Racing: Litt pulls a Joku out of the pack to ace win

Feed "Jim Litt" into the Google engine, crank it up and you'll find lean pickings on the Hawera horse trainer.
Suffice it to say Litt isn't in the same popularity stakes as the Wheelers, Rogersons and Sargents of today.
That is not to say the 56-year-old isn't passionate about horses even if some see him as a "hobby trainer".
"He milks 300 odd cows before he gets to his seven horses," Denis Hurcomb, co-owner of Joku, said after the Australian-bred horse beat favourite Riomoral in the feature race of the Russell Roads New Year's Family Raceday in Hastings on Saturday.
Malaysian apprentice jockey Zawari Razali rode the six-year-old brown gelding to a 1 length lead past Bankside Belle, who finished by a head in front of the Karyn McQuade-trained Riomoral.
To the uninitiated at the Hawke's Bay Racing "summer fun" meeting, the only point of difference in the $12,000 Hastings Cup line-up was Joku's weight - 62kg compared with the 10 others in the field averaging around mid-50kg.
Explained a delighted Litt: "He's a stakes horse so we have to be careful where we place him. Today, at 62kg, there aren't too many horses who run around at his weight and get away with it."
The former Gai Waterhouse-trained horse, and owned in Victoria, has been leased to the Litts and Hurcombs for four years.
Litt and his wife, Marlene, and Hurcomb and his wife, Barbara, race Joku here with Litt's son, Richard. Richard, who was watching the race on TV, runs a stable of 12 horses in Randwick, Sydney, for 12-time Melbourne Cup winner, the legendary Bart Cummings, 83.
Joku arrived in Hawera on November 14 with the blessings of Richard.
Denis Hurcomb said the 21-year-old, who learned his trade from trainer Graeme Rogerson (Waikato) and John Wheeler (Taranaki), was an accomplished eventing rider, breeder and trackwork whizz.
"Richard's been on the phone to Jim three or four times already and he's over the moon."
Like son Richard, Jim Litt found his passion for everything horsey from his father, Tom Litt, who died last month.
Dairy farming was always an insurance, thus the "hobby" image.
Joku even surprised Jim Litt on Saturday.
"He hasn't shown us much at home but you only have to look at his record to see his ability.
"He's won three now in the 1200 and being unplaced on his only one other start," Litt said, describing the horse's demeanour as "very, very quiet and lovely".
"It's our first run with the horse.
"We missed a jump-out at the trials so we just brought him here just to see where we were with him," he said.
The Hastings race becomes an under-card act to the $200,000 group 1 Railway Stakes in Ellerslie, Auckland, with horses failing to make the cut joining other horses here.
So is Litt any wiser after Saturday's win?
"He's in great shape ... and we just hope we can do a little better with him in the future."
He lauded Razali who also rode his horses, Marain in race 4 and Nepia in race 3.
The 25-year-old apprentice jockey, who has been riding here since 2009, said the plan was to sit in third or fourth place and follow without gravitating towards the barrier.
"He's very strong in the last 200m, " Razali said of Joku.
John Stenning, of Hastings, was the best of the Hawke's Bay trainers, his horse, Mr Archibald, winning the Best Travel 2000m race 4 by 1 lengths from Mister Deejay and the Guy Lowry and Grant Cullen-trained Double O Seven.
In the 1200m race one, the Be Sunsmart Today, for 3-year-olds, Hastings trainers Frank Brown and John Bary had to settle for second and third places, respectively, with Outback Girl beating The Knight by a neck.
Lowry and Cullen's Flemington was third in the 2000m race 3, The Storty Bar Stayers.
Patrick Campbell's Dee Dee Smash beat fellow Hastings trainer Ted Laxon's Tridane by half a neck in the 2600m Roger Russell Memorial race 6 to finish second and third, respectively.
Waipukurau co-owner/trainer Peter Evans' Sanriba finished a neck behind Lisa Latta-trained Tangolini in the last race, the 1400m Bluewater Hotel.
Results - p12.