NZ HARNESS NEWS
The Markham family from Methven had a Boxing Day to remember with a pair of winners at the annual Westport meeting on the West Coast.
Carl Markham trained Midfrew Tarpediem and Jean Sebastien to win and his youngest son, Jeremy, drove them both.
Both doubles were career firsts for father and son.
“I’m stoked, absolutely stoked,” said Jeremy shortly after the Jean Sebastien win.
“It’s always a pleasure to drive for {Carl}; he’s been the biggest help to me in my career.
“Mum (Lyn) too; she also does a lot of work behind the scenes with the horses and never gets much recognition.
“So, it’s a pretty good feeling to see them train their first double and to drive it for them.”
Midfrew Tarpediem is a nine-year-old that doesn’t win them out of turn (four wins from 104 previous starts), but had been in decent form for the stable, who had leased him from local trainer Willy Lake earlier in the year.
“He was desperately unlucky at Amberley last time,” said Jeremy.
“But it was more driver error than anything.
“I thought that if I got a good run I was always going to be hard to beat and it unfolded perfectly for him.”
Markham pinged him away from the standing start nicely and soon settled in the trail behind Terrier.
The field was tightly-bunched turning in to the straight, but Markham soon made it ‘race over’ when he angled Midfrew Tarpediem in to the passing lane and the won of Western Terror exploded clear to win easily.
“His standing start manners were the key to his winning as he got in to a good spot, which is important at Westport.
“It’s a pretty short straight – if they don’t run along and you’re out the back, you’re sort of buggered.”
One horse that bucked that trend was old stable favourite Jean Sebastien, a long-time punter foe that has always promised plenty but failed to deliver.
“He’s such a big horse that he doesn’t get around bends any good.
“And he actually suffers from a bit of hay fever, too, so coming over to the West Coast helps him a little bit.
“Getting away from all the crops on the other side of island is a big help for him.”
Despite only winning four from 81 before Tuesday, Jean Sebastien is one that always attracts the attention of punters as he can often be seen making good late ground in his races.
The Markhams weren’t so confident this time, especially on a track that suits tractable horses that can settle handy.
“We weren’t confident with him; he has been well in himself the last two or three starts but we were quite disappointed with him at Amberley.
“We just couldn’t be confident going on that last run.”
It was another plum drive from Markham – he settled the giant trotter beyond midfield in the running line and hopped on the back of Group 1 winner Sheemon inside the last 500 metres.
With that horse hitting the wall in the straight after starting off 55 metres and copping an early check, Jean Sebastien had the necessary reserves to outpoint him late.
“I ended up following Sheemon but what I didn’t realise was that he got cleaned up at the start and had a gallop, so had covered a lot of extra ground.”
Jean Sebastien is from just the second crop of super French sire Love You, one that also featured Aile Rouge, Habibti, Kincaslough and Paramount Queen.
He was bred by Kapiti Coast breeder Jenny Becker and was leased to Carl Markham, his daughter Stacey and family friend John Maw, an Ashburton farmer, after being broken in as a yearling.
Jeremy Markham has spent the formative years of his career working for the likes of Mark Purdon and Cran Dalgety and was very closely associated with former champion trotter I Can Doosit.
Nowadays he works for North Canterbury horseman Steven Boyd.
“We do a lot of pre-training and breaking in for the likes of Mark Purdon and have a water walker there, too.”
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