Luxury Liner wins award

Press, 28 July 1989, Page 42

Luxury Liner wins award

By JEFF SCOTT Luxery Liner joined Master Mood as the only dual winners of the “N.Z. Harness Horse of the Year” title yesterday. This season’s DB Draught New Zealand Cup winner and Ansett (N.Z.) Auckland Cup winner was an overwhelming choice for major honours over the New South Walesdomiciled John Brandon N.Z. Derby winner, Westburn Grant, in this season’s Radio N.Z. Sport Trotting Annual Poll. Thirty-two votes were received in this year’s poll, run under the auspices of the N.Z. Harness Racing Conference, with Luxury Liner gaining all but three of the votes for the top honour. Luxury Liner first won the title last year, while Mas-ter-Mood scored back-to-back wins in the Award in 1986 and 1987. Luxury Liner, which won five times during the season for $565,095 in stakes, scored the same 29 votes-to-three win over Westburn Grant for the "Pacer of the Year” category. Luxury Liner set a world record for 3200 m of 4:00.4 winning the New Zealand Cup in November and paced an Alexandra Park track record of 4:3.8 for the same distance from 15 metres behind to win his second Auckland Cup last December. The Roy and Barry Purdon-trained champion stayer also won his third Securities Corporation Inter-Island Stakes at Alexandra Park in New Zealand, while he also won the Treuer Memorial at Brankstown in Sydney last December, and was second in the Sydney Miracle Mile, and third in the Winfield Cup in Melbourne across the Tasman. Westburn Grant, which was unbeaten in three starts in the John Brandon 30 Triple Crown Series, streeted his New Zealand contemporaries by almost nine lengths in the N.Z. Derby, becoming the first leader to register a sub 56-second closing 800 m at Addington Raceway.

The champion Land Grant colt polled 29 of the 32 votes in his own age group division, with the John Andrew Ford Great Northern Derby winner, Inky Lord, gaining the other three votes. • There were no surprises in the poll, each category having a clearcut winner. Luxury Liner was a unanimous choice for “Five-Year-Old or Older Pacer,” while the champion three-year-old trotter, Sundon, beaten only once in seven starts for the season, also polled all the votes in his age group division. Sundon gained three votes for the“ Trotter of the Year” title, but an older product of Roydon Lodge, Yankee Loch, the seaon’s Inter-Dominion Trotters’ Final and Rowe Cup winner, ran out a clear-cut winner gaining 29 votes. Two-Year-Old Pacer Honkin Vision 31 Mark Herover 1 (Fem Glen top filly, other nominees, Interchange, Marsa Star, Assisi, Helen Grosvenor, Jiffy’s Girl). Three-Year-Old Pacer Westbum Grant 29 Inky Lord 3 (Happy Hazel top filly) Four-Year-Old Pacer Dillon Dean . ; 9 Wait A Moment .2 Machismo 1 (Vulcan Lady top mare). Five-Year-Old/Older Pacer Luxury Liner 32 (Gina Rosa top mare). Pacer of the Year Luxury Liner 29 Westbury Grant 3 Tw#-Year-Old Trotter Rannach Ruler 31 Mini’s Man 1 (Game Sally top filly, other nominee, Jenny’s Rocket). Three-Year-Old Trotter Sundon 32 (Amee’s Frolic top filly). Feur-Year-Old Trotter Rua Kenana 31 Zola’s Pride 1 (Zola’s Pride top mare, other nominee, French Accent). Five-Year-Old/Older Trotter Yankee Loch 29 Tyron Scottie 3 (Landora’s Pride top mare, other nominee. Tussle). Trotter of the Year Yankee Lock 29 Sundon 3 Harness Horse of the Year Luxury Liner 29 Westbum Grant 3