981," said Black, who is 89. He won a heat of the Australasian Trotting Championship at Moonee Valley in 1981 from five starts in Australia.
He was retired after the Rowe Cup with a record of 24 wins and 21 placings from 60 starts for $135,128 in stakes.
Black won four races with Cordsworth (by speedy trotter Ripcord), the dam of No Response. He had been given First Axworth, the dam of Cordsworth, by a friend, Dave Hansen of Palmerston North.
Credit: Taylor Strong writing in HRWeekly 11Aug99
YEAR: 1984
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Bonnie's Chance, who ranks as one of the greatest mares ever to complete in NZ, has gone into honourable retirement.
The champion Majestic Chance-Bonnie Countess mare had her last start at Addington on December 30, and went out on a high note when she took the NZ Standarbred Breeders' stakes for the third successive year. Locked up three back on the fence behind Hilarious Guest and Jilaire's Chance, it was late in the straight before the gap opened along the rails which enabled Bonnie's Chance to sneak through and claim a length victory over Hilarious Guest in 2:01.2.
Following that race, trainer-driver Richard Brosnan said he was tempted to have another tilt at the Auckland Cup in February, the only major race which has eluded her. But a week later, the decision was taken, after consultation with owners Mesdames Bonnie McGarry and Karen Grice, to retire her. "It was a hard decision to make, but for the good of the horse it was the right one," Richard Brosnan said last week.
Bonnie's Chance, who has been troubled with leg problems for some time now, retires with $357,000 in stakes, second only to another grand mare, Delightful Lady, on the list of stakes winners to race solely in NZ. She started 75 times for 32 wins and 20 placings, including the 1982 NZ Cup. Her victory over Hands Down in 1:56.2 for the mile at Washdyke makes her the equal fastest miler (with Lord Module) in a race in NZ, and she shares with Steel Jaw the record for a mobile 2600 metres at Addington - 3:15.4.
Bonnie's Chance has been served by Lordship and had gone 21 days at the time of her December 30 win at Addington. He dam, Bonnie Countess, recently foaled a colt to the Albatross stallion Sholty Imp, and is to be mated with Lordship.
Credit: NZ Trotting Calendar 10Jan84
YEAR: 1982
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| Bonnie's Chance holds out Armalight |
Bonnie's Chance became the 20th horse, and the fifth in succession, to take out the NZ Cup - NZ Free-For-All double when she took out the 1982 Free-For-All. The Kerrytown queen's victory came after a hard-fought tussle with two previous double winners - Armalight and Hands Down - and was without question one of the most courageous efforts posted by the mare.
One of the first out, Bonnie's Chance became awkwardly placed as positions changed in the first 1200 metres, at which point trainer-driver Richard Brosnan had to push out three wide and set off after Hands Down, who was on a forward run up towards the pacemaker Zabadak. Hands Down was sitting on Zabadak's wheel from the 900 metres, leaving Bonnie's Chance parked three wide, but she dashed past Hands Down soon after straightening up.
Once clear, Bonnie's Chance had to find more reserves to hold of the rapidly improving Armalight, who had threaded her way forward from a second line draw to be in behind the leaders on the home turn. Armalight tried to overhaul Bonnie's Chance, but was forced wider on the track as the Cup winner drifted out in the run home, and was half a length back at the finish. Hands Down, who was left struggling when Bonnie's Chance dashed to the lead at the top of the straight, rallied again to get within three quarters of a length of Armalight, then there was a big gap to Remote, who lost her position with a round to go and had to battle on gamely from the back. Tarlad did best of the others.
Bonnie's Chance clocked an outstanding 2:28.5 for the mobile 2000 metres, a mile rate of 1:59.6. Considering the runners had to contend with a strong head wind twice down the Addington straight, it was a particularly meritorious performance.
Credit: Tony Williams writing in NZ Trotting Calendar
YEAR: 1982
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| Owners Bonnie McGarry (with cup) and Karen Grice with Richard Brosnan |
Bonnie's Chance, who so often had to be content with the runner-up spot in the big ones last season, savoured the sweet taste of victory when she romped away with the NZ Cup at Addington last Tuesday.
While she had proved no match for Armalight last year, this time it was Bonnie's Chance who made it a one horse race to the line. Ironically, in the 1981 contest Bonnie's Chance was favoured but Armalight surprised everyone. Last Tuesday, Armalight was all the rage and a shadow had hung over Bonnie's Chance.
There is little doubt about the class of either mare, but this year the Cup belonged to "Katy". It didn't look that way on paper though. Armalight and Hands Down, the only horses handicapped after previous wins in the event, were disputing favouritism the minute the tote opened. However, it was not their day. Armalight didn't produce the fantastic final 800 metre sprint that thrilled the 1981 crowd and Hands Down was knocked silly by Ben, who broke for no reason with only 1100 metres of the race completed. Peter Jones was noticeably disappointed afterwards.
Armalight made a brilliant beginning at the start and was soon in touch with the leaders, while Hands Down, after bobbling for a few strides, tacked on to the end of the bunch before too long. Bonnie's Chance was the early leader, but down the straight the first time Cyllarus wasn't to be denied and took up the running. As expected, Hilarious Guest was also in search of the lead though and she took over 400 metres later. It was about this stage that Hands Down disappeared out the back, losing any chance. Ben was later disqualified from fourth place for causing the incident, but his driver, Graham Reaks, was found not guilty of any offence as he made every endeavour to avoid the incident.
The running was the same for the remainder of the race. Hilarious Guest from Armalight in the open, Cyllarus and Quiet Win trailing, Glen Moria the rails and Bonnie's Chance the outer, and El Regale and Ben completing the bunch. Champion trotter Scotch Tar got in touch with the field during the middle stages but dropped away again when the pressure went on after missing away at the start.
As the field headed down the back straight, everyone half expected Armalight and Bob Negus to wave goodbye again, but it wasn't to be. In fact, before the home turn, it was obvious Bonnie's Chance was going to have the last say, although the way she asserted her superiority caught many by surprise. Up four wide around Quiet Win on the turn, Bonnie's Chance just careered away. Her winning margin was seven lengths.
"We went a bit sooner than I wanted to go, but it was a case of now or never," Brosnan admitted afterwards. Bonnie's Chance had been flushed out by Ben, but it hardly mattered. Armalight was game in defeat, holding on to beat Quiet Win by a length and a half, while Ben was two lengths away, shading Cyllarus and El Regale.
Bonnie's Chance recorded a respectable 4:09 for thw 3200 metre journey, but the event was never the gruelling two-miler it was expected to be.
Richard Brosnan took over the training of Bonnie's Chance almost exactly two years ago when she was on the verge of cup class. For him, she's lined up 31 times for 15 wins and 11 placings. The $60,000 stake and $1100 cup elevated her earnings to almost $250,000 for owners Bonnie McGarry and Karen Grice.
Credit: Frank Marrion writing in the NZ Trotting Calendar
YEAR: 1981
1981 BENSON & HEDGES NZ FREE-FOR-ALL
"I reckon someone must have pinched the motor out of my car and put it into that horse... and I've got a big car." With those few words John Noble probably summed up the feelings of the other drivers who, like him, had finished away down the track in Armalight's world-shattering Free-For-All last Friday.
There was something slightly unreal about the NZ Cup winner's performance in the $25,000 Benson and Hedges event. In winning in 2:23.5 she smashed the mighty Robalan's world record time for the mobile 2000 metres by 3.1 seconds. And yet all the way she just looked as though she was cruising.
Everyone remembers that day back in November 1974 when Robalan crushed a top field in the Free-For-All to set the new standard - and the effort Lord Module had to put up to get within a tick of that time a couple of years ago. But visualise those three running their times in an imaginary simultaneous race...and then think again about Brent Smith's champion mare out in front at the line, 16 lengths to the good of Robalan on his day. That's some feat of imagination. But that's how it would have been.
In actual fact on Friday, she had a 'mere' three lengths on Bonnie's Chance and Superior Chance. But the victory was as complete as her seven length win in the NZ Cup only three days before. "Yes, we were under a bit more pressure out there today. We only won by three lengths," driver Bob Negus commented as he came off the track.
But the pressure, in reality, was on the other thirteen starters right from the time the mobile gate took off. Negus hunted Armalight into the lead after a hundred metres and set about demoralising the others with a 1:54.2 first mile. She bowled along in front of Superior Chance on the rails, northerner John Tudor on his outer and Richard Brosnan and Bonnie's Chance in the perfect possie one out and one back. Trio, El Regale, Cyllarus and Gammalite, three wide, were next, their drivers probably wondering when Negus was going to relent a little and let off the pressure. In fact, he gave the mare a bit of a spell into the backstraight the last time...only a little breather, mind, but it was sufficient to enable them to sprint the last bit home in around 57 seconds with Negus using only the reins to tell her she was in a race.
Bonnie's Chance had to go around John Tudor soon after turning for home but, in spite of a big run, could get no closer than three lengths, with a half head to Superior Chance, who stuck to his hopeless task well. Daylight was next. Gammalite, all the way from Melbourne to meet a horse who must be unbeatable in her current form, battled away resolutely for fourth just ahead of Hands Down, winner of the event last year.
The first four all finished inside Robalan's record by at least a second, providing a spectacle not one of the 20,000 plus crowd at Addington will forget for a long time. The official mile rate for the event was a withering 1:55.6, sufficiently fast to just about win any of the major American races on the big mile tracks, and not much slower than Lord Module's 1:54.9 mile time trial. Staggering!
According to Negus, the track was perfect for the race. "It was lightning fast." And besides, "the race was only once round. I couldn't really make any mistakes, could I?" he joked, savouring the euphoria of the moment.
Richard Brosnan had no excuse for coming only second, in spite of driving a near perfect race. "How could you take anything away from the winner? You couldn't," he said. He never at any stage thought he could have caught Armalight with his mare. "We were flat all the way." Bill Denton was quietly chuffed with the way Superior Chance had gone. "His was a good honest race. He's always good from the gate, but it was a bit of a change to get a good run." Gammalite's driver Bruce Clark could only shake his head at the performance of the winner but confirmed the tough visitor had battled on well. Peter Jones, in the spotlight with Hands Down after their Cup - Free-For-All double last season, was pleased enough with the run of his horse. He'd stayed back until just after the 800 metres and "was still making ground at the end. But you haven't got a show when they go that quick up front," was his slightly understated assessment.
Lord Module was the other horse in the race to have taken out the feature double...two years ago when he himself was unbeatable. But on Friday, yet again, he gave his backers no hope of getting any sort of return by refusing absolutely to move off with the others. The stipendary stewards later advised a worried Cecil Devine his horse would have to trial twice before being allowed to start next in a mobile event. Those trials took place satisfactorily yesterday and he will probably line up in the Allan Matson on Saturday night when he will have Armalight to contend with again. If she does line up, she'll be after win number 15 from just 21 starts.
Credit: Graham Ingram writing in the NZ Trotting Calendar
YEAR: 1979
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| No Response |
For the standardbred purist there is no more aesthetically pleasing sight than a great trotter in full flight, and no doubt one could come up with 10 great trotting races just as easily as the pacers.
Time and space do not permit us to do the latter exercise this time round, but picking one seems to spring to mind for most everbody old enough to have seen it - No Response's exhilarating 'back from the dead' win in the 1979 Inter-Dominion at Addington.
In fact, that Championship is best remembered for the trotters and No Response in particular, even if the Pacers Series had been severely depleted by the defections of Australian champion Maori's Idol along with Pure Steel, Rip Van Winkle, Koala King and Royal Force. The defending pacing champion Markovina was there, but the loss of Maori's Idol hurt.
The previous year in Melbourne, Maori's Idol had equalled Lucky Creed's 1970 record of 24 consecutive wins in the heats, only to be inexplicably beaten into third in the Final. The 5-year-old entire then won two heats of the Sir Clive Uhr (Queensland) Championship in Brisbane, beating top pacers which included Koala King, Paleface Adios, Master Findlay, Roma Hanover and Sporting Son in the process, and give Rip Van Winkle a real race in the Final. Maori's Idol returned the next season to win four of five starts, including the Dullard Cup at Moonee Valley from 40 metres, but then went amiss and while nominated for Addington, he never made it to the end of the comeback trail.
Outside of the unbeaten run through the heats by the fine stayer Wee Win and a few sideshows from Lord Module, the Pacing Championship was actually all rather anti-climatic in the end, but there was enough class and depth to the trotters to make for some compelling racing. Even if in this pre-Internet and Trackside day, hardly anyone had ever heard of the Australian visitors Alby Logan, Hec's Hope, Hilton Adios, Mighty Miller and Silken, the latter a fine type of 11-year-old mare for Victorian horseman Kevin Murray. Only Hec's Hope and Mighty Miller would not make worthwhile contributions at some point during the Series, with Alby Logan and Silken making the Final and Hilton Adios winning the Consolation on the third night.
Even Speed and Spartan Prince were rising 5-year-old open class stars on the scene in 1979, and others of the same age who would prove more than capable on their day included First Prize, Miss Castleton and Pointer Hanover. About Now and Hano Direct were classy 4-year-old mares at the time, while Ilsa Voss and Our One were older mares who were also top class at times. Waipounamu was a 10-year-old and far from finished - in fact he was just getting warm - while Diogenes, Relinquish and Yankee Talent wer others commanding respect into the Championship.
But this was the time of a 7-year-old No Response and Scotch Tar, Slim Dykman's 5-year-old pacing-bred freak who trotted faster than the great majority of pacers. One just had to catch him in the right frame of mind, which was not always often. After winning five of eight races the previous season, Scotch Tar had gone through to open class in his 12th start with a double in Auckland in the spring, and then in his first race against the best around, had split No Response and favourite Framalda - the 1977 Rowe Cup winner who was unbeaten in four races at Alexandra Park that season for Roy & Barry Purdon - in the Challenge Stakes.
Come the Worthy Queen Handicap on NZ Cup Day, and No Response was a late scratching after becoming distressed after doing his preliminary, and Scotch Tar was a costly failure after doing a stretch. Winning that race was favourite Spartan Prince, the Doody Townley-trained and driven Tuft gelding who had been the top youngster of his year, and he would now go into the Dominion unbeaten in three races that season. Spartan Prince had been unbeaten in three starts at the Cup Meeting the previous year, but that season his career would be derailed by unsoundness and strangely enough, an ownership dispute.
The Dominion had merely served to underline the awesome potential of Scotch Tar however. In what was considered "one of the greatest exhibitions of trotting ever seen," not to mention a fine display of horsemanship by Bob Cameron to hold him together near the end as Spartan Prince made his challenge, Scotch Tar triumphed in race, track and New Zealand record time of 4:11.6, which bettered Easton Light's "great" record of 4:13.1 from the 1974 Dominion, and which would have won that week's NZ Cup by six or seven lengths. Scotch Tar had applied the blowtorch to Alias Armbro, Brian Gliddon's Banks Peninsula Cup winner that year who would win the Dominion the next season, from as far as two laps out and gone past him on straightening, and Spartan Prince could make no impression despite enjoying the run of the race.
By the Thorpe Hanover horse Tarport Coulter and from a mare by Scottish Command, who had sired the two previous NZ Cup winners in Trusty Scot and Sole Command, Scotch Tar had won that battle in No Response's absence. No Response, troubled on and off throughout his career by arthritis and various other ailments after making his debut as a 6-year-old, was back on song for three feature race wins in Auckland over Christmas as Scotch Tar went off the rails on that trip, and headed into the Inter-Dominions with six straight wins and eight wins from 10 starts for the term. Scotch Tar got back on track by winning a class two trot at Washdyke from 90 metres in late February, and the stage was set at Addington.
On the first night, Scotch Tar lost no friends apart from the punters who made him odds-on when he recovered for a close fifth after losing 100 metres at the start and racing three and four-wide from the 1000m in Hano Direct's heat win over Diogenes, Waipounamu and Silken, but No Response confirmed his Inter-Dom favouritism with a classy win over Even Speed, Our One and Hilton Adios in the second heat. He was even more impressive in putting away Silken and Alby Logan by four lengths from 15 metres over 3200m on the second, and Scotch Tar was at his brilliant best as well later in the night. Peter Wolfenden had been engaged for Scotch Tar for the Series, and after missing away from 15 metres, they looped the field to sit outside Hilton Adios and won easily by a couple of lengths over Hano Direct and Waipounamu.
THE RACES
With over 13,000 in attendance despite the hefty gate charges and many more watching live on television, the Inter-Dominion Final was like one sensation after another. Scotch Tar blew the start again and lost too much ground to make up, and as the race unfolded No Response seemed to become less and less of a chance back in the running. Alby Logan, a 9-year-old and the only "city class" trotter in NSW, had led them along at a merry clip from the start for Grahame Kirkwood, whose wife and owner/trainer Noleen was out to become the first woman to officially prepare an Inter-Dominion champion - 22 years before Lorraine Nolan succeeded.
Turning for home and No Response showing $1.60 to win, was in the immortal words of an Aussie reporter in the Press Box - "a hundred-to-one chance to win." And yet No Response unwound so quickly, dramatically and powerfully, while changing ground for the gaps three times in that scintillating run home, that in the end he won easily going away by over two lengths from Alby Logan, with Silken, Pointer Hanover and rank outsider Josephus almost in line for third another length and a half away. "If I went around them on the bend, I was going to hit the tree at the top of the straight, so I just had to wait and hope the gaps came," said his unflappable trainer/driver Richard Brosnan later.
If that had been a superlative individual performance and left any observer stunned, No Response and Scotch Tar would provide the match race that everyone had gone to see a week earlier, in the NZ Trotting Championship on the day of the Inter-Dominion Pacing Grand Final. In an all too rare race from a mobile for Scotch Tar, and in a 2600m event which underlined just how much better they were than any other top trotters around at the time, Scotch Tar and Wolfenden were around the field to take over a lap out, stalked all the way by No Response. When they drew clear passing the 400m, Brosnan was able to drop onto Scotch Tar's back momentarily, before coming out again in the straight and drawing level at the 100m. Neither flinched or gave an inch, but No Response gradually got a neck advantage close to the line, and the time of 3:21.9 broke another of Easton Light's long-standing NZ records. Miss Castleton was the best of the rest, 10 lengths away.
For No Response it was his 10th win on end and 12th for the season, and while he had bowed out for the season before Even Speed's Rowe Cup after also missing the Dominion, he was pretty much a unanimous choice for Horse of the Year and the first trotter to achieve that honour. He was a popular choice as well.
No Response was the first real step into the big time for his then 30-year-old unassuming and 'nerves of steel' trainer/driver Brosnan, while he was raced by 69-year-old Fred Black, a retired farmer at Pleasant Point who had bred him after being gifted his non-descipt grandam First Axworth at the age of 18. Black had been given the choice of two mares a quarter of a century earlier by small time Palmerston North trainer Dave Hansen, in return for Black's help around the stables over many years during his time as a meat inspector at Feilding.
Credit: Frank Marrion writing in HRWeekly 9Aug06