The New Zealand Cup – 20 years ago

There was drama before, during and after Just An Excuse’s win in 2024.

Before the great race the defending harness racing champion was far from healthy. He had jarring up issues, was off his food and his lead-up form did not look promising.

During the race he had to contend with starting off the back mark of 10 metres against a field that included hotshots Elsu and Mister D G.

And then after the race co-breeder Ollie Haines learned that his good friend Graham Higgins had died in the stand nearby.

It was emotional on a number of levels.

In 2004 Just An Excuse wasn’t just a New Zealand Cup winner – the horse, known as “Lordie”, was a two time winner. He went on to claim the Free For All three days later, the first to do the double since Christian Cullen in 1998.

That win on November 9 2004 also gave driver Todd “The Wizard” Mitchell an incredible fourth win in the New Zealand Cup in six years, following on from Homin Hosed (1999), Gracious Knight (2022) and then Just An Excuse a year earlier.

Throughout his career Just An Excuse was trained by Robert Mitchell at Raglan and driven by his son Todd.

As a weanling Just An Excuse was considered a liability on account of having a club foot.

But appearances can be deceiving and he would go to win 17 races from 39 lifetime starts and accrue over $1m.

In 2024, after having a very disrupted build up, the defending champion went out a $7.30 third favourite behind his two more vaunted opponents,  Elsu and Mister D G. It was a two-horse race they said.

Post race Mitchell senior chided the media saying “I don’t know why you fellas wrote him off.”

All three started off 10m with Elsu making the first move with David Butcher sweeping round to the lead. Just An Excuse bided his time before doing the same and sitting parked briefly before Mister D G gave him the perfect one-one cover.

Turning for home Elsu looked to have the wood on his opponents only for Just An Excuse to peel out and wear down the pacemaker in impressive fashion, winning by a neck, in 4:01.2

It meant that Just An Excuse had just won the 100th and the 101st editions of the great race. On both occasions he’d beaten Elsu into second place.

And just for good measure he got third in his third New Zealand Cup in 2005, behind Mainland Banner and Alta Serena.

Just An Excuse’s last race was as a seven-year-old  on December 23, 2005. His retirement came to a premature end two years later when he suffered a paddock injury. He broke his leg and was put down in June 2008.

At the time Robert Mitchell said : “He has been such a great horse for us and really didn’t deserve to go like this.”

by Dave Di Somma, for Harness News Desk