Champion reinsman returns to Addington for tilt at 27th NZ Cup drive

A familiar face returns to New Zealand harness racing action on Friday night with champion reinsman Anthony Butt making a trip home to drive New Zealand Cup aspirant, Rock N Roll Doo (Rock N Roll Heaven).

The ex pat Kiwi is the winner of 2484 races in Australasia has driven 36 individual Group One winners at headquarters and would know just about every granule of grit on the 1200m track.

Butt hasn’t driven at Addington since reigning his 36th G1 win on Cup Day behind Tough Monarch in the New Zealand Trotting FFA in 2019 and while his visit is fleeting, all things going to plan, fans might expect to see a bit more of him in the Spring.

“Bredan James, the owner was keen to send me over and see what I thought seeing as I had driven him (Rock N Roll Doo) a bit in the past and go from there,” said Butt.

“He hasn’t raced for six months since the Miracle Mile carnival with a few hick ups in between. He got a really bad foot abscess when he was in Auckland for the Race By Grins and had to be scratched on the day and it was quite a nasty one. Then he had a good spell after that because there was nothing really for him, but the plan was to leave him here and get him ready for the New Zealand Cup.

“He has had a couple of trials to prepare and while his first one was OK and his second one was pretty plain. They found a respiratory infection after that which sort of explains it, but he is getting to the stage now where he has to get cracking if he is going to be in the New Zealand Cup,” he said.

The high class Australian pacer is making his first start under the guidance of Butt’s brother in law, Cran Dalgety, in what will be his first race day appearance since being beaten a head by Merlin in the Light Horse FFA at G2 level back in March.

At his best, the son of Rock N Roll Heaven is a force to be reckoned with as a dual G1 winner (14 lifetime victories) and stakemoney in excess of $650,000.

In his first visit to these shores in 2022 as a four-year-old, the now six-year-old gelding struggled to step away from the stand for his Victorian trainer/driver, Mick Stanley. After settling last in the Flying Stakes at Ashburton and giving the front running race winner, B D Joe a 20 length head start, Rock N Roll Doo worked forward to sit parked for the last lap and finish a meritorious sixth, only two and a half lengths from the winner.

Installed as the second favourite on Cup Day, Rock N Roll Doo broke again and lost all chance in Copy That’s defence of his NZ Cup crown before backing up in the FFA on Show Day where he was beaten into fifth after doing a power of work in the running.

Having been in New Zealand for nearly six months after an abscess robbed him of his place in The Race By Grins, the Victorian pacer has had plenty of time to acclimate to Canterbury and a bit more grounding in the art of stepping away from the tapes.

“The biggest issue will be getting him away from the stand but he has been pretty good at the trials and had a bit more practice than when he was last having a crack a few years ago,” said Butt.

Rock N Roll Doo sits perilously at 13th in the New Zealand Cup rankings having initially been put at 8th on the list courtesy of his 2023 form which saw him win the G1 Len Smith Mile and placed on numerous occasions at Grand Circuit level. However some of the burgeoning contenders such as Dalton Shard and Tact McLeod have leap frogged him, which means he needs some runs on the board if his place is to be assured on the second Tuesday in November.

His first up assignment is a stiff one, copping 20m against the race hardened Open Class performers in the ninth on the Fridat night programme over 2600. Butt was realistic about his chances in a fresh state, and above all else, the race provides an opportunity to put his stand start issues behind him with only Dont Stop Dreaming (also fresh up) joining Rock N Roll Doo on the 20m mark.

BLOSSOM LADY 1992 NZ CUP REPLAY

Butt has driven 3 New Zealand Cup winners and ranks his all time favourite G1 at Addington aboard Blossom Lady in the 1992 Cup as his favourite. When talking about his home track, it’s clear the former Cantabrian is desperate to see the pacer return to form and provide him with an opportunity to relish the unmistakable atmosphere that is Cup Week in Christchurch.

“I definitely think it’s the best track in the world and I’ve driven at all the major tracks around the globe. Cup Week is just amazing isn’t it? It’s the biggest carnival in the Southern hemisphere and the things they have done this year to enhance it will only make it better. Being a Canterbury boy, I have been going to Cup week since the early 70’s, ever since I first bunked a day in primary school,” he laughed.

“I don’t how many I have driven in (26), but it would be a fair few and it has always been the highlight of my career and year and being lucky enough to win it three times is a bit of a dream come true and it’s always good to get back for it,” he said.

Having relocated to Victoria full time in 2014, much has changed recently in the landscape of both his current racing jurisdiction, and his former one. Butt admits to being impressed by what he is seeing unfold from afar.

“It’s fantastic, Entain and Brad Steele since they have come on board have been amazing and New Zealand is the place to be at the moment. They are obviously working hard and they deserve to get some reward. The main concern is whether it’s sustainable and hopefully it is. It looks as if the turnover is going pretty good. It will be a challenge to sustain it but hopefully we have the right people in place back at home to see that through,” he said.

While not officially in the programme as of yet, Butt has informed Harnesslink of his drive behind Kyvalley Hotspur on Friday night in the G3 Canterbury Park Trotting Cup on Friday night also.

The pair have combined for Group One glory in the past having won the Victorian trotting Derby together in 2021 and while not in stone yet, Butt could be in line for a chance to add to his race record of eight wins in the Dominion which for the first time in it’s 118 year history will take place on the Tuesday of Cup week.

“I think it’s a great idea. Show Day has definitely fallen away a bit once the A & P Show left, it doesn’t get the crowds it used to get so it will make Cup Day amazing really allowing the best trotters to perform in front of the biggest crowd of the year in their grand final. It’s going to give those people who attend once a year a chance to see the best of both gaits perform.

“And then with the new races on Show Day, it’s going to really lift that day as well and should be a great addition to the week,” he said.

Speaking from the tractor at his Victorian base, Butt and his partner Sonya Smith are kept busy with a small but select group of horses in work.

“We are only working about eight or nine at the moment which is pretty much what we do. We have a couple of nice horses and a nice mare called Young gifted And Black who come over from New Zealand as a 2YO and she has won over $100,000 since she has been here. I drive three, four, five times a week and you just have to attend the meetings around the traps,” he said.

Butt is also kept busy with an advocacy role having been roped into taking over as President of the Victorian Trainers & Drivers Association with Lance Justice stepping down after a decade in the role in early 2023.

The sad state of affairs in Victorian harness racing has seen Butt taking a lead role in searching for answers after blatant fiscal mismanagement over a long period has all but brought the once bristling jurisdiction to its knees with a series of cuts to base level and aspirational race stakes announced yet again last week.

The respect earned with a lifetime of accomplishments in the industry has Butt as well placed as any to hold industry officials to account and despite biting off a little more then he intended to chew when stepping up to the plate, the champion horseman is eager to see things progress forward.

“I don’t know if enjoyment is the right word, it’s been challenging. It’s something I have always been involved in, I was with the Trainers and Drivers in New Zealand and I was approached a couple of years ago to take over the role and I wasn’t overly keen but at the end of the day, somebody has got to do it.

“We have our challenges and we have a couple of plans in place to hopefully get the industry back on track but we just need a bit of help from the government. Not so much money wise, but a few other areas we have highlighted that could really help us resurrect harness racing in Victoria,” he said.

Politics and bureaucracy are sometimes a necessary evil and the sport would be a lot poorer if the likes of Butt and his contemporaries shied away from the above challenges. Those things aside, Anthony Butt is still one of the best to ever get in a sulky and the Cantabrian has a chance to add to his legacy should Rock N Roll Doo recapture his best form in the near future.

“His record is very good, he won the Victoria Cup a couple of years ago and always been at the elite level so it’s just a matter of getting him back to his best form,” he said.

For complete Addington race fields, click here.

by Brad Reid, for Harnesslink