Butt brothers in fine touch

Press, 12 September 1988, Page 25

Butt brothers in fine touch

When Game Nian caused a minor upset in the Hornby Hardware Trot at Addington Raceway on Saturday, it capped a successful night for the Butt brothers. With father, Murray, still sidelined with a broken bone in a shoulder, his sons have handled the situation admirably. Tim Butt gave Game Nian every chance, in the trail and the Game Pride five-year-old produced a dour finish to. hold out

Yankee Loch by a neck, with the favourite, Nooky Bear, cut back to third. In the previous event, Roimata Lad, like Game Nian trained at Templeton by Murray, scored an easy win for another of Murray and Jenny Butt’s sons, Roddy, in the Kevin Blair Contractors Mobile Pace for junior drivers. Roddy made the trip south from Pukekohe (where he now works for Brian Hughes) specially to take the drive.

Earlier in the night,

Tim and Roddy’s older brother, Anthony, a former top junior, gained an armchair drive behind the Roger Sharpe-trained Final Offer in the Sydenham Bakery Mobile Pace, winning by five and a half lengths. Final Offer, which graduated to a C 8 mark with Saturday’s win from only 23 outings, will bypass this Friday’s New Brighton Cup in favour of the C 5 and faster handicap, according to Sharpe.

“He doesn’t usually go two good ones in a row,” said Sharpe, who will not be chasing a New Zealand Cup start with the six-year-old. Races like the Kaikoura Cup and the Wellington Cup are the main aims for the Boyden Hanover gelding. Final Offer is to be driven by Sharpe’s son, Ray, this Friday, as Anthony has accepted the drive behind Hoosemedad in the same race.