Stephen Doody – Manawatu mainstay

Central Districts horseman Stephen Doody has been the mainstay of the Manawatu Harness Racing community for a number of decades and some good horses have come out of his stable.

He launched the career of one of our greatest mares, Blossom Lady, who went on to win $1.3 million and has also trained horses such as Braig (18), Te Kawau (12), River Field (11) and Mister DG (10).

Doody was born in Rakaia and got involved in harness racing through his stepfather Noel Edge. Noel trained 26 winners with Loyal Drift (Byebye Bill) his best, he won eight races including the 1973 New Zealand Oaks. She also ran second in the 1977 Hannon Memorial won by Palestine.

As a fifteen year old Stephen began working at the Templeton stable of Derek Jones where he stayed for three years before transferring to Colin De Filippi for a further two years.

His first winning drive was Daynoma (Rodney Day) for Joseph Johnston at Greymouth in March 1980.

“It was an old trotter that my stepfather owned. After that race I think it won again for Henry Skinner in an invited drivers race at Addington,” he said.

He was working for Delvan Rickerby when he drove Daynoma.

“I worked for him for a while, then I smashed by arm and I mucked around for a while. There was no money in the game. My stepfather was related to Sam Pluck so that’s why I moved to the Manawatu. I was 19 when I came here in 1979 so I know the place very well.”

He worked for David Mason for two years before heading to Ralph Kermode’s.

“He (Kermode) had a place just out of Linton, was breeding a lot of horses and had a stud up there. Then he bought a place at Rangitikei Line which had a big barn on it. It was owned by a galloping outfit, and they’d gone under.”

Kermode built a track on the Rangitikei Line property and Doody trained there for five years before moving to the Manawatu Raceway where he’s now based.

Doody took out a training licence in 1983 and his first training win was Super Lorette (Super Dream) at Cambridge in October 1982.

Of his 477 training wins 266 have been at the Manawatu Raceway, 60 at Cambridge and 36 at Hutt Park.

“I don’t think I missed a meeting for the whole time it was open (Hutt Park).”

Undoubtedly the best horse through Doody’s hands has been Blossom Lady, who won six of her twenty six starts for the Manawatu horseman.

“Ralph did a deal on a package deal, and she was the worst one. The other mare was by El Patron. She was a big mare and very well bred but she didn’t do a thing. She (Blossom Lady) was a tough old mare. Derek drove her for me one day when I took her down south at Rangiora (April 1988). He’d taken her out the back for a bit of a walk around and came back and said this thing’s going to sh.. it. I said really.”

Jones was right with Blossom Lady beating Long Fella by half a length in the last race at the Cheviot meeting, paying $34.15. It was the mare’s third win.

“She was a moody old thing and if she wanted to run off the track she would swing round and take off the other way. You just couldn’t stop her.”

She went on to win 43 races and $1,334,808. She won three New Zealand Mares Championships, three New Zealand Breeders Stakes, two Hannon Memorials, two Invercargill Cups, a New Zealand Cup, a New Zealand FFA and a Hunter Cup.

Doody trained her first foal Mister DG (Camtastic) to win 10 races. He won another 10 races for Tim Butt including the 2004 Hunter Cup.

“He was a good wee horse who was long barrelled.”

Blossom Lady didn’t have a lot of luck in the breeding barn, leaving two other winners – In Bloom (In The Pocket) and Bloss’s Flame (Live Or Die) both of which won two for Doody.

As a trainer Stephen has trained 477 winners – his biggest wins coming in the Group Two Cambridge Four Year Old Classic with Mister DG, the Group Three City of Sails FFA with Braig and Group Two Cambridge Futurity Stakes with Te Kawau.

He’s driven 192 of those winners himself. 50 have been driven by Andre Poutama, 47 by Brent Mangos, 36 by Maurice McKendry, 34 by Todd Mitchell and 34 by Jim Curtin.

Braig (Armbro Invasion) is the best trotter Doody has trained. He won eighteen races.

His wins included a City Of Sails FFA, he was second in the Trotters Flying Mile twice and also won the Fred Shaw New Zealand Trotting Championship.

Braig finished third in the National Trot, Dominion Handicap, Rowe Cup and City Of Sails FFA.

“He was one of those tough old horses. He’d be going along hard and if he galloped you couldn’t hold onto the bugger. A lot of people didn’t like to drive him. He galloped for the whole race one day at Hawera, but he came right in the finish.”

Todd Mitchell drove Braig in the north and Jim Curtin in the south.

“Jim drove him one day at Addington and he bolted the whole way. He drove one of Mark Purdon’s (Sleepy Tripp) in the next race which was the Derby and he won. He was stuffed afterwards.”

Doody has been friends with Curtin for a long time.

“We hung around all the time when I was down south. They (the Curtin’s) used to come up and go to the Hawkes Bay races. Old Reg (Curtin) and Peter Yeatman. We used to have a great time.”

Jim and his wife Sandi have a share with Doody in good galloping mare Express Yourself which ran second in last year’s Telegraph Handicap.

She’s trained by Doody’s partner of fourteen years, Nikki Hurdle. Express Yourself is currently in Australia being trained by Mick Price.

River Field and Te Kawau were other good horses that had their early education in the Manawatu under Doody’s guidance. Te Kawau went on to win ten races for the stable.

“He was good horse. He used to run any time I wanted to work him.”

And River Field did a good job, winning eleven.

“We sent him over to Aussie and he was still a colt. Once he got over there they couldn’t handle him. He went no good over there but he could run.”

Stephen has had a loyal group of owners over the years – Ralph Kermode, Brian Field and Des and Maria Webb among them.

“They’ve been excellent and there have been a lot of others that have stuck in there. We’ve just got a few new little syndicates that have started up.”

Doody says the Manawatu harness racing community is small and close knit.

“Those before us have done a great job in keeping this place going. It’s very financial and we have no debt.”

Doody says the Manawatu property is worth $21 million.

“I think last year the Club put in $92,000 to prop up the stakes. If we’re racing for $8,000 we’ll probably prop them up to $10,000.”

On the driving front Doody doesn’t drive too much these days after being involved in a raceday accident at Nelson.

“It quietened me down a bit. I broke a fibula bone in two places below the knee. It cost me a fortune trying to employ people while I was sitting on the sideline watching them work. It’s hard work that! I was out for well over a year. I had operations for two years.”

As to the future?

Manawatu has seventeen race days in the new racing calendar so there are plenty of local races to target and if good enough, a road trip or two to Cambridge.

by Bruce Stewart, for Harnesslink