Vale Terry McDonald

New Zealand harness racing lost one of its iconic owners in the early hours of Sunday morning with Terry McDonald succumbing to his health ailments in his hospice bed at the age of 83.

Somewhat serendipitously, in the afternoon that preceded his passing, McDonald was in the winning ownership of Tower Of Love (Johnny Rock) at Rangiora. A pacer he bred from his 2014 NZ Broodmare of the Year, Love To Live. The dam of his once-in-a-lifetime pacer and three-time New Zealand Cup winner, Terror To Love.

“I told him when I saw him on Saturday night that I had a winner for him and it was great to get a winner with a horse he bred and that we race together, “ said Graham Court, McDonald’s long-time partner in harness racing.

“It’s just a shame he didn’t get to see it but I know he would have been watching from above and had a few bob on,” he said.

McDonald, a stalwart of the racing and scrap metal industries is remembered fondly for not only what he achieved in harness racing and his business endeavours, but also the calibre of human being that he embodied as a much-loved friend and family man.

“He was the most honest, loyal and greatest friend I would have been lucky enough to have,” said his great mate, Reg Storer.

The Canterbury used car dealer and McDonald endured a friendship that stood the test of time, carried by the commonalities of their love for harness racing and a punt. But beyond that, Storer admits the two were an unlikely duo.

“We were so poles apart in our ways of life but in some ways it was what made us so good as friends,” said Storer.

“We obviously loved the horses, but it was our love of black jack that really brought us together. The Casino used to think it was hilarious watching us give each other shit every weekend, it was like watching Dad and Dave,” he laughed.

“We would play in a lot of satellite tournaments together and go 50/50 in our endeavours. One of us would be the hare and the other would be the hound.

“One of us would go balls out and bet like buggery and the other would play conservatively and hope the others playing would be roped in by the bigger bets the other was making and blow everyone away.  We had a lot of fun doing that and made quite a bit of money in those sort of contests.

“Terry loved the place because it was his own little enclave. Later in life he didn’t branch out much with his fear of flying and in a lot of ways the Casino was one of the few places he enjoyed and felt safe,” he said.

It was the fear of flying for which one of his former trainers, ex pat New Zealand horseman Tim Butt recalled another iconic punting story of McDonald’s when he was trying to convince him to campaign one of his star performers in Australia.

McDonald experienced turbulence so great on a propeller plane flight from Palmerston North to Wellington in the late 90’s, he vowed never to fly again. This made watching horses campaigning outside of the South Island a logistical challenge, and led to McDonald’s reluctance to a possible Hunter Cup assault for up-and-coming star, Stunin Cullen.

“I wanted to bring Stunin Cullen over for the Ballarat and Hunter Cups and I couldn’t quite convince him,” said Butt.

“I said to him: I’ll tell you what I’ll do Terry, I’m that confident he will win the two features, I‘ll put a thousand to win on him in the Ballarat Cup and two thousand on him to win the Hunter Cup. Knowing how much he loved a punt I thought that would sway him,” he said.

STUNIN CULLEN | HUNTER CUP REPLAY

It proved to be a profitable decision.

McDonald pocketed $360,000 as the winning owner of the two Australian features which saw Stunin Cullen down both Smokin Up and Imthemightyquinn in the space of a week.

But when Butt returned home, a further phone call informed him McDonald had won nearly the same amount of money off of the tote.

“When I got back, this bookie rang me up from Australia and said look, next time your having a big bet in Australia, would you do it through me? I asked him what he meant and later found out that Terry had put $10,000 and $20,000 into the two races himself,” he laughed.

In star-studded fields, the boom son of Christian Cullen had returned dividends of $8.40 and $8.50. All in a week’s work.

Butt learned about McDonald’s fearless punting long before he developed a fear of flying.

“When I was about 15 or 16, I watched him play a game of ‘coins’ with Barry Nyhan and they were betting for a free service to Lordship. A service to Lordship in those days was $10,000 and to put it in perspective, I think a section in Templeton was about $15,000.

“It was like playing a game of heads and tails for $100,000 in today’s terms and after plenty of back and forth and ups and downs, Terry ended up winning. I was just a kid and things like that leave an imprint on you and I never forgot it, it was hard case,” he recalled.

McDonald, born and raised in Dunedin, first recalled going to a New Zealand Cup in 1949 when won by Loyal Nurse.

It wasn’t until 1977 when on the back of a booming scrap metal business, Acme Metal and Drum Company, that he dipped his toe in the water with racehorse ownership, with the first of his 250 winners coming at Ascot Park in February 1978 with the four-year-old Regal Yankee gelding, Captain Forever.

Captain Forever would win four races for McDonald and G B Lee in the care of the late Ali Malcomson, and moderate success ensued in preceding years with Sistac (Tactile), who won three races for McDonald and his great-mate Eddie Griffin in the 1982 season.

Around this time, McDonald struck up his enduring relationship and friendship with Canterbury trainer, Graham Court, with the pair combining for 140 of McDonald’s 250 New Zealand harness racing victories.

“I got involved with him close to 50 years ago when he lived in Dunedin and we hit it off right away. He was instrumental in my career and obviously the best sort of bloke you could ever hope to train for,” said Court.

“He left everything up to me and spent a lot of money looking for a good horse which didn’t come easily. We had a lot of nice horses that won one or two for us but for a long time that was our lot. We would get them up and going and sell them on when they had reached their mark,” he said.

The first winner for the pair came in the form of Front Up (Nat Lobell), a six win trotter who was good enough to front in the 1986 Dominion Handicap won by the great mare, Tussle.

Their first pacing winner came a year later when Mistabell (Nat Lobell) won the George Noble 2YO Stakes at Methven. He was a half sister to New Zealand cup winner, Armalight being out of New Zealand Oaks winner, Ar Miss, but failed to live up to those lofty heights.

“One of the first good ones we had together was Fella Ship (Lordship),” said Court.

“I was desperate to try and find Terry a good one and we went round to Jim Dalgety’s place and really liked the look of this young colt who was out of Jovial Jeanie. She was broodmare royalty at the time being out of his great family and the only mare in the country by Most Happy Fella.

“We did the deal and ended up winning five or so from just 15 starts. He had a huge amount of ability and we never saw the best of him, he twisted his bowel one day and we found him dead in the paddock which was a shame,” he said.

Between times McDonald had began to try his hand at the breeding caper.

Undeterred, McDonald bred 25 horses between 1984 and 1992 before producing his first New Zealand winner in the form of Gena’s Folly (Michael Jonathan).

McDonald had shared in the ownership of 50 winners before the turn of the century, and the realms of winning three successive New Zealand Cups would have seemed somewhat unplausible, even for a man of McDonald’s resources which by the by, rode the wave of the scrap metal industry which at times was akin to the waves of horse ownership.

“The steel business would go up and down a bit and he rang me one day asking if I would buy some horses off him to help him out,” said Butt.

“I ended up buying three horses and he said when I get back on my feet I will give you a horse to train.

“You take things like that with a grain of salt sometimes when dealing with potential owners. I always liked the guy and when people were in trouble I liked to help them out and Terry was straight up and down in how he approached things and we had a bit of a strike rate stable and if I labelled one for him it usually won. He liked that.

“Terry was a very loyal man and Graham was his trainer, but true to his word, he called me one day and said he was ready to race a horse with me. We bought a horse for him early on called Show Cruiser and he won a few for him and his good mate Eddie,” said Butt.

“We ended up buying Tuherbs together off of Dave Anderson and he was a terrific horse who won the Welcome Stakes and beat Pay Me Christian in his very first start.

TUHERBS | EASTER CUP REPLAY

“He had an issue with his fetlock and they couldn’t diagnose it because they didn’t have digital imaging in those days. He won all those races and the Easter Cup. When we put him under the knife to sort out the problem they never woke him up because the problem was that bad,” he said.

At the time, McDonald was quoted in the Harness Racing Weekly saying the following about the subsequent purchase.

“Tim mentioned that the asking price was fairly high, but I left it to his judgement to decide whether he was worth it or not,” McDonald said. “He believed Tuherbs was, so then I rang Eddie and he nearly fainted, but he said he would get the money together somehow,” he said.

In business and as friends McDonald and Griffin went back a long way. Originally they were partners in the Acme Metal & Drum Company, McDonald managing the Christchurch branch and Griffin overseeing the Dunedin one.

The picture changed in 1998 when McDonald amalgamated with McIvor Metals to form Resource Recycling Ltd and Griffin went out on his own, but the pair remained great friends and raced many a winner together including four-time Group One winner, Stunin Cullen.

Stunin Cullen was purchased for big money as a juvenile as a replacement for Tuherbs and gave McDonald a taste for what was to come on the second Tuesday in November in the years that followed by winning the 2008 Sires Stakes Final on Cup Day.

“He was a great slinger too,” said Butt.

“When we won the Sires Stakes Final with Stunin Cullen he came round a week later with $16,500 cash to distribute among the staff and the driver etc. He was a very generous man and he just loved harness racing and you struggle to find people like that these days,” he said.

If Storer had one regret about his mate, Terry, it was his generosity.

“He was touched very easily and generous almost to a fault. He was the sort of bloke who would help anyone out in need and often with people he barely even knew. If somebody told him he was struggling with something like the groceries he would help them without question.

“One night he won a bit at the Casino and I said to him it was a good collect. He said he had spent more that afternoon on appliances for other people! It was a bit of a shame how much people took advantage of his good nature. But that was Terry’s prerogative and he would sooner see himself struggle than others around him,” said Storer.

Stunin Cullen went on a tear after his NZ record-setting cup day victory, winning the Elsu Classic, the lucrative Yearling Sales Series Final and Great Northern Derby before the season was out in a stellar crop that included the likes of Tintin In America, Sleepy Tripp, High View Tommy and Gotta Go Cullect. Enough to see him earn 3YO Male of the Year honours.

Stunin Cullen endured a winless 2009/2010 season, however McDonald’s resolve and fortitude in his ownership and breeding endeavours were about to come to fruition.

It started with a juvenile Western Terror colt who we now know simply as ‘Terror’. McDonald bred the colts dam, love To Live (Live Or Die) as the fifth and final foal out Michael Jonathan mare, Michaels Magic.

The unraced mare had already proven a good producer having left eight-race winner, Bad All Over (Badlands Hanover) who had won six races the year ‘Terror’ was born.

At his fourth start as a juvenile, Terror To Love would win the Sapling Stakes impressively before being beaten a neck in the Kindergarten Stakes and eventually tipped out for his three-year-old season.

He would win seven races that year including dead heating with Gold Ace in the G2 Vero Stakes, but was by and large forced to play the bridesmaid to the Steven Reid trained son of Bettor’s Delight in the G1 3YO classics.

In 2010, McDonald on the back of winning the Ashburton Flying Stakes with Stunin Cullen found himself as a co-owner of the New Zealand Cup favourite, with Terror To Love rated 6^th in the betting for the Sires Stakes Final on the same day. Both finished midfield, however things were looking up.

As much as McDonald’s business interests received an unexpected uptake after the terrible events of the 2011 February earthquake in Christchurch, the same could be said for his racing endeavours. Terror To Love came back at four a different beast and on the back of a big win in the Group Three Canterbury Classic, assured himself a start in the New Zealand Cup.

An impressive Cup Day trial saw him firmly in second favouritism behind the Aussie war-horse, Smoken Up, who as expected led them a merry dance in the two mile staying test, only to be rounded up by the McDonald’s pride and joy with a memorable finishing burst down the outside of the Addington straight. Much to the delight of the parochial Addington crowd.

Having realised a childhood dream with a horse he bred, true to his nature, McDonald was more concerned about the fate and health of his ex-wife.

“Pat has been on a life-support system in hospital,” said Mr McDonald, nearly in tears at the time.

“We are divorced but we are still close and of course, she is the mother of our kids and they have been going through a really tough time. It sounds like she perked up a little bit … this afternoon … but the bottom line is our thoughts are with her and that is far more important than racing.”

Terror To Love would take McDonald on the ride of a lifetime, winning two more NZ Cups in successive years, enduring a career that produced eight Group One wins, 14 at Group 2 & 3 level, three consecutive pacer of the year titles and twice being named NZ Harness Horse of the Year.

“The Terror To Love journey was one of those once-in-a-lifetime experiences and such a fitting reward for Terry after all he invested into the sport,” said Court about the rollercoaster ride with his champion.

“I know how wrapt he was just to get the first New Zealand Cup and we never imagined we would ever win three. It was a shame the horse never got much luck when he campaigned in Australia but all things being equal, he was an out-and-out champion and did things not many other horses could,” he said.

TERROR TO LOVE | 2011 NZ CUP REPLAY

One of Terror’s greatest achievements was getting McDonald back on an aeroplane for the first time in almost 15 years, when at the needling of his great mate Reg, departed Christchurch International Airport to watch his champ partake in the Miracle Mile.

“We flew first class on Emirates because I knew he would feel a lot safer. I still have the photos on my phone, it was hilarious. I don’t even think he knew he was on the plane, he had drank and smoked himself to near death at the airport prior he was that nervous and shaking like crap,” laughed Storer.

“He had so many pet hates. He carried around an antidote for bird flu in his pocket wherever he went after that virus broke and he never ate chicken again for the rest of his life when that came about. That was a long time ago too,” he laughed again.

Storer had the fortune of racing “half a dozen or so” horses with McDonald and recalls one of the most memorable being a brazenly named pacer which drew the ire of Terry on many occasion.

“We had a lot of fun with the horses, particularly with Letspendanitetogetha, that was a real joke between the two of us when we bought him,” said Storer.

“We were on our way to the Casino and it was a big function for a female professional golf tournament in Christchurch. We were the only two males invited and Terry and I thought we were just great being amongst all the lovely woman at the event.

“On the way up, a chap rang me and asked me if I wanted to buy a full brother to Lovemetwotimes who was a horse that I had. That was $10,000 and Terry took a half share. We sent it to Gavin Burgess and he rang us and told us he was breaking it in and had looked it up and it was no relation to my horse at all. So that was hard case, and then Terry really hated the name and some of the ribbings he would get over that and what he thought it insinuated as two blokes,” he laughed.

As a magnate in his professional capacity, Storer recalled the huge amount of respect for McDonald in the scrap metal industry and the legendary work ethic McDonald was renowned for in establishing the highly successful business, Canterbury Resource & Recycling.

“He was very honest, he was very straight and had people that he dealt with for years. He was one of the few that I know that worked in with Sims who are the biggest dealers of scrap metal in the country,” said Storer.

“He would never ever do anything wrong by anyone when it came to a business deal. He was straight up and down. He was respected by people within the industry, but also outside the industry and had plenty of clients who would sell to him at a cheaper quote then they could have got if they shopped around, but they knew he wouldn’t stuff them around.

“There were no grey areas in Terry’s life, it was always black and white. His word was his word, often to his detriment. And if he made a mistake, he would fix it,” he said.

McDonald who was known to do a million dollar deal on the premise of a handshake had been suffering with ailing health in recent years, a collapsed lung ensuring his quality of life was compromised despite the diligent care he received.

“He had to pass, I went to see him on Saturday night and although he didn’t have much strength, he opened his eyes and said ‘Reggie’, and I was wrapt with that because he wasn’t doing very well. I went to the Casino and played a few hands for him for half an hour or so and did pretty well, then I went back to the hospice and sat with him for a while and left him with his daughter and he passed a few hours shortly after on Sunday morning,” said Storer.

“He had such a terrible time of things with his family. His daughter Janine succumbed to her multiple scleroses a few years ago. Tyson his son is deaf. Kerry Anne his other daughter is over here and she is just the jewel in his crown and has been immense in looking after him. He has said to me a number of times with a tear in his eye, I wish I could go over there and see them but he was too scared to fly, so it was great for them to rekindle their strong bond before he passed. As far as the family went he loved them so much and would do anything for them,” he said.

There is a famous saying that you only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.

McDonald embodied that quote and through prosperity and hardship, continued to embellish his lifes work with values that stood him in great stead with anybody fortunate enough to cross his path.

“I went past his place today and usually I would stop in and we’d throw shit at each other. I’ll miss him terribly. He was one of the nicest people I ever met,” said Storer.

Aside from the dual millionaire Terror To Love and millionaire Stunin Cullen, both of whom continue to fashion stallion careers to date, McDonald is responsible for the breeding of 236 standardbreds in New Zealand, and had 75 individual winners for 250 wins on NZ soil. Some of his best include (Note NZ wins only)

• Terror To Love: 30 Wins, $2,429,978
• Stunin Cullen: 16wins, $1,493,716
• Letspendanitetogetha: 10 wins, $ 133,998
• Tuherbs: 9 wins, $210,707
• Charles Bronson: 8 wins
• Bad All Over: 8 wins
• Donegal’s Guest: 8 wins
• Front Up: 7 wins

Rest in peace to a legend whose legacy in the sport of harness racing and the wider communities will be felt for many years to come.

by Brad Reid, for Harnesslink