by Rob Courtney
When your horse wins at Addington on a Sunday & pays $48 to win its probably fair to say that your confidence levels were most likely ‘luke warm’ to say the least but for part owner Stewie Sutherland it must have been something of a ‘time warp’ as the Superfast Stuart-Foot Loose mare put on a faultless display in recording her 2nd win from just her 9th raceday start.
“She had gone a couple of nice trials recently but run ‘no time’ “ according to her trainer “and the half hopples had been removed but it didn’t seem to affect her,” he added.
Showing his age, this writer quickly made the connection between ‘Loose’ and the Sutherland family and sure enough the winner traces directly back to an open class trotter of the 1970s in Screws Loose (8 wins) when trained by Stu’s uncle Ian (also known as Stewie).
Millie’s dam Foot Loose was by Grant Our Wishes from Loosely and the latter was a daughter of Screws Loose (by Keystone Provider).
Foot Loose had been passed on to Stewie by yet another family member and he bred a full sister to his latest winner in Girls Let Loose who won 6 races + $53k a few years back.
As the name suggests, Screws Loose had a mind of her own and could be quite erratic but at times showed real brilliance in racing in a fine era of NZ trotters.
Names like No Response, Scotch Tar, Easton Light & Nigel Craig were common denominators when researching the HRNZ results pages.
Screws Loose was by the colonial sire Aksarben (Light Brigade – Blue Revue) who won 8 races in the late 50s and was a half brother to the precocious Blue, who was the ‘pin-up’ 2yo of his year in 1958 winning all of his 6 starts when trained by Alan Holmes.
The Sutherland family were regular visitors to Addington and other metropolitan tracks of the day as they also raced another fine son of Aksarben at this time in Waipounamu. The tough son of Talaus started 202 times recording 17 wins and 49 placings, winning some $74k and being highly competitive in all the trotting classics through the 70s.
He raced from age 4 through until he was 11 and along with Screws Loose, kept the Sutherland family in the open class trotting ranks for near on a decade.
The younger Stewie Sutherland remembers getting the opportunity to travel with Waipounamu to Auckland and on that trip he ran second in a Rowe Cup.
Arita (Johnny Globe – Girl Brigade) was yet another open class trotter in the Sutherland stable during the late 60s/early 70s, winning 9 races and often giving the stable 3 ‘live’ chances in the ‘open’ trot.
Interestingly, Talaus was a daughter of Una Morn who was a fine producer in the late 60s & 70s, leaving Dreamy Morn (9 NZ wins), Avon Song (9 NZ wins) and the unraced Miss Morven (by Lumber Dream) who would leave another standout trotter in Directorship (12 wins) for Charlie Hunter.
It’s early days for the Sutherland trained 4yo mare just yet but Millie could still carry those colours to greater glories in the season(s) ahead.
“It looks like she is going to get her chance at Friday nights which could be quite a challenge but you can’t leave them in a paddock for ever,” her modest trainer explained.
“Johnny (driver John Morrison) said she thought it was over once getting to the front on Sunday but rallied strongly when challenged late.”
Sutherland currently helps out at fellow Rakaia trainer Kevin McRae’s and between them, they are working 7 horses.