From backpacking to racing the best

Ray Green’s first trip to Australia was as a backpacker picking fruit about 50 years ago, but now he’s back chasing greater riches.

Green, who trains New Zealand’s best pacer Copy That out Lincoln Farms’ 60-acre property in Pukekohe near Auckland, is here to plunder the feature races of the TAB Queensland Constellations Carnival at Albion Park.

The 75-year-old horseman has weaved one of the more fascinating training careers, including stints Wales, Italy few different spots in the harness heartland of North America.

Copy That is arguably the best horse he’s trained and showed Queenslanders why with a stunning Albion Park debut win, flashing home from near last to win the Wondais Mate Open Pace last Saturday night.

Green is in the slightly weird position of having trained Australia’s best pacer, King Of Swing, who is Copy That’s main danger in races like the Sunshine Sprint and Blacks A Fake.

“It will be a bit strange racing him after buying him a yearling and developing him. He’s the benchmark horse in Australia right now,” Green said.

“I liked him from day one. He had some bone chips removed from his ankles as an early two-year-old, but came good at the end of the season to win the Breeders Crown (in Victoria).

“We sold him to WA for big money after that. You hate losing horses like that, I loved him, but money talks and we’re running a business, Buying yearlings, developing them and selling them is the routine.”

Copy That came along just as King Of Swing left the stable and he too was sold, but Victorian-based owner Merv Butterworth opted to leave him with Green.

“Most of the horses you sell go elsewhere, but Merv left this one with us and that’s a real bonus,” Green said.

A younger, less experienced trainer may have scrapped this Queensland raid when Copy That ran the worst race of his stellar career in the Harness Jewels at Cambridge just days before he was booked a flight to Brisbane.

“The run was a bit of a shock. I have no idea why he didn’t perform that day, it’s a mystery,” Green said.

“I wasn’t going to dwell on it, you go crazy if you do. I had to just turn the page and move on.”

Green’s calm composure was gained through experience in so many different places and alongside some great horseman through the years.

“I’ve been lucky to do a lot of travel and stints around the world. I had a year in North Wales, the last year of the Prestatin track in 1972 before it closed,” he said.

“Then I had a year in Italy, up north at Torino, in the mid-1970s, and a few stints in Florida. My last stint in the US was three years at Maryland from 1980-83.”

During his time in the US, Green worked for one of the sport’s absolute legends Billy Haughton, who he learnt a lot from, but didn’t enjoy the “factory-type” operation, so felt it was time to return home and build his own career in NZ.

Copy That looks a complete package now, but Green had to call on all his knowledge, experience and patience early-on.

“He was a real handful, he could gallop in a heartbeat and for no reason at all. It took a long time to get him out of that,” he said.

“It was great to have him come along straight after King Of Swing was sold and left, but he took a lot of work to get sorted.”

So who does the man who “made” both pacers think is the more naturally gifted out of Copy That and King Of Swing?

“You don’t like comparing horses, especially two very good ones like them. I’d say Copy That just had a bit more raw speed, but it’s been great to see King Of Swing keep developing like he has,” Green said.

By Adam Hamilton