There have been many magical moments for Mark in his close to 3000 wins as a harness trainer but not many more memorable than posting his first with a thoroughbred in Auckland on Saturday-at his first starter there.
“It was a very special thrill being at Ellerslie. To train your first winner there at first try,it was almost unbelievable” Mark said.
Except of course if you look at his standardbred record where “firsts” have a long history in the blue and grey colours
Buster gave Mark a possibly unique double as his first training success with standardbreds was at Alexandra Park with Brabham in late 1995 for Maurice McKendry with Mark runner up with Il Vicolo.
Given a sweet trip by Jasmine Fawcett, Buster took time to wind up first go in blinkers and just made it though Mark found that encouraging.
“I’ve always thought he would go better over further and it showed me more ground will not bother him either”
Buster was the horse apart when he first appeared at Rolleston, the only thoroughbred in a standardbred parade of stars.Not everyone was convinced it was the dawn of a new era.
He had been bred by a friend,Kerry Shaw, and his family,who had shared in the racing of his dam Udititagain an outstanding two year old for the Kevin and Pam Hughes stable (her breeders).She ran second in the Group 2 Wakefield Challenge Stakes at Trentham-a rare feat for a southern filly- then won the Listed Champagne Stakes at Riccarton as a two year old.
The Shaw family bred most of the foals from her though the best was from a season deal with Inglewood Stud.Monrecor was placed in the Manawatu Breeders and won the $30,000 Twilight Cup at Ellerslie in December 2017.So while Udiditagain,now deceased, had a mixed stud career she can boast an Ellerslie double among her progeny.
Buster was her last foal. Kerry Shaw’s father, Jim, was a highly successful thoroughbred trainer in Timaru and at Riccarton for many years.The Shaw brothers were all competent horsemen over country and Buster is named after the most colourful of Jim’s brothers.
Being the first galloper he really had much to do with Mark concedes it was a learning process for both – perhaps leaning more to the trainer than the horse.There was maybe more of the steady work essential for standardbred training than in the short sprints that more suit most gallopers. But he had faith in Buster’s potential while hardly dreaming the fulfilment would come at the country’s premier racecourse 3 years later.
One of Buster’s early associates, the fashionably bred Captain Roy, had earlier run at Ellerslie but out of the Glenn Olds stable.Mark had intended Buster to start at Tauranga on March 30 but a colic attack sidelined those plans-with a happy ending.
Mark has just the two gallopers in work and at this stage has eased back on early plans to train a larger team.
He has high hopes for a So You Think filly he bought at the last sales and thanks the likes of Buster for giving him more confidence in the outcome.
“I learned a lot with the early ones. I wanted to do it my own way and that meant making my own mistakes. But now I have had more time I am confident I can do the best for her if she has the ability.Being up in Matamata is a help too. You get the chance to watch the experts and you always learn something”
Mark is likely to be the first Purdon to win with a thoroughbred the big family concentrating on trotters and pacers for over a century. Barry produced Check My Style at Ellerslie but did not manage to catch the judge’s eye.
Kerry, a versatile stock agent and auctioneer who was an early advisor to Mark in selecting yearlings, suffered a health setback recently and was unable to be at Ellerslie. Mark and Barbara along with Nathan and Ashleigh celebrated at a city Chinese restaurant with Christchurch connections- the way it used to be after Addington back in the day.
With Nathan’s move to Pukekohe Mark will restrict himself to the two current standardbred stars,Chase a Dream and Oscar Bonavena and is not closing the door on future standardbreds when those two have run their last race.
“Oscar was a big disappointment on Friday. About 50m before the start he just took control-I was a passenger. I was concentrating on just getting out of the way of the field. I don’t know what came over him.
This is probably his last season. I am thinking with the big increase in stakes for trotters at the Brisbane winter carnival we may go there. It would be a nice way for him to end it if he could win one. He served over 20 mares last season and I would like to think he will get much more support this year.”
“I may take Chase a Dream with him. I will make that decision later. He was terrific on Friday, It was great the way he chased horses like Leap to Faith who I think he is probably the best in the world at the moment.Considering his quick transition from age group to open class racing it was a thrilling performance”
A big thrill,yes. But maybe no bigger than a certain grey winning a maiden at Ellerslie.
PIC: Buster Shaw and Captain Roy in their early days at Rolleston. Most would have picked the Savabeel colt as the most likely to win at Ellerslie but the War Decree beat him to it