Melbourne 1996 - Trotters Series

1996 Trotters Series
Moonee Valley, Melbourne

1996 Inter Dominion Trotting Championship Series $125,000
Heats: 10, 17 February 1996
Final: 24 February 1996

As a result of generations of selective breeding, today’s trotter has lost much of the coarseness that often came through in the squaregaiters of yesterday.

While Australian breeders continue to make significant progress breeding trotters, it is an area where New Zealand has enjoyed a great deal of depth, a legacy from the importation of some fine trotting sires.

Since Scotch Notch departed the racing scene having collected two Inter Dominion titles, New Zealand has maintained a dominance with their trotters competing at the Inter Dominions. So when the cream of the trotters came together in Melbourne to contest the 1996 Inter Dominion Trotters Championship in February, no one was under any illusions that apart from Wagon Apollo, the chances of an Australian victory in the series was most unlikely.

In a warm up to the Championship, Harness Racing Victoria programmed the Inter-Colonial Trotters Mile to celebrate the centenary of an historical trot at Moonee Valley when the champion standardbred of the day was the trotter Fritz.

When enthusiasm sometimes get the better of one in brashly claiming how "so and so won by the length of the straight," they would not have been stretching the truth one little bit had they been referring to Fritz. He was a trotter who had brought new meaning to winning by such margins, and against the best pacers too.

Heading the Kiwi contingent in Melbourne was the defending Inter Dominion Champion Call Me Now NZ. Because of unsoundness, this large and powerful looking trotting machine had not been over raced despite now being eight years old. The race also included the Auckland mare Pride Of Petite USA and Chiola Cola NZ, while expected to be Australia’s best chances were Wagon Apollo and the veteran Lenin.

Pride Of Petite USA - 1997 Inter Dominion Trotting Champion

The win by Pride Of Petite USA over Wagon Apollo provided yet another triumph for Mark Purdon in feature events, though on this occasion some of the shine was taken from the result with a disappointing third turned in by the odds on favourite Call Me Now NZ. In the next two weeks it would be found the horse was so far down on form that connections returned it to new Zealand, still leaving a formidable Kiwi trio to carry the flag in the Inter Dominion.

FIRST NIGHT

There was no shortage of Australian challengers which led to three heats being contested on the night of February 10 under discretionary handicapping conditions over 2350 metres. Diamond Field NZ, winner of the 1993 Inter Dominion in Sydney got the series off to a flying start for New Zealand, driven by Mark Purdon, and posting a mile rate of 2:05.8.

Wagon Apollo trotted up to expectations to come off 20 metres and win Heat 2 from Eastburn Grant NZ and Weston Gee NZ. Its mile rate was 2:06.4

The Kiwis fought out Heat 3 with Chiola Cola NZ edging out Pride Of Petite USA with a rating of 2:05.8

SECOND NIGHT

The following round of heats were stepped up to 2840 metres, with old Diamond Field NZ outperforming its young rivals in heat 4 with a small mile rate of 2:05.9

Against it was Wagon Apollo for Australia winning the next heat with a mile rate of 2:07.3.

The American-bred Kiwi mare Pride Of Petite USA produced a big effort to win the final heat, trotting home her last half in 58.9, for a mile rate of 2:05.2.

Despite the good showing by Graeme Lang’s Wagon Apollo in the heats, the trotter to have impressed the most leading up to the Grand Final was Pride Of Petite USA. Back in the 1970’s her then famous mother, Petite Evander, was the outstanding trotting mare of her day in New Zealand. She had won 19 races before being sent to the United States where she advanced her earnings to more than $800,000. She had been bred in the United States to the fast trotting stallion Arndon (part-owned by Sir Roy McKenzie) before that sire was sold to Europe. The breeder of Pride Of Petite USA is officially listed as Tuure Pyhalto of Finland.

GRAND FINAL

Last at the bell lap in the Grand Final, Mark Purdon brought his mare around the field with a long and searching run that was to carry her to the line ahead of Chiola Cola and Wagon Apollo. Her mile rate of 2:04.6 bettered Fair Tally’s record for the unusual distance of 3280 metres. Winning the title earned Purdon an invitation to take his mare to race in Europe against the World’s best. It was a challenge that was to be accepted by this reinsman who completed Melbourne’s summer carnival where he started - on a high. It was a carnival over five weeks in which every major race had gone to a New Zealand trotter or pacer.

True to his word Purdon took Pride Of Petite USA to Europe where in the $200,000 Oslo Grand Prix she raced in the fist three major events. Though unsuccessful on this trip, it was reported how she had raced without much luck, and that New Zealand connections did refuse lucrative offers for her.