Outstanding harness driver Zachary Butcher is going to try what no other New Zealand horseman has been able to successfully pull off before: becoming a true inter-Island reinsman.
Butcher has revealed his plans to start travelling every weekend between his base in the North and Canterbury to drive at predominantly Addington for Friday night meetings.
His move has been spurred by two things, one personal, the other professional.
Butcher’s partner is Canterbury-based Laura Dalgety, the daughter of top trainers Cran and Chrissie.
The second is a desire to try his hand in the South Island and give himself more Friday nights at work as Alexandra Park will have a lot more Thursday meetings in the second half of the year.
“I looked at the calendar up here through August and September and almost all the northern meetings are on a Thursday.
“I will still 100 per cent be driving at those meetings and will of course look after the trainers I drive for up here and be working at Lincoln Farms.
“But I can pretty much drive at Addington a lot of Fridays. Some weeks that will mean returning home on Saturday morning to work at Lincoln Farms, but every second weekend, when I am off from there, I intend also staying for the Sunday meeting, which is often in Canterbury.
“It is something I have always wanted to do and the timing is right, with so many Friday meetings down there and giving me the chance to spend time with Laura.”
Butcher says he is committed to driving in Canterbury almost every week until at least Cup week in November, giving him time to build contacts and some trainer loyalty.
The latter shouldn’t be hard to grow as Butcher is one of Australasia’s best drivers, well on his way to 1000 career wins here (sitting on 861 domestically) as well as proven at Group 1 level in Australia.
He is also one of the younger drivers who can be uber aggressive but mixes that with the tactical genius, resembling his father, David, one of the shrewdest reinsman in the country.
Tonight though Butcher will be in the more familiar surroundings of Alexandra Park, not only as a driver but the trainer of two winning chances in Call Me Trouble (R5 N8) and Zarias (R6 N3).
“Call Me Trouble needed the run last start but was really good in second and I think he will go even better this week because he is working well,” says Butcher.
“I am not quite as confident with Zarias, because while he can win he might be a run short because he missed a trial.
“I think he will cross to the lead early and have a real chance, but I couldn’t tip him strongly.”
Butcher is very keen on Midfrew Lucre (R4 N5) after a strong last start win over key rival Mr Chip, while he rates Next To Me (R2 N9) the second best of trainer Ray Green’s five reps in that race, with Neptune seen as the stable’s best chance.
New Zealand premiership leading trainer Steve Telfer says his stable is ready for the title battle even if they could lose their lead in coming weeks.
Telfer and training partner/sister Amanda hold a one-win lead in the premiership over the All Stars, the champion trainers having closed the gap with a big week last week.
While Michael House on 39, Greg and Nina Hope on 38 and Robert and Jenna Dunn on 35 are all within realistic striking distance the NZ TAB, probably quite rightly, has the Telfers at $1.45 to win the premiership and the All Stars at $2.70.
Telfer says while the gap has closed he has plenty of firepower for the second half of the season but will be quieter for a few weeks.
“We will only have a handful racing in the north and just Dance Time in the south over the next month,” he explains.
“I like the way the new season is divided in two and it gives us a chance to have a small let up and get ready for the second half.
“But we have plenty of horses coming up who will be at the workouts in the next two or three weeks and then bigger numbers coming out, including a lot of the two-year-olds coming back, some of them qualified.
“I always thought the second half of the season would be our stronger period so I am confident we will have a good back end to the season, but I am sure Mark and Hayden will too.”
Purdon is also having a short break away so the leading stables are almost going back to the future, with a winter break in harness racing common 30 or 40 years ago before year-round racing became a thing.
“It is only a few years ago we were in the situation that we would race quite a few in winter because we thought we had more chance of picking up a winner but that won’t be us this year and I will be thrilled for those who do pick up some wins,” says Telfer.
He says while plenty of talented horses will be back in a month, two of the biggest names are unlikely to race in the north at the start of their new campaigns, with Alta Wiseguy and B D Joe heading south providing the latter stays in New Zealand.
“They are coming up well and they could have two or even three trials before the National meeting at Addington, which I think is August 26.
“Alta Wiseguy will definitely go there because he is such a good standing start horse and B D Joe might too, but we are also considering an Australian campaign with him.
“There are about eight races that could be built into a campaign for him over there including the Victoria Cup and Four and Five-Year-Old Championships in Victoria, and then three big races in West Australia.
“That is by no means certain but it could be an option because I am not really sure at this stage if he is a true 3200m horse for the New Zealand Cup.”
Telfer says if B D Joe does cross the Tasman one of the stable’s elite mares, Allamericanlover or Darling Me, could potentially go as well.
“It might be a smart thing to split the good mares and have them chasing different feature races in different countries, but there is a lot of water to go under the bridge before then.”
The opinions expressed in The Forum are those of the author and may not be attributed to or represent policies of Harness Racing Victoria, which is the state authority and owner of thetrots.com.au.