Genevieve’s Casper

While attending the Harness Racing New Zealand Conference in Christchurch last month I got talking to Kerren Crawford wife of Tuapeka HRC President Jim and mother of former junior driver Genevieve Crawford.

Genevieve worked for a good portion of her life in the standardbred industry but now breeds hunters in Central Otago and included in the foals born this spring is a pure white foal called Casper. Not a standardbred, but who doesn’t like seeing a white horse? And the standardbred part of the story does come later.

Casper has a mixture of Shire, Station Bred and Paso Fino blood.

Shire is a breed of draught horse which originates from the United Kingdom and can stand up to 17 hands while Paso Fino which means ‘fine step’ are a small fine built horse that comes from Latin America primarily Puerto Rico and Columbia. They’re known for their smooth, natural, four-beat, lateral ambling gait. 

So that’s Casper’s lineages but where does the white come from?

“His mother is a paint his dad was black and had a wee white spot on his belly. We just though he was a black with a white spot, but it turns out he had two genes of white so we think he could be splash. This foal is completely white with two brown ears,” Genevieve said.

Life didn’t get off to an easiest of starts for Casper. 

“He fell under fence and rolled down into a hole. I saw the mother with afterbirth and no foal but she wasn’t panicking. My partner (Logan Bain) found the foal and we had to pull him up a four metre slope by his front legs because he couldn’t walk.”

But Crawford said Casper got straight onto the mother and is doing well and at some stage the young horse will be sold.

“Someone will love him. He’s a nice natured wee colt with good confirmation and he’s going to be pretty big. His Dad is a good hunter, and his mums is the best natured mare I’ve ever had.”

Genevieve has three broodmares, a number of foals and three hacks and works for her father and sells horses on the side. 

“I try to breed good natured horses which people can use for whatever they want.”

She said there is an excellent market for good station hacks and hunters. 

“The interest in safe sound hunters has just gone through the roof. That’s where my market is leaning towards. A friend and I got a stallion and breed five foals by him and he (stallion) turned out to be a cracker hunter.”

She still has one standardbred, an unnamed Live Or Die mare which is eighteen. 

“She’s been my hack for quite a few years and will never leave the property. She came out on a trek a few years ago and bucked her owner off so I swapped her for Jerry Fitz (a 12-win Live Or Die gelding). It was probably the best swap I’ve ever done.” 

Genevieve worked for three years for standardbred trainers Geoff and Jude Knight when they were based at Roxburgh before having a stint at Amber Hoffmans. After that she set sail to America and developed a wider interest in horses.

“I was interested in the cowboy way of doing things and it fitted in with my view on horses and the way I like to do things. More asking rather than telling horses.”

She came home before venturing to Australia where she spent six months breaking in standardbred yearlings for Jason Carkeet who pretrains horses for Grant Dixon and Daryl Graham in Queensland. 

“It was pretty cool jogging nice, classy yearlings.” 

Carkeet has a stable at Buaraba Creek, 55km’s west of Brisbane and breaks in horses for Dixon and his major owners including Greg Mitchell, who is also vice-chairman of the Albion Park Harness Racing Club. 

Carkeet has also trained for billionaire Queensland owner Clive Palmer.

He runs has a small team which includes two year old filly Lady Digby (Betting Line) who was a recent winner at Albion Park.

Lady Digby’s fourth dam is Ar Miss the mother of Armalight (Timely Knight) the winner of eighteen races. Her wins include the New Zealand Oaks, Nevele R Fillies Final, Northern Oaks, 1981 New Zealand Cup, 1981 Free for All, 1982 Kaikoura Cup and 1983 Auckland Cup.

Crawford also bred Owes Me Dough (Changeover) which has won two races for the Gabriel Gold Syndicate. The gelding is currently trained by Chelsea Faithful after previously being with Amber Hoffman.

“I went over to Europe and ran out of money, so I sold him to Mum and Dad.”

So, from standardbreds to breeding hunters and fancy white horses Genevieve has been on some journey and made her into a well rounded horsewoman.

by Bruce Stewart, for Harnesslink