Since his early twenties Raymond Connors has balanced farm life with training a team of racehorses, and his record in major races indicates the latter is far from a second pursuit.
Growing up on a dairy farm in Whangaehu, Connors’ family had interest in racing, but as a young teenager he never could have envisioned himself as a jockey.
By chance, Connors made a farm-related visit to a nearby property, owned by Kevin Myers and Angela Illston, and not long after he was working for the Turakina couple full-time.
“I’d grown up on the farm and was around horses, but it wasn’t until Kevin moved from Hawera to Turakina that I got involved in racing,” Connors said. “Initially, I went over there to get some milk for the calves but then started helping him in the mornings before I went to school. I was probably around 15.
“I was always keen on racing, but I never thought I would be a jockey, so Kevin and Angela really got me going. Without them I probably wouldn’t have gone down that track, but once I started jumping, I just got keener and keener.
“I ended up leaving school and worked for Kevin on the dairy farm for two or three years, then I would go and help him with the horses.”
Having had experience riding on the farm, Connors learned the ropes of trackwork riding and progressed onto his first amateur race on the flat, with his first winner, Say Go, coming under a month later.
“I rode a couple of amateur races first, Kevin put me on some of his horses and I think I won on my second ride,” he said.
“My parents always had horses, raced the odd one here and there, so once I got involved, we bought a couple of horses and they turned out to be quite handy jumpers.”
‘Handy’ is an understatement, with the two horses, purchased out of Brian and Lorraine Andertons White Robe Lodge, turning out to be Among Thieves and Our Jonty. In the care of Myers, Among Thieves got Connors on the board in the jumping ranks and won seven races in total, while Our Jonty gave Connors his biggest thrill in the saddle, winning the 1998 Great Northern Steeplechase.
“Our Jonty was only little, but he loved good ground and he was a very good stayer,” Connors said. “Ian Jones started off training him and he won a flat race, but after he was looking a bit limited on the flat, we started jumping him and turned out to be a good horse – he taught me to ride.
“After he won the Northern, Kevin took him over for the Grand National in Australia, so I got to ride around Flemington a couple of times. He wasn’t quite good enough, I think he ran fifth, but it was a great experience.”
As well as an insight into the Australian scene, Connors got an opportunity to travel to Europe with Myers, riding the stable’s jumpers in Italy.
“I went over to Italy for a couple of months with Kevin, he took a few horses and I rode a few winners,” he said. “The jumping there was very similar, it was an amazing course at Milano and a very professional system. They had more amateur races too, jumping is pretty big in Europe.
“I didn’t ride for the money, I just really loved it and it’s a real thrill. Being with Kevin helped and riding at a good stable. I fell off here and there, but I was fortunate not to have any bad injuries.”
Through this period, Connors had started to prepare a couple of his own horses from the farm at Whangaehu, and while he enjoyed balancing riding and training for a while, the latter came to the forefront after the 2003 jumping season.
“Once I won the Northern, I carried on riding for a bit longer, but I was having to watch the weight a bit to ride,” he said. “After my time at Kevin’s, I came home and did the cows here, and I started training half a dozen horses myself.
“I ended up only really riding the horses that I trained or owned, I didn’t ride many outside horses. Eventually, I was pretty busy with training, so I thought I’d let the other guys do it.
“I thought I might come back, but once the next season rolled around I just didn’t get around to getting the weight down and getting race day fit. It was putting that effort in to lose ten kilos or so, and I felt like I’d achieved what I wanted too riding-wise.”
Focussing solely on training, it wasn’t long before Connors came across a serious talent in the form of King Johny.
The son of Seasoned Star finished third to the formidable Xcellent in the Gr.1 New Zealand Derby (2400m), taking Connors on his Australian debut in the training role when third in the Gr.2 Tulloch Stakes (2000m) and fourth in the Gr.1 Australian Derby (2400m).
“He was a very good horse, probably one of the better ones I’ve trained really, he ran third in the New Zealand Derby and fourth in the Australian Derby,” Connors said. “He ended up getting injured and he didn’t achieve what he probably could’ve done.”
A couple of years later, Connors would unveil another star, but this time, it would be in the jumping caper.
That horse went by the name of Hypnotize (NZ) (Yamanin Vital), an unassuming gelding who would develop a love affair with the Ellerslie hill, delivering Connors with three Great Northern Steeplechase crowns and three Pakuranga Hunt Cups in four years.
Connors looked fondly back on those efforts, which were made even more impressive considering Hypnotize contested the Northern five times in a row, recording placings in his other attempts.
“He was just so tough, very similar to Our Jonty, who probably wasn’t far behind him really (ability-wise),” he said. “The difference between them was that Hypnotize could handle the really heavy tracks.
“He loved Ellerslie and going over the hill, there weren’t many with that stamina to keep going. He wasn’t the greatest jumper, but he had an amazing ability to stay.
“We targeted that race for him each year, but they’ve got to be sound and have a bit of luck along the way. Some horses don’t have that luck, but he was a very sound horse and we were lucky enough to get there each time.
“He was such a genuine horse.”
Forever etched in jumps racing history, Hypnotize retired with 13 wins and 9 placings to his name, accumulating just shy of $380,000 for Connors and his father Mark, who shared the spoils with the son of Yamanin Vital.
“Initially, I had to have a share in the horses to ride them, and they’ve all been family horses since then really,” he said. “We all work as a team, he lets me do what I want to do and is the number one supporter.
“We can’t go too far wrong.”
Seven years later, Connors returned to Ellerslie with another progeny of Yamanin Vital in Wise Men Say (NZ) (Yamanin Vital), who developed a similar affinity with the course.
He took out the McGregor Grant Steeplechase earlier in the season, and after playing second fiddle to Amanood Lad in the lead-up to the Great Northern of 2017, he took the top spot in seriously trying conditions, crossing the line after nine and half minutes.
Wise Men Say missed the feature in the following season and hadn’t produced his best when shooting for a second crown in 2019, but a gun ride from Shaun Fannin made lightning strike twice, bringing his earnings near the $340,000 mark.
“It was pretty wet that day (2017), they were lucky to even have the races, but this horse loved the heavy ground,” Connors said. “He was a nice big horse with good stamina and a nice jump, so it all came together.
“I probably wasn’t as confident coming into the second Northern win, he wasn’t going as well, but Shaun Fannin rode him and got him out in front, and used his staying and jumping ability.
“He helped the horse win that day, he rode him positively and he proved to be the best horse. He needed that sort of ride, he’d just been following them around a little bit.”
Winning five Northerns is no easy feat as a trainer, but Connors said that nothing can quite compare to being on board.
“It was a great thrill each time (with Hypnotize and Wise Men Say), but riding is definitely the pinnacle, you can’t beat that feeling and I’ll never forget it,” he said. “In saying that, a lot more probably goes into the training side, it takes a lot of time and effort to get them there and try and win.
“Winning any race is a thrill, even in a maiden, so winning those big ones keeps you going, it keeps you motivated.”
During his time with Myers, Connors forged close friendship with fellow hoop Isaac Lupton, who was in the saddle for much of those ‘big ones’.
“I met Isaac while I was working at Kevin’s, he came and worked there for a bit, so we’ve been good friends for a long time,” Connors said. “He was still riding when I gave up and we seemed to click, we had a lot of luck together.
“He was a very good jockey and the main rider that I had, but other than that, I would really put on any jockey that I could get. I try not to be too fussy, and when you’ve got a good horse, the better jockeys come to you.
“Racing probably got him away from the farm a bit, and the same for me, it’s been good like that. It gets you away and doing something different, like another interest.”
Amongst his success over fences, Connors has hoisted a number of New Zealand’s most prestigious flat racing trophies, including two editions of the Gr.3 New Zealand Cup (3200m) and a Gr.2 Wellington Cup (3200m) with Blood Brotha.
He completed the trio of two-mile features this year on Champions Day, winning the $600,000 Gr.2 Auckland Cup (3200m) with Trav (NZ) (Almanzor), a homebred by Almanzor.
“We try them all on the flat first and usually target the horses that are bred to stay,” he said.
“Blood Brotha took a while to get going and initially I didn’t think he would stay, but it wasn’t until he got over a bit of ground that he actually started winning. He was a great horse, we went to Australia with him too and he ran well.
“We bred Trav and he won a race as a two-year-old, so he’d always showed ability. (The Auckland Cup) was one of those races that we hoped he’d run well, we weren’t expecting to win, but we had the horse as fit as we could and Masa (Hashizume) rode him very well.
“We were just out the back, but when we went up in the stands for the race, there was a big crowd and it was an awesome win. It was great to be a part of a big day like that.
“We might take him over to Australia and see how he measures up. We’re probably dreaming, but we would like to give him the opportunity to get to a Melbourne Cup.
“We know he can get the distance so that’s a big help.”
A common theme throughout Connors’ top representatives has been their southern bloodlines, an association that goes right back to those the two original jumpers.
“All of the good horses we’ve had are from White Robe or from the family, with those southern pedigrees,” he said. “When I was still in school, Dad went down and brought Our Jonty and Among Thieves from there, and we’ve been friends ever since.
“We bought a lot of horses off them and a couple of fillies, who we are breeding from ourselves now. The breeding side is hard, as is any part of racing really, but we’ve had a bit of luck. We bred Trav and Prince Oz, who ended up down south with Neill Ridley and he won six in a row down there, and he won the Stewards (Stakes, Gr.3) twice.
“We go for the best (stallions) we can afford, we look at the newer stallions and support White Robe with their stallions as well. We try to go for the flavour of the month, anything that looks promising, but it doesn’t always mean they’re good.
“We’re trying to cut back a little bit as I’ve got six mares here now, which is too many. Two or three would be enough, I’m getting a bit older now, so it’s getting a bit harder.
“I don’t mind waiting, I like the staying types and breeding those Derby-Cups types of horses. There’s not much science to it though, it’s a lot of luck.”
While his riding career may have come to a close over two decades ago, Connors still rides trackwork and schools his jumpers at Bulls Racecourse, which he purchased to train out of privately.
“I was training on the farm at Whangaehu, then a few years ago now, we bought Bulls Racecourse,” he said. “I’ve got a few horses kicking around the track there and it’s worked out pretty well.
“I learnt a lot from Kevin and Angela, and from there, I just have learned as I’ve gone along. In training, you never stop learning, the horses will tell you in a lot of ways.
“We mainly work on the sand track in the winter, so it’s not too much upkeep, and I’ve got staff helping me out down there. I usually do the cows here first then head down to do the horses, then they’ll feed them up in the afternoon.
“I don’t like to count them, but we’re working about 15 down there at the moment, I’ve got a couple of jumps jockeys helping me out which has been good. There are three or four that we’re trying to get jumping, and the rest are flat horses that may jump one day.
“We do all aspects of the job, we’re weaning foals off the mares, doing yearlings, breaking in, so we get to know the horses very well.”