Washdyke race will be Stormy Morn’s last

Press, 16 May 1985, Page 34

Washdyke race will be Stormy Morn’s last

By

JEFF SCOTT

Regardless of the outcome of the Hermitage Hotel Handicap at Washdyke on Saturday, the veteran Stormy Morn will trot his way in to a well-earned retirement.

The 10-year-old Westland King gelding’s Marshland trainer, John Vincent, came to this decision after discussing the future of the former top trotter with his fellow Preston Road owner, Peter Moore.

“Win, lose or draw, this will definitely be his last run,” Vincent said. “After his race at Addington on May 4, we analysed his run, working out his sectional

times and felt that he was running more on his heart than anything elso.” Vincent was given the opportunity to lease a halfshare in Stormy Morn from Mr Moore last month in an attempt to have the old campaigner in Auckland this week-end to try to win his second J. Rowe Memorial Gold Cup, having won the big trotters’ event back in 1982. However it was not to be.

Stormy Morn will be contesting his 152nd race on Saturday. He has won 32 races, been second six times and third on 21 occasions, and his amassed stake earnings of $216,773. Of this, $62,058 was won in Australia, the result of 25 starts for 11 wins and 10 placings. “He went some handy races at times over the last few years, just enough to keep us enthused, but I think the old petrol tank isn’t as big as it used to be now,” Mr Moore said.

Mr Moore is uncertain about Stormy Morn’s immediate retirement programme but he is likely to return to being a farm hack, a role he was initially bought for at a cost of only $l5O for Mr Moore’s daughter, Diane, after showing little promise as a youngster.

Mr Moore rates Stormy Morn’s 1982 Rowe Cup win from 15m behind over Ken-

wood Song, Sir Castleton and Jenner, as his best run — “a real gutsy performance.” ,

Earlier that season, he had won the other big plum on the New Zealand trotting scene, the Dominion Handicap at the New Zealand Cup meeting, becoming the first horse to win both races in the same season.

Other big wins for the 1981-82 Trotter of the Year were in the 1980 Bendigo Cup, the 1981 $30,000 Australian Trotters’ Championship (trotting the 3300 m in a record 4min 24.85), the 1981 Benson and Hedges InterIsland Trot, the 1981 New Zealand Trotting Free-For-All (equalling Scotch Tar’s New Zealand 2600 m mobile record at that time of 3min 21.35) and the 1981 New Zealand National Trot.

He began his career as a four-year-old at Methven, finishing third, then won at his second start on October 2, 1978, at Ashburton when prepared at Belfast by Trevor Thomas. His last win was as an eight-year-old at Alexandra Park on October 19, 1982. Other trainers to have prepared Stormy Morn for Mr Moore over the years include the Australians, Jim O’Sullivan and “Buffer” Innes, and the former Rangiora horseman, Tony Perucich.