Lakelsa lifts the lads

Bruce and Al Sinclair are two harness racing brothers from Edendale in Southland. Having bred pacers and trotters for many years they’ve recently been thrust into the spotlight thanks to the deeds of their talented mare Lakelsa.

The rise of Lakelsa (Captaintreacherous) from being a maiden in March to a Group One winner this February, has taken them by surprise.

Bruce who’ll turn 70 shortly, was the first to get a taste of harness racing when his father Jimmy and an uncle were chaff cutting in the district and traded a day’s work for a well-bred trotter.

“Her name was Dolly Gazelle and I rode her at the shows for the first few years before Ray Todd (Regan Todd’s late grandfather) took her over,” Bruce said.

Dolly Gazelle’s racing career didn’t amount to much and she was sent to stud. One of her fillies Glen Averil (Tempest Hanover) produced Glen Evander, which was Bruce’s first winner. He raced him in partnership with his mother Nellie.

“Mum wasn’t a fan of us racing horses so the best way to win her over was to give her a share of Glen Evander. When he started winning all the Ferry (district) women started ringing and coming around and she got really involved then,” he said.

Glen Evander won three races for the partnership, the first being at Forbury in October 1985.

“He was a beautiful trotter,” Bruce said.

Unfortunately Glen Evander was never able to reach his full potential. He bowed two tendons and completely missed his five, seven and ten year old seasons.

Bruce and Al’s first winner together, came in December 1986 when Jimmy James won at the Wairio meeting.

“He was only a wee horse and we left him as a colt for too long. He had races won, then he’d gallop at the 200,” Bruce said. “He had a lot of speed,” Al added.

Jimmy James was by Game Pride out of Nelena, another daughter of Dolly Gazelle.

Between 1995 and 2002 winners for the brothers came at a steady rate with horses like Not Holm and Honiball which Al raced with Malcolm McKelvie, Brendon McLellan and Barry Todd. And Canhebite (3) and Rebellious Lad (1) which Bruce and Al raced together.

It wasn’t until the late 1990s that Bruce and Al began to expand their breeding operation and they secured pacing mare Speedwell from well known Southland horseman Jack Sellers.

“We always knew the Sellars. Dad used to cut chaff for them. They had two mares in the paddock, one was Speedwell (Berry Hanover) which was out of Glen Moria and the other was Glen Side which was out of Churn Side. I picked out Speedwell but Jack wanted to keep her so we took Glen Side. We bred two out of her which won races – The Hard Yards and The Go Forward both won races,” Bruce said.

Two years later out of the blue Sellers rang and offered Speedwell to the brothers.

“After she’d had a foal Jack lifted her leg up. She took to him and was going to kill him but luckily the neighbours were there.”

The Sinclairs bred two foals out of Speedwell. One was My Sharona (Badlands Hanover) which was named after 1979 hit by the band The Knack.

“I heard the song on the radio one day so I wrote it down,” Al said.

My Sharona won two races and at stud has well and truly proved her worth.

Her first foal was Havinaravup which won four races, one for Brendon McLellan and three for Craig Ferguson. Leigh Major won seven and Mr Handleman five.

“Her first three foals went real good. They were beautiful bread and butter horses,” Bruce said.

Her fourth foal Oh Tara by Real Desire went to two workouts and a trial but didn’t qualify.

“Snow (trainer Brendon McLellan) was quite convinced she’d win races. She was a big mare but when she was shod she’d get her new shoes caught in the fence. I remember having to cut her out of the fence twice,” Bruce said.

Oh Tara’s first foal was Lakelsa which is named after the brother’s nieces Alana, Kelsee, and Letasha.

“Brad Morris broke her in and said there were no problems. He got her back for her second prep and one day he jumped out of the cart to pull her cropper up and she cow kicked him. He was out for a while and David Gregory finished that prep off for us,” Al said.

She was then jogged up by the brothers before they decided on who was going to train her.

“I rang Barry (Todd), Regan’s father and asked him if he knew any young trainer that would take her. I got a shock two days later when Regan rang and said he was coming down in a fortnight. He came down, looked at her and said to have her at the track at 8.30 in the morning. That was only a year ago.” Bruce said.

Lakelsa headed north to Todd’s Yaldhurst stable with her kicking antics still part of her nature.

“I used to drive up until a year ago but I got kicked out by Lakelsa and I’ve never sat back in a sulky since. Everyone’s been kicked out, until Regan got a kicking strap from Stephen Boyd. Man, oh man it’s worked wonders. She wears it all the time and a big sulky which is twice as heavy as everyone else’s (laughter),” Bruce said.

Lakelsa qualified for Todd at Rangiora in March last year as a four year old winning by seven lengths. She was brought south twenty three days later for her debut at Wyndham where she was made favourite.

On a wet track Lakelsa got back before going forward three wide from the 900 to sit outside the leader, but her condition gave out in the home straight and she finished sixth.

“She came home after that and had two weeks in the paddock. Then I jogged her for three weeks and sent her back,” Bruce said.

Since then, she’s had fourteen starts for six wins, including the Group Two Garrards ‘Premier Mares’ Championship and the Group One Fahy Fence Hire New Zealand Breeders Stakes. Her rise to prominence has been rapid.

Lakelsa’s dam Oh Tara has an unregistered Fear The Dragon four year old mare, a weanling filly by Pebble Beach and is in foal to Confederate.

The brothers have also had success with the progeny of In The Pocket mare Miss Optimistyx.

“Earl Swain was at the sales, and I was going through the book (catalogue). I rang him and he ended up buying her for us. I told him to go to fifteen (thousand), but we paid nineteen or twenty. Earl just kept going (laughter),” Bruce said.

As a racehorse Miss Optimistyx had ten starts over two seasons before she was retired.

“She was a brute to kick in the box and Snow was going to take her to Auckland for one of those sales series races so I paid up but she cracked her fetlock,” Bruce said.

Miss Optimistyx had mixed success at stud. She left Pass The Speights and Speights On Tap, both named after the boys’ favourite drop. The names were probably finalised at their favourite watering hole the Pioneer Tavern.

“We call in there occasionally,” Al said.

Pass The Speights and Speights On Tap each won four.

“Up until this mare (Lakelsa) Snow reckons he (Pass The Speights) was our best horse. He just lacked a bit of high speed,” Al said.

They’re also breeding from Major Evie (Art Major – Miss Optimistyx) which is in foal to Perfect Sting, and Leigh Major which has left four year old Colonel Austin, a two year old Always B Miki colt, a yearling colt by Sweet Lou and a filly foal by Pebble Beach.

For years the brothers have been a bit of a fixture at the Young Quinn Raceway helping with the local workouts and attending most race meetings.

Bruce (69) reckons he’s worked at the workouts for over fifty years while Al (62) has been involved for thirty.
Al works at the local Fonterra Edendale Dairy factory.

“I’m the longest serving person on site there, it’s my forty sixth season.”

Bruce milked cows for twenty years before also going to working at the Fonterra plant, for a stint of twenty seven years.

“I leased by brother’s farm for ten years. He passed away and the farm was sold last season. I’ve still got thirty acres,” he said.

The brothers have four sisters Barbara, Shona, Lynley and Joyce whose interest in harness racing has been heighted with the arrival of Lakelsa.

Bruce played rugby for the Menzies College first fifteen as a hooker while Al played two hundred games as a prop for the Edendale seniors.

“One day I was on the side as touch judge for the Balfour game. I ended up going on and the first thing Noddy (Noddy Orr, Northern Southland Trotting identity and Balfour prop) asked me was who won the Invercargill Cup. That’s all old Noddy wanted to know (laughter),” Al said.

Between 1986 and 2024 Bruce and Al won thirty eight races in partnership. As individuals and in other partnerships they’ve owned a further nineteen winners.

As Regan Todd said after Lakelsa won the Breeders Stakes “You don’t have to spend the big money to get a good horse.”

Bruce and Al Sinclair are testimony to that.

by Bruce Stewart, for Harnesslink