The Kaikoura Cup will celebrate its 100th running this year. Over the next few weeks Kaikoura Trotting Club historian Phil Gourdie will look back at the history of the great race. This is the third installment – Back to back winners
By Phil Gourdie
After Diamond Moose became the first horse to back to back in 1983-84 (as mentioned in a previous column) it didn’t take long to get a second.
Spry Joker, owned by Ray Winter and trained and driven by Hall of Famer J A (Jack) Carmichael, repeated the feat immediately. In 1986 the rain came and the track was muddy with Spry Joker revelling in the conditions. He enjoyed the run of the race until he took control 500m from home and went on to win by seven lengths.
In 1992 and 1993 Master Musician (pictured above) won back-to-back for the owners R J Dunn, K L McDonald and E C Storck. In 1992 when trained by Geoff Dunn and driven by Colin DeFilippi the Master shattered the world and track record by over three seconds recording 2.57.8. The following year when trained and driven by Robert Dunn he went 3.00.7.
Il Vicolo won back-to-back for owners John Seaton and Mark Purdon in 1995 and 96. Purdon trained and drove on both occasions. In 1996 he equalled Master Musician’s world time of 2:57.8. The 1995 cup race was the first winning drive at Kaikoura for Mark Purdon. Il Vicolo went on to win the New Zealand Cup in both years.
2010-11 saw Smiling Shard win consecutive cups for owners Chrissie Dalgety, A J Rooney, A R Vernel, P M Gorman, trainer Cran Dalgety and star reinsman Dexter Dunn. In 2010 Smiling Shard was slow away and settled at the rear of the field. He caught the three wide train from the 800 and stayed there until they turned for home, when Dunn sent him forward and held off all the challengers to win by half a head.
Three years later Arden Rooney won the first of two Cups for owners Meg and Merv Butterworth. In 2014 Arden Rooney was trained by Mark Purdon and Natalie Rasmussen and driven by Rasmussen while in 2015 he was trained and driven by Kerryn Manning. Arden Rooney was the first Australian owned, trained and driven Kaikoura Cup winner. Just days later Manning guided Arden Rooney to victory in the NZ Cup, becoming the first successful female driver in the Cup’s history.
In 2019, 2020 and 2021 Classie Brigade became the first to win back-to-back-to-back Kaikoura Cups. In 2019 and 2020 Robert Dunn was the trainer, in 2021 he was joined by his daughter-in-law Jenna. John Dunn (Robert’s son, Jenna’s husband) was the driver on all three occasions. In 2021 the Covid pandemic forced the meeting to be held at Addington with no crowds allowed to attend.
Next time we will look at “They just keep getting faster.”