NZ HARNESS NEWS
Kirk Larsen has never had much to do with trotters during 30 years of training and 12 months ago he was definitely regretting buying Tolkien at the yearling sales.
Larsen was breaking in the son of Majestic Son and “he put me in hospital actually”.
“I was long reining him when he gave me both barrels,” said Larsen.
“It was lucky I put my hands up, but he split them and they needed stitching back together. That hurt for quite a while.”
Larsen is obviously a lot happier with Tolkien nowadays however, the gelding having finished second on debut at Addington a few weeks ago to the speedy filly Running Free.
Tolkien races that filly again at Addington this week along with the All Stars’ recent big purchase Enhance Your Calm and Doff Your Cap, who chased Carlton home in the first juvenile trot of the season at Addington.
Larsen’s previous experience with trotters has just been “bits and pieces” rather than having any intentions towards them.
“We used to get the odd one from Canterbury that wasn’t competitive up there, but my focus has always been the pacers because they were that much easier to get going along.
“But everything has changed nowadays and the trotters are much more natural, plus usually there’s at least three trotting races on a programme, so you have to figure you’re missing out on 30 percent of the races.”
Larsen won a race with Prince George in November, but again that was largely by default.
“Dave McCormick brought him down here last year but he was battling a bit so he asked me if I’d like to lease him.
“Dave wound up changing his mind and decided to pay the training fees for a few weeks, but we got him going okay and eventually got him sold (to Jack MacKinnon).”
Before that one has to go back over eight years to Yaldy Boyz, who won his debut as a three-year-old for Larsen at Wyndham.
“We bought him cheaply as a foal at foot from Rodney Dickson’s clearing sale for a bit of fun. My mates Dave McHugh and Tank Ellis were involved.”
It was Larsen’s son Tristan that prompted the purchase of Tolkien from the Premier Sale for $17,000.
“He’s mad keen on the trotters for some reason and had been at us for some time to get one.
“We were actually keen on the Lucky Chucky colt from Bree (half-sister to Stig), but he went for a bit more than we were intending.
“The Thomson boys down the road actually bought him (Get Lucky) and he qualified this week for Alister Black.
“We actually wound up racing together in our first two workouts and he goes good as well.
“But when I saw Tolkien I liked him even more as a type and we paid a bit more for him than we’d hoped.”
Tolkien is the second foal from Armbro Starlet (2 wins), a half-sister to Enghien among others, including the dam of Carlton.
“I feel a bit sorry for Carl Middleton as he had that family for many years at the yearling sales and most of the time he couldn’t give them away.
“Since he died the family has been kicking goals left right and centre.
“Tolkien had that streak in him but he’s pretty good now and hasn’t put a foot wrong lately.
“He’s done a lot of work and a lot of that has been done by Tristan.”
Larsen didn’t pay up for the Sales Series – “that was $2500 for just one race” – so Tolkien will just head for the Trotting Stakes and then Larsen will reassess whether or not to carry on for the Sires Stakes and ultimately the Jewels at Cambridge.
“The Jewels is just one race and a long way to go with a two-year-old trotter, so he would need to be going pretty good, and you can bet there’s some good ones about to come out of the woodwork.”
- NZ Harness News
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