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Welcome to Harness Racing Interactive and The Addington Raceway Hall
of Fame.
At Harness Racing Interactive, we aim to preserve the great moments of
the past at Addington Raceway by providing an interactive virtual presence
using the internet to reach millions of people world wide and our local
harness racing industry here in New Zealand.
Harness Racing in New Zealand is one of the most popular forms of equestrian
sport. There is nothing more exciting than owning and racing a harness
horse.
Harness Racing Interactive is proud to be a part of this wonderful club
and venue and we will be there for many more years to come bringing you
the great moments of the past and those of the future.
Enjoy your visit and thank you for supporting Harness Racing Interactive
and the Addington Hall of Fame.
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2004 NZ TROTTING CUP - Won by Just An Excuse
 2004 CANTERBURY DRAUGHT NZ TROTTING CUP
Cup Day was a cocktail of triumph and tragedy for Ollie and Irene Haines at Addington on Tuesday. Minutes after watching Just An Excuse give Elsu a repeat beating in the Canterbury Draught New Zealand Cup, the Haines’s learned their good friend Graham Higgins had died in the stand nearby.
Higgins was a member of the Cambridge Harness Racing Club, President of the club from 1986 to 1989, and was part of the support team behind Just An Excuse. Ollie, visibly shaken by the death of his old friend, took some consolation on hearing that he'd died calling out ‘Go Mitch’.
It was all part of a turbulent ride the Haines’s have had since winning the New Zealand Cup with Just An Excuse last year when he was a warm favourite. Through one reason and another, Just An Excuse had fallen from favour, and Ollie sat on the sidelines as trainer Robert Mitchell used all his professional skills to put the jigsaw back in place.
The time he spent on the horse was unbelievable. “He has virtually lived with the horse for the past six weeks. “Back and forth to vets, tooth men and farriers. “I’m sure if he’d been in a big stable he wouldn’t be here now,” he said. There was a chewing problem that some attention to his teeth fixed. There was a jarring up problem to his club foot that some special cushioning to his sole fixed. And then there was the abortive mission to Ashburton, which nearly unfixed their whole campaign.
“We were gutted after Ashburton,” said Haines. “It didn’t seem fair; we wanted a rewind. “It wasn’t the fact we didn’t win there, but the fact he didn’t take any part in it.” But Haines didn’t lose faith in Mitchell, nor in the horse. He chided the media for doing so. “I don’t know why you fellas wrote him off,” he said.
Ironically, the Haines’s had been associated with the Butcher stable for 13 years, before Mitchell was given the horse after he’d been tried by Cambridge trainer, Brent Donnelly. The Haines’s had dozens of horses at the time, but five years ago Ollie stuck to a principle and culled more than 30. One of those he couldn’t quit was My Excuse, a Smooth Fella mare and her Live Or Die colt foal.
The foal was Just An Excuse and the culling was successful, because only My Excuse and a Camtastic-Another Excuse 3-year-old remains. Ollie still takes time to bless his Addington luck.
“I’ve only raced two horses here, and they’ve won five Group races.
Just An Excuse has won two Cups and the Superstars, and Smooth Performer won the Oaks and the DB Fillies Final,” he said. And while Todd calls Addington his second home, the Haines’s don’t mind the place either. They could, however, do without the emotion and high drama that came with their visit this time.
About Photo: The cover of the Weekly says it all !
Credit: Mike Grainger writing in the HR Weekly
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Facts Box - Dexter Dunn
- 2008/9 Season - 204 wins
- Employed in the stables of Cran Dalgety.
- From 1263 starts 204 wins, 139 seconds, 120 thirds and $1,951,274 in stakes. Most successful horse partnerships were drives on Smiling Shard, Band on the Run and Diomedes with six wins each.
- Six times this season has won four or more races at one meeting.
- Best performance was at Forbury Parkwith 8 starts, 6 wins and 1 second. Won 2 Group One races during the 2008/9 season with Smiling Shard.
Helen Pope Helen Pope continued a grand family tradition on the race track and created one off it by being elected to the Addington Hall of Fame. Helen is the daughter of Bill Doyle a famous horseman in his own right in the history of the trotting horse in New Zealand as View More |
Bob McArdle BobMcArdle has always maintained his major involvement in New Zealand Harness Racing as a founding partner in the iconic Nevele R stud happened more or less by accident after a casual meeting with Wayne Francis in the early 1970�s, but it is certain that sooner or later the native of Tasmania would have played a major role on this side of the Tasman. It is the nature of the man. View More |
Wayne Francis Wayne Francis inherited his love of trotting from his father, Geroge, who raced a number of good horses including the high class pacer, Brava. After building his fortunes in property development Wayne started up Nevele R Stud from scratch after a chance meeting with Bob McArdle in the early 1970�s. The aim of Nevele R was to lift the standard of breeding to a new high in this country and it was achieved in remarkable fashion. View More |
Derek Jones Derek Jones needs little introduction to most harness fans for besides being a highly successful horseman and trainer as well as an administrator he was one of the great characters of harness racing with friends in every part of the country.
Christchurch born Jones trained as a hairdresser but was always interested in horses. View More |
Two new members in Hall of Fame Two men whose importation of quality, highly performed stallions transformed the standardbred breeding industry in the Australasia have been recognised by the Addington Raceway Hall of Fame. Bob McArdle and the late Wayne Francis, who established Nevele R Stud at Prebbleton in 1973, join Maurice Holmes, Jack Carmichael, Helen Pope, and Derek Joins as Select members. |
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