B D Joe & Benjamin Butcher book NZ Cup ticket

On a big night of Canterbury harness racing, Benjamin Butcher delivered under the bright lights of Addington Raceway and showed he is every bit a chip off the old block when taking out the Group Two $50,000 Lamb & Hayward Classic aboard B D Joe (Roll With Joe) last night (Sep. 30)

Just 24 hours earlier it was his brother Zachary conjuring wizardry aboard Merlin at Cambridge with a now customary ice-cool drive.

Last night’s win for B D Joe was stark in contrast, but every bit as good, with Benjamin taking luck out of the equation and using his initiative early to pocket Mark Purdon and race favourite, Self Assured, before pressing on and landing in front of the pair.

The tactical nous on display would have had his father David sitting at home smiling proudly, with Butcher senior having had many big race battles himself in the cart with the All Stars trained runners over the years.

It proved to be the winning of the race with Steve and Amanda Telfer trained four-year-old showing he won’t just be making up the numbers come the second Tuesday in November.

“We got those easy sectionals, and it made it a bit easier at the end when it was just a sprint home,” said Butcher.

“I was very happy with him and the way he travelled, and he looks to just be on the up and up from here so no, I’m very happy,” he said.

The walk/sprint nature of the G2 feature meant the runs in behind B D Joe were far from lackluster with several of the Open Class stars resuming with tidy fresh up efforts that all should improve upon on.

The Purdon/Cullen pair of Spankem and Self Assured did well to get within a length of B D Joe in their first runs since the Auckland Cup in May.

Spankem stepped brilliantly from barrier five and was able to land and early lead with Natalie Rasmussen electing to take a trail behind B D Joe.

Self Assured was looking to become the 100th race win for his incredible dam, Star Of Venus, and fought on well after being left parked for the majority of the 2600m journey.

The Colin and Julie DeFillipi trained Heza Sport bounced back well from a disappointing last start to take ground off the favoured trio in the run home along the markers, while Brent Mangos and connections of South Coast Arden will be elated with his performance after tangling away. The big striding son of Somebeachsomewhere was a strong fifth and only two and a half lengths away after a lengthy spell.

B D JOE REPLAY

With two Stonewall Stud runners now guaranteed a start in the New Zealand Cup should they choose to accept; the training partnership of Steve and Amanda Telfer were naturally elated with both on hand to share in the spoils of the evening.

Speaking with Nigel Armstrong of Harness Racing Unhinged, Amanda Telfer discussed her pride in seeing her stable favourite beat a talented field of the country’s best pacers.

“I’m really stoked for him, and he really deserves it and I’m just so happy,” she said.

“Look there were some nice horses out there tonight, all of them are nice horses and it was in his favour out in front, and he did well to hold them off.

“I have always liked him from when we bought him as a yearling. He was with Michael House for a while and I always followed him, but when he came back home, I made sure nobody was allowed to touch him,” she laughed.

“He’s a very chilled horse and is so easy to get along with,” said Telfer.

Butcher who was busy ungearing the Group Two winner chimed in with the expression of his charge being a ‘dude’.

“Everybody loves him, he’s just lovely,” she chirped back.

With the Cup fast approaching and now just six weeks away, co-trainer, Steve Telfer discussed a pathway for his talented four-year-old.

“He’s just going to go straight to Ashburton and hopefully that will be enough for him. Once he gets through the Flying Stakes, we will make a decision as to whether he needs to go to the Cup Trials but at this stage I am thinking probably not,” he said.

Next weekend the road to the cup continues with the Kerry Hoggard Memorial to be run at Alexandra Park on Friday night (Oct 7.) while the Mt Harding Raceway will host the Methven Cup meeting on the grass two days later (Oct 9.)

For complete race results, click here.

by Brad Reid, for Harnesslink