Nairn brings up win 400 with gallant G2 success

The man they call ‘the master’ in New Zealand harness racing circles brought up win number 400 tonight (Dec 1.) in his illustrious training career in remarkable fashion with Resolve (Andover Hall) claiming the G2 $60,000 Trotting Mares Handicap at Addington Raceway.

The daughter of Andover Hall had to call on her class to claim her second successive victory in the race, after being heavily checked by a galloping Euro Style (Orlando Vici) at the 800m, forcing the race favourite and Bob Butt to take evasive action to avoid being wiped out all together.

It left the pair a good 15 lengths off the tear away leader, Muscle Bank (Muscle Hill), and forced Butt into making a three wide surge after losing all their momentum at what appeared to be a pivotal stage of the race.

Muscle Bank who had found the front the first time past the winning post, set about running her eleven race night rivals ragged and looked to be a huge show of taking them wire to wire, putting a gap of four to five lengths on the opposition turning for home.

An urgent Butt had Resolve posted four wide on the showgrounds bend, with I Dream Of Jeannie (Monarchy) and Mark Purdon who had raced in the one-one throughout the only other runner appearing a threat to the Tom Bamford trained mare who was now lonely out in front.

RESOLVE REPLAY

Now it was Gavin Smith’s turn to get urgent, with the Nairn trained Resolve slowly but surely grinding away at the margin which at the 100m mark was still a good three lengths.

Give the work the four time Group race winner was asked to do, and bearing in mind she was off the back mark of 30m, she would have her share if excuses had she gone down in defeat. But drawing on her championship qualities, the daughter of five time Group One winner Habibti proved herself to be the best trotting mare in the country with a defiant late surge to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.

“She had no right to win the old mare,” exclaimed her pilot, Bob Butt post race to Nigel Armstrong of Harness Racing Unhinged.

“Nothing went her way and it was hard enough being off 30m, copping a check and then be four wide from about the 600m. She has just been going really good, and wanted to win it,” he said.

“It was hard going, I didn’t think we were going to get there until we did on the line. Full credit to her, she was just too good for them,” he said.

When asked about whether he was given any driving instructions, Bob was quick to chime in.

“He never gives instructions, he’s the master trainer and you just throw the reins at them,” he laughed.

Somewhat prophetically, Bob spoke to Harnesslink earlier in the week and had the following to say about Resolve’s chances;

“She is up to them on class, the 30m just makes it tricky through the middle with who is carting who up. If a Galway Girl gets to the top and puts ten lengths between us early on, it’s going to be very hard. Just with the ones you have to get around. It’s probably easier driving her in the Open Class races because you always have a good helmet to follow, but here you will likely have to burn around and make your own luck and hope to avoid traffic issues along the way.”

While he may have got the lead horse wrong, the rest was all but a self fulfilling prophecy.

So too was the notion that Paul Nairn would be stuck on 399 for very long.

It was fitting that the bonny mare was the one to get his 400th success, ten of which Resolve has contributed to herself along with 9 placings and $251,324 in stakes.

On the back of two brilliant races over the course of Cup Week, Nairn admitted to not being too pleased with her work in the time between assignments.

“I hadn’t actually been that happy with her training in the last ten or twelve days. I thought the hard racing over cup week, she didn’t seem to be trotting quite as good, and Bob even mentioned when he warmed her up that she didn’t quite feel as sharp,” said Nairn.

“But she’s a good horse and like any good athlete, she just knows when it’s game time to just put her mind to it and has got the will to win so its a credit to the horse and Bob’s driving.

“I think I caused Davey a wee bit of worry this morning before the race, I just wasn’t sure how she would go to be honest but to her credit, she did the job,” he said.

When he was pressed about reaching the 400 win milestone, Nairn had the following to say.

“I guess I’m getting on a bit now,” he joked.

Nairn first took his training license out in 1983 and after humble beginnings with limited success, has gone on to carve out a career training some of New Zealand’s greats of the trotting gait.

His methods are often discussed and the stuff of legend, but one of his truly great feats was with a trotting mare who was a little bit of a late bloomer.

Her name was inspire, and she would go from winning her second race in four starts as a five year old at Westport in December of 2005, to six months later be winning the Rowe Cup at just her 11th start.

While he may have Rowe Cups, Dominion Handicaps, Rowe Cups and just about everything there is in the trotting gait, he knew precisely when and where his first success came.

“I’ll never forget my first. It was a horse called Wave goodbye, in a maiden trot at Motukarara. I think it was the 12th of March, 1987,” he said exactly.

“When you’re just getting going in the game as a kid who loved the sport, it was a dream just to be able to train any horse let alone 400 winners. I’ll never forget the first one.

“Other than my first win. Maybe Call Me Now’s Interdominion win here was really special. That was one of my first big wins and it was pretty special here at Addington,” he said.

The fact that nothing else was able to make ground in a race void of any movement through the early and middle stages further emphasised the incredible performance of Resolve, with a 59.5 last half off the front likely to be at least a few seconds better given the hopeless position she found herself in down the back the final time.

Resolve is now a dual Group Two winner having taken out last years inaugural running of newly minted Trotting Mares Handicap, which despite being badly in need of a new name, has proved a welcome addition to the trotting calendar at a time when many of the field would have likely been in the broodmare paddock.

She is also four time Group placed, with two of those performances being at Group One level and while she may not have quite reached the dizzying heights of her incredible dam, she has cemented herself as a valuable commodity in the breeding barn with a page that is steeped in black type from top to bottom.

Muscle Bank’s game performance in runner up showed she is a much improved mare and the young Tom Bamford can take a lot of satisfaction from his first Group race placing as a trainer.

I Dream Of Jeannie who was last years runner up in the race was solid in securing her fourth black type mark to her race resume.

The winning time for the 2600m was trimmed up to 3:18.8 when factoring in the 30m back mark of Resolve, with the last mile run in 2:03.0.

*Nairn need’s two more trotting wins to have 400 exclusively in the gait, with 2 pacing winners on his resume.

For complete Addington race results, click here.

by Brad Reid, for Harnesslink