It’s an Almighty family affair at Blenheim for the Butt’s

The annual Marlborough and Nelson circuit is one of those iconic fortnight’s in the New Zealand harness racing calendar which embodies everything that is great about the sport.

Good weather (usually), good people, good racing and good times.

There wouldn’t be many with better credentials to testify to such claims then the matriarch of the Canterbury harness racing, Jenny Butt. After all, she’s been in attendance now for over half a century without missing a trip!

“We have been coming up here as a family for about 54 years so I cant stop going now,” she laughed.

“I have two great grandchildren and my daughter in law with me and over the years we have had a lot of fun with the trotting fraternity and developed some life long friendships with the likes of the DeFilippi’s and the Austin’s and now the Dunn’s make the trip regularly so it is always a great time.

“In our busy days of training we would stay the whole fortnight because it was such a great holiday for children. We stay in the same motel and have a few picnics and the weather is usually great which is always a plus,” she said.

The Blenheim track at Waterlea Racecourse has proven to be a happy hunting ground over the years and that golden run continued with the second consecutive win of her four-year-old mare, Almighty (Father Patrick).

Trained and driven by her granddaughter Kimberley (Butt), Almighty was much too strong for her opposition having sat parked for the last lap of the 2400m circuit before holding firm up the straight for a gritty one and a half length victory.

ALMIGHTY REPLAY

The inform daughter of Father Patrick has benefitted from her recent traverse around the South Island where she also picked up a win at Omakau a fortnight ago with a tidy third also coming on the grass at Gore in December.

“For a while she hated the grit in the face and it would make her gallop. Kimberly got a new mask from Sweden and it seems to have worked the oracle. The trip away down south has really been the making of her also, she won at Omakau nicely but only battled a wee bit on the grass at Gore and we thought that might not be her go, but she made a bit of a mockery of that yesterday! Her manners are so good now and she steps away and puts herself in races which as a trotter is obviously always a big help,” said Butt.

“They put her in the big trot on Sunday but we are not going to start. It’s a big jump, they went five seconds quicker and we don’t wont to knock her over this early in the season. We always try to look after them and my breed generally get better with age, so I don’t care how much time they take.

“Just as long as they are bright and happy and we should have a bit of fun with this girl, possibly in some of the better mares races later in the season. We wont be tipping her out, but will just keep ticking away and plot a path that hopefully sees her realise her potential” she said.

You know what they say about a trotting mare in form, and the maternal family of Almighty hints at a possibility of bigger and better things on the horizon.

“I’ve actually had the breed for about 40 years. Don McKenzie and I started it off when we bought the grandmother Abundance at a clearing sale. We owned her, but had to disperse the ownership with another owner. We have had some great fun with the family and well in excess of 200 winners between us. It’s been a great breed,” said Butt.

Abundance has proven to be well named, providing the Butt’s and the aforementioned Don McKenzie with some great thrills over the years. A ten time Group One winner like Vulcan is a dominant enough force on any pedigree page, but when you throw in the likes of three time G1 winner Custodian and a NZ Record holder in Chloe Rose to name but a few of the plethora of talented squaregaiters from the breed, you get an idea of the engine room behind the continued success of the breed.

“The dam of yesterday’s winner, Princess Sophia, was a good a mare too. She won five but she got arthritis in the knees so that was her lot. She hasn’t really been given the best shot at stud and has had a bit of bad luck losing a couple of her foals,” said Butt.

“Kimberly has had this mare right from day dot. She was quite sassy and quite hard to deal with, but Kimberly has developed her into having beautiful manners. Kim has a great affinity with the trotters and takes her time with them.

“I have the land to rear them and wean them and keep them to a year or eighteen months old and get someone to break them in in the interim. Kim and Chris take turn about with the foals, so this is her baby this one and she is doing a great job with her,” she said.

“I just feel in life if I can help the young ones, my life has been worthwhile,” she said.

For the complete Blenheim results, click here.

by Brad Reid, for Harnesslink