Southern Snippets

Barron gets 700

When Cee Who’s Bettor (Bettor’s Delight) won at Addington last night it was former Southlander Ken Barron’s 700th training win.

He’s trained 511 under his own name, 90 in partnership with his brother Tony and 99 with John Lischner.

Ken’s first winner was Tintern Vesper (Deal Direct) with Lischner at Addington in 2001.

His wins include a number of Group and Listed winners – Lady Toddy (Live Or Die) in the Group One New Zealand Standardbred Breeders Stakes, Georgetown (Washington VC) in the Group Two Elsu Classic and Over The Love (Love You) in the Group Three Summer Trotting FFA.

His other feature race winners with John Lischner have been Spiritual King (Christian Cullen) in the Listed NZ Yearling Sales Series, Stars And Stripes (New York Motoring) Listed Invercargill Cup and the Group Two Nobilo and Roland John (Falcon Seelster) in the Group Two Southern Supremacy Stakes.

As a driver Barron has driven 1,069 winners. He’s now retired from driving.

Rugby stars in ownership

Chiefs rugby players Michael Allardice and Brad Webber have a pacer in Lauren Pearson’s Winton stable. The Janitor (Always B Miki) started in the Two Year Old Mobile at yesterday’s Winton Workouts.

The colt is out of Weka Lass (Badlands Hanover) which won six races for her breeder Lester Smith.

What a name!

Southland breeder Jimmy Paddon named a horse Jonjondagoosehasgone (Sweet Lou)?

That’s some mouthful! The horse made his first public appearance at the Winton Workouts yesterday and luckily for commentator Shane Phillips he didn’t get amongst the action. Close finishes could be  interesting …….

New start point at Cromwell

HRNZ have signed off on a new 1950 metre standing start point for the Cromwell course.

The current sprint start of 2020 metres is in a chute, which precludes long handicaps.

The proposed change will mean the standing start point will be in the front straight but will still provide a long run to the first bend.

Errol got another goodun

Errol Forde looks as though he’s got another handy horse.

Forde has had a number of good horses over the years including Experiment, (Sundon) which won eight for trainer Tony Barron.

The veteran owner’s distinctive colours were to the fore at the Winton Workouts yesterday when Tycoon Banner (Art Major) won his heat.

The two year old is out of Corporate Banner (Soky’s Atom) making him a half-brother to 2005 New Zealand Cup winner Mainland Banner (Christian Cullen).

Forde is also the manager of the MCC Syndicate which races a number of horses in the province including Hunting Weight (Stunin Cullen). The Syndicate also has a share in You’re So Fine (Always B Miki) which races out of Gary Hall Snr’s stable in Perth.

Riverton TC to race at Riverton

The Riverton Trotting Club is awaiting final sign off to race on the grass at the Riverton RC venue.

To allow this to happen the Riverton Trotting Club had to negotiate a date change with the Wairio TC and the Riverton meeting will now be held on Sunday 28^th January with the Wairio Club taking up the original Riverton date of Sunday 11^th February.

HRNZ Track Manager John Denton has inspected the track, and some work needs to be undertaken on the crossing. Once that’s been done Denton is expected to do a final check in mid-January.

The RTC last raced on the course in 2000 when it held two pacing events at a Riverton RC meeting.

The winners were Double Damn (Clever Innocence) for Brian O’Connor and Alan Broomhall and Glenburn Prince (Miles McCool) for Maurice Kerr. Double Damn paid $61.20 and $14.30.

Breed lives on

Sidorova’s (Always B Miki) win at the Winton Workouts highlighted the breed that Bruce Stirling and Jimmy Gin developed and have had success with over many years.

Sidorova is out of Isabayeva (Christian Cullen – Vera’s Dream) which won five races.

Winners out of the family include Young Eden, Young Jiggs, Milton Vance, Vera’s Dream, Eden’s Joy and Evamay.

by Bruce Stewart, for Harnesslink