Telfer’s kicking some big Goals

In only their second year of training, harness racing’s brother and sister team Steve and Amanda Telfer find themselves in a position to perhaps win the New Zealand Trainers Premiership.

They currently lead the hotly contested premiership with 85 wins with Mark Purdon and Hayden Cullen in pursuit at 79, Robert and Jenna Dunn on 77 and Michael House on 74.

“We’ve ticked along okay and are getting close to the end. We’ve come this far so we’ll give it our best shot in the last two months,” Steve said.

The Telfers were born in country New South Wales where their father Geoff trained a small team and did the stable farrier work, while their mother Fran was a successful reinswoman.

When Steve left school he worked for the Ford Motor Company in Australia for five years.

“I just worked with the horses at the weekend at Dads. I was more into sport at that stage and played first division AFL.” 

Steve came to New Zealand in 1994 as a twenty four year old and had two five and a half year stints working for Barry Purdon.

As a driver he drove five winners – all for Purdon. His first was Mandozza (New York Motoring) at Morrinsville in September 1995. 

“Barry was very good to me. I certainly learned a lot. It’s about the people you are around when you travel with the horses and all the high profile trainers you stay with. If Barry stayed at home, I went with the horses.”         

In between his time at Purdon’s he returned to Australia and worked for Goldrush Lodge and owners Kevin and Kay Seymour, and he also had a stint working for John Justice.

Steve took out his first training license in this country in 2008 and in April 2010 he trained his first New Zealand winner Twist N Shout (Badlands Hanover), which won at Cambridge in the hands of Josh Dickie.

In 2012 he joined forces with Chris Garlick, and together they trained 190 winners over six seasons.

“Chris was at Barry’s when I was there. He was teaching at the time and wanted to get back into it. He came onto the farm (Stonewall Stud), and we trained a smaller team at that stage.”

Their winners included No Doctor Needed, Better B Amazed and Rocknroll Princess.

In 2018 Steve went back to training on his own account and up until 2020 achieved 128 winners.

Back in Australia Amanda was building up her harness knowledge working for Eric Anderson and Glenn Douglas before coming to New Zealand nine years ago. She initially worked as travelling foreman for Steve and Chris before becoming Steve’s training partner when the Stonewall operation moved south to Dancingonmoonlight in Canterbury.  

Stonewall Stud at Ardmore is a purpose built harness racing stud and training facility spread across 140 acres with an additional 160 acres leased nearby. It has two big barns and a 1000 metre track. 

“It’s 20 metres wide with lots of camber on the bends.” 

Owners Steve and Jill Stockman have around thirty mares across both operations. 

“We’ve got a bigger establishment up there. At Dancingonmoonlight we’re limited to twenty five horses, so we try just to have racehorses down here.”

They have around 100 horses in training on their books and they are currently building a brand new training establishment at Jack Smolenski’s old property.

“The barn is under construction, the track is down and we’ve resown the paddocks. I think we’ll be there in another six months. We’ve got a big barn back home and I know how well that works so it’ll work very well down here with the fluctuating weather they have in Canterbury.” 

Although Stonewall Stud hasn’t been known for breeding and training trotters Steve says that’s about to change and they have four What The Hill trotters on their books.

“They’ve had a couple of preparations and could have qualified last time in. Two of them have just arrived down south. They’ll be at the trials in about six weeks time looking to qualify. As a rule, we don’t have any trotting mares at Stonewall Stud, but we bought a couple, and bought a few at the sales, so we’ve got the two year olds and four yearlings on the books at the moment.”

The two two year old fillies are both out of Sundon mares Amanda’s Gem and Iwi Alex while the two trotting colts are out of Jocasta (Pegasus Spur) Landora’s Lassie (Muscle Hill). 

Landora’s Lassie’s fourth dam Landora’s Pride won thirty four races including the Dominion Handicap and Rowe Cup.

Over the past two years Stonewall Stud have become the most active buyers at the annual yearling sales as they go about enhancing their racing operation.

“We go on the tours and Steve (Stockman) knows what he likes and doesn’t like. We all sit there with our vets and buy horses that suit us best.”

Stonewall Stud spent $2,348,000 at last year’s Sales with their top purchase being a Bettor’s Delight – Fight For Glory colt which they paid $260,000 for.

“He’s one of the few that are in Canterbury. The team really like him. I had a sit on him the other day, he’s a nice mover and pacer. He’s going through a growth spurt at the moment so we’ll probably turn him out. He looks promising.”

They also spent $210,000 to buy a Bettor’s Delight – Elusive Chick colt.

“I had a drive on him today. He’s a nuggetty colt and quite colty. He’ll do a little bit more work.”

A Captaintreacherous colt out of Bettor Think Twice which they paid $185,000 for was another of their top end buys.

“He’s in Auckland. He’s a very nice colt. He’s run a mile in 2-15 and a half in five. He’s having ten days off while I’m in Christchurch. He’s probably going to feature in those early two year old races.”

They also purchased an Always B Miki – Adore To Our Dreams filly for $150,000.

“She was well advanced early and ran a mile is 2-18 and half in six. She’s a lovely big filly and we turned her out. I’m not sure if she’s going to be an early two year old but she’ll probably qualify in the first part of the season and race in the back half (of the season).”

At the Auckland sale Stonewall Stud’s top buy was a Bettor’s Delight colt out of three win Artsplace mare Double Twist. They paid $260,000 for the close relation to Twist And Twirl and King Of Swing.

“He’s a nice colt that does everything right. He’s a lovely mover with a bit of speed and he looks like he’s going to go early.”

Also at the Auckland Sale, they purchased a Lazarus colt out of Dreaming Spires for $220,000. He’s a half brother to Hug The Wind and has Chase Auckland in his pedigree.

“He was a tough bugger to break in. The more work he’s had the more he’s coming round. He bowled up strong before I came south and did everything right. He’s developing into a mountain of a horse. He’s big, strong and imposing. I quite like him.” 

They also bought a Captaintreacherous filly out of Veste for $190,000.

“Of all the fillies she’s the one that I like the most.”

Stonewall Stud are also heavily into syndication and Jill Stockman, Steve’s partner is in charge of this arm of the operation. Their syndicates give harness racing enthusiasts the opportunity to race good quality stock in some of the biggest races in this country.

“Over the last few years, we’ve opened up some of our horses to syndicates. We’ve got owners from Invercargill to right up north. No manner where you go people come up to you to tell you they’re in one of your syndicates which is great,” Steve said.

Stonewall Stud uses reinsman Tim Williams to do most of their driving in the south and he also heads north for some of the stables feature drives.

“I’ve always liked the way Tim drives. When I started a few years ago I almost approached him to see whether he would come up to Auckland and drive the team. When he moved on from his previous employer I gave him a ring. He came up north, we had a chat, and it all went from there.”

In the north they use David Butcher who has been recently joined by his son Ben at Stonewall.

“David was doing our driving. When we had more than one horse in Ben was driving them and doing a good job. We needed someone to work up at the farm, so we had a talk to Ben and he’s come up to join us. He’s a good positive young driver who’s fitted in really well.”

Telfer says both Williams and Butcher are an integral part of the stable’s push to win the 2022 trainers’ premiership. 

 “They’re very dedicated to their craft and they’re hitting a lot of goals for us.”

Ben Butcher has driven seventy one winners for the Telfers, Tim Williams fifty five and David Butcher thirteen.

To date Steve and Amanda have trained 176 winners. Their group winners include: Group One: Three Year Old Emerald (BD Joe) and Sires Stakes Fillies Final (Enjoy Me), Group Two: Delightful Lady Classic (Forever Me), Southern Oaks (Aardies Express), Canterbury Classic (BD Joe) and Ashburton Flying Stakes (BD Joe) and Group Three: Central Otago FFA (BD Joe), Invercargill Cup (Alta Wiseguy) and New Brighton Cup (Alta Wiseguy).                

Steve says although the premiership is part of the focus this season both he and Amanda feel they’ll have more horsepower next season.

“We went to the Sales and bought quite a few and with our homebreds I think there were 40 to 45 two year olds this year. We’ve bought the same again this year. You’ve got to go through the numbers to get the ones you want.”

Their vet in the north is Tim Montgomery from Auckland Vet Centre while they use Dave Smith, Fraser Kirk and Shane Butcher as their farriers. In the south Stonewall uses Sam Taylor to vet their horses while stable foreman David White does all the shoeing.

Stonewall certainly has the firepower to kick some big goals in the next year but one promising horse they won’t be able to call on in the next six months is three year old filly Aardies Express (Always B Miki).

The filly has won eight of her nine starts including the Southern Oaks and Harness 7000.

“She’s got a small fracture on the top of the cannon bone in the knee. She’ll be side-lined for the best part of five to six months. They do expect her to make a good recovery. It’s a shame because she’s a really strong lovely filly.

Despite Aardies Express not participating  in the stables push  to win the Trainers Premiership there’s still enough talent to give them a chance at the top slot.

by Bruce Stewart, for Harnesslink