Douglas flying

Southland harness racing horseman Jeremy Douglas is flying and at seasons end he will have recorded his best season both a trainer and as a driver and there’s not too many Bettor’s Delights in the team!!

His season tally has been bolstered in the last few weeks when he’s trained four winners – Minnie McGoogan (Pegasus Spur), Macandrew Navigator (Sir Lincoln), Miki Knows (Always B Miki) and Westar Lad (Changeover).

And on Friday night at Addington, he’ll also line up his first Group One runner when Minnie McGoogan lines up in the New Zealand Trotting Oaks.

“She was my first group starter and finished third (in the Sires Stakes Classique). She’s peaking at just the right time. Most people won’t believe it but when I do fast work her, I actually gallop her on the lead. It’s pretty unorthodox but suits her and it’s turns things around for her,” Douglas said. 

Although he doesn’t have any harness racing history in his direct family there is plenty of horse DNA.

Douglas grew up living next door to Ross Baker President of the Northland Trotting Club and he also trained a few horses including Rowe Cup and Dominion Handicap winner Merinai (Tuff Choice).

“My Grandfather (Fred Douglas) was a great horseman. I was around when he was breaking in wild horses from the Māori blocks up north. It was nothing to see him breaking in five year old stallions that hadn’t seen humans before. After what I saw and did, I don’t think there’s going to be a standardbred that’s going to scare me anytime soon.”

Douglas said at that point he never thought of Harness Racing as a career options.

“When I was twenty, I decided to move to Australia for something different. I went down to Albion Park one day and ended up working for Graeme Prowse for a few weeks and he jacked me up a job with Stuey Hunter. Funnily enough I ended up working to Shane Matheson (Gore trainer) running of Hunters barns.”

Douglas came back to New Zealand for Christmas with plans of returning to Hunter’s stable.

“Stuey lost his licence so there was no job to go back to, so I got a job with Jeff Crouth and stayed there for a couple of years.”

Douglas obtained his junior driver’s license in 1994.

“I was lucky enough to drive a lot of young horses at the trials, but it was pretty hard to get race day drives with guys like Todd Mitchell and Todd MacFarlane around. When I did get a drive, I could have run faster than the horse (laughter).” 

His first winner as a junior was Orbison’s Memory (Preux Chevalier) for Ivan and Warwick Behrns at Morrinsville in June 1994.

After working for Crouth, Douglas moved on and spent time with Derek Balle and Dave McGowan.

“I also met my wife to be (Amanda Watt) went she was working of Geoff Small. She was a South Island girl, got home sick and wanted to move home. I said I wasn’t moving south to work horses in the cold, so I milked cows for a few years.”

The Douglas’s moved south to Drummond where they lived for two years with Amanda working part time for Lex Davidson.

“She was also the first person to train horses at Ben and Karen Calder’s Grinaldi Lodge. She pre-trained horses and sent them up to Geoff Smalls.”

The Douglas then shifted to Oamaru to be closer to Amanda’s family where Douglas continued to milk cows and train a few horses. 

His first training winner was Little Mister Chip (Taurus Chip) at Timaru in November 2000 who he bought off Eric Ryan. 

“We were at the Waikouaiti Picnic meeting with friends just for a look. Amanda decided she wanted a horse to train. We just happened to be next to Eric and he had two horses there. He said take which ever one you want for five hundred dollars. Amanda wanted the mare because she was by New York Motoring and the gelding was by Taurus Chip. I had one look at them, and we took the gelding.”

Little Mister Chip didn’t have too many starts and was retired from racing but is still active in New Plymouth where he pulls the Christmas Sley.

While at Oamaru Douglas took over the training of talented trotter Trained Raymanwarrhen Son (Sundon) after Patrick O’Reilly had won seven races with him.

“Patrick has a few health issues at the time and the horse was taken over my one of his owners. After seeing the horse galloping round the Oamaru track out of control, I convinced the owner to let me have a go.”

Douglas won four races with the talented trotter at Forbury Park, Oamaru, Rangiora and Hororata.

“He was an unbelievably talented horse. Everyone thought he was a fast horse. He got up to his top speed very quickly and could keep going at that speed all day. He couldn’t run a quarter in quicker than 28 but he could run three of them together.”

The veteran of 108 starts Raymauwarrhen Sun won twenty two races.

In the years he’s been in harness racing Douglas has also become a respected farrier. It’s a skill he’s learnt from his grandfather who taught Jeremy the basic shoeing skills.

“I really kicked into gear when I was at Derek Balles. Dave Smith was the farrier there and he shod all the best horses in the North Island. The first morning I helped him we went to Tony (Herlihy) and Mark’s (Purdon) and my claim to fame is that I put a set of shoes on II Vicolo and Pride Of Petite. They’re still probably the greatest horses I’ve shod.”

Douglas also spent time with Wayne Yates and Malcolm Oakes.

“Malcolm Oakes was the President of the Farriers Association and shod horses for Phil Williamson. He dislocated his knee, and I was the only person around that could shoe horses, so I went from doing one or two a week to doing fourteen a day. So, I learnt a lot in a very short space of time with Malcolm looking over my shoulder.”

His main income up until recently has come from being a blacksmith and his main harness racing clients are Kirk Larsen and Craig Ferguson, but he also looks after most to the Ascot Park thoroughbred trainers.

“All the hacks I do they come here. I shoe big teams for the likes Sally McKay, Jo Gordon and Lisa Vaughan. I have to do my own team late on a Sunday night or the morning of the races (laughter).”  

Douglas says now the income derived from shoeing and training is 50/50.

“Since Michael (House) picked up and left, the room in the barn has become available so I’ve taken on more horses to train.”

And he says he’s loving the change.

“Not just because of the horses but it’s the people. My son (Hayden) helps when he can and my daughter (Melissa) rides gallopers at the track for Sally McKay. Working with them is pretty cool and Megan (Megan Reidie – Douglas’s girlfriend) comes down and drives. I’ve got the best group of owners. As long as I send them a text message each week, they’re happy.” 

And with all the recent success the phones been ringing as well.  

“I’ve had a few inquiries from people in Canterbury wanting to send their horses down here to race but I need to find more staff and then we could end up with twenty.” 

He prides himself on taking on horses that other trainers have struggled with and success with those types of horses he says is very satisfying.

“I like sorting out horses that the normal trainers can’t tackle. The worst behaved horses that I’ve sorted out have been Minnie McGoogan (Pegasus Spur), The Other Brother (Washington VC) and It’s Summertime (Angus Hall-Allegro Agitato). She was retired to the broodmare paddock before she was even broken in because she was considered to be unbreakable.”

Douglas says if you can convince horses into enjoying what they do that’s half the battle.

“Once they enjoy it, they don’t play up anymore.”

And he’s doing more driving as well.

“It’s not been a conscious thing. If Blair (Orange) had been here, he would have probably driven my last four winners.”

He’s also developed a strong client base and some of his clients have been with him since his time in Oamaru like It’s Summertime owners Ronnie and Michael Lauren.

“They had horses with us when my children were born, and they’ve still got some with me now.

Nic and Steve Keast have also been loyal.

“When I started to take up training again, they were the first people to come on board. They’ve sent me young horses, so they’ve had to wait. They had a winner on recently with Miki Knows. It was satisfying to repay clients like that.”

He’s also training for some of Southland’s oldest ownership groups like The Setarip, Waikiwi and Bowl A Bouncer Syndicates.

Douglas’s best winners have been Hannah (Badland’s Hanover) 7, Raymauwarrhen Sun (Sundon) 4, Pandora’s Diamond (Badland’s Hanover) 3 and Surfin Cees (Christian Cullen) 3.

Douglas says over the years he’s been lucky to have been able to glean valuable information off some of the best training minds in the sport, but his grandfather remains top of the list.

“The horsemanship instilled in me by my grandfather is far and away my biggest asset and what my training foundation has been built on. My time at Pukekohe was huge. You spent your time jogging horses there and there was legendary horseman everywhere. I don’t know how many hours I spent jogging horses with Richard Brosnan. He must have got sick of all the questions I asked. The more questions you asked the happier he was. His physiologies were so different to everyone else. He had a very open mind and was able to assess things without bias. He looked at things from a horse’s point of view and I’ve carried that for all of my life. That is amazing in changing a horse’s attitude.”  

He says Minnie McGoogan is a good example.

“You hold your breath and say I’m going to let this young trotter gallop all the time but that is what she wanted to do and by allowing her to do that she’s turned into a happy horse.”

Douglas said he also learnt a lot from Oamaru trainer Phil Williamson.

“He does things I haven’t been able to learn because no one else can do them. He’s just a freak of a horseman.”

It’s easy to spot a Douglas runner with his distinct red, white and gold colours with a Maltese cross.

“It’s a combination of things. Delightful Lady was the horse that got me hooked on harness racing and she wore colours with a Maltese cross on them. I’m a Manchester United fan so I was always going to have red white and gold.”

He says his latest winner Miki Knows with time has the potential to develop into a quality racehorse.

“He’s raced by Nic and Steve and Nic’s mum and dad Joe and Raeleen Thompson. The horse has been here a fair while but has just taken time and probably still need another twelve months. I think he’s going to be a super nice horse because he’s got lots a bottom to him. Interesting enough when I trained Hannah (Badlands Hanover) to win the Southern Belle (2011) Storm Light (Washington VC) ran second and he’s a brother to The Other Brother and Who Knows which is the mother of Miki Knows.”

And Westar Lad is a good example of a horse coming south and enjoying the change of environment and some Douglas care. 

“He ran fourth at Rangiora about two weeks ago. The owners rang on the way home from the races and said he’ll be on the next float down. He was only here six days, I put him in the cart once and thought he was ready to go. He’s feels like he’ll win another couple.”

it’s been some journey for Douglas and the training foundation that was set by his grandfather and master trainer Richard Brosnan is still very much to the fore.

So, on Friday night at Addington, we’ll all know a bit more about Southland horseman Jeremy Douglas when he lines up his first Group One runner Minnie McGoogan in the New Zealand Trotting Oaks.  

For complete Addington race entries, click here.

by Bruce Stewart, for Harnesslink