By Michael Guerin
One of the most unusual eras in New Zealand harness racing history has ended with the retirement of Copy That.
The fact the two-time New Zealand Cup winner won’t be returning to the races will shock nobody.
The little pacer with the big heart hadn’t raced for nearly a year and when a horse his age develops knee issues they rarely get better.
Months of rehab gave him a chance but he was only back jogging with trainer Ray Green for a few days when it became apparent he wasn’t going to stand up to the preparation needed for an open class horse.
“It was only ever an outside chance,” says Green.
“But rather than be disappointed he can’t come back I am just happy I got to train him.
“He was a lovely horse and we had so much fun with him and he made us proud.”
In this country the IRT NZ Trotting Cups trumps everything. Win one and you are never forgotten, win two and you get membership to an elite club.
Copy That’s two cups were of course vastly different for Green.
One was the Covid Cup of 2021, with a small crowd and Green trapped in Auckland, when it was quarantined from the rest of the country.
A year later Copy That led throughout again and this time Green stood in the Addington sunshine wearing a garland of roses, where he belonged.
“The first Cup was special because it was the first but the second one felt more like winning a Cup should.”
Those two Cups almost sum up Copy That’s career of contrasts.
He was a star before Covid arrived in our lives and robbed us of all sorts of things.
Copy That won the Flying Stakes on March 20, 2000 and the NZ Derby just around the corner was his to lose.
Lockdown came first though and that Derby was never run.
Dazzling heights and dreadful interruptions.
He won those two Cups and the second Race by Grins and had moments of brilliance in both Queensland and Victoria.
For a horse who earned his superstar tag by staying in front and out of trouble in those biggest wins, he added a new string to his bow by learning to win off enormous handicaps in the north. Old dog, new tricks.
So how do we sum him up?
If it hadn’t been for sharing the spotlight with arch rival Self Assured, whose record is remarkably similar, Copy That would have been clearly the best of his era here.
As it was, he and Self Assured share that title – both age group stars, both Cups and Race by Grins winners, both stop-start careers, retired months apart but bound together in the history books.
Approved By Dean Baring www.harnessbred.com
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