Racing: Logan battles to the end

Dean Logan "might have left us but he'll never be gone," says former wife Donna Logan.

They say you can lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink.

But if anyone could make a horse drink, it was Dean Logan.

The legendary horse trainer and co-founder of Logan Racing lost his battle with throat cancer yesterday, though his devotion to his horses, staff and fans was evident until the very end. He fought and fought and had the bravest fight," says Donna Logan, his former wife, business partner and long-time affiliate at the Logan Racing stable.

"One of our last mornings together at the track, Dianne [Dean's wife] and the children came down and we watched Volkstok'n'barrell gallop. He [Dean] was very ill but he stuck in there until the bitter end to make sure the job got done right, because he was a real stickler for precision," she says.

Volkstok'n'barrell went into Saturday's $750,000 TV3 Derby at Ellerslie as a hot favourite, and placed second in what became an emotional last stanza for the Logan Racing trainer.

"He was happy, he travelled with him [Volkstok'n'barrell] everywhere, he loved that horse," Donna Logan says.

"He might have left us but he'll never be gone. He will always be around and will always be a part of the Logan Racing Team."

Dean Logan was a key figure in the Whangarei Racing Club, with current president Shayne Heape describing him as "the CEO, president and all things to all people when he was on the scene".

Heape, who took over the president role once Logan's illness wore deep into his ability to work, said: "The racing club would have been in all kinds of trouble without Dean Logan's input."

Donna Logan said Dean's devotion to Logan Racing and the wider equine community was selfless.

"He put so many hours of voluntary labour into the Whangarei Racing Club, that was his life.

"I don't think you would find anybody who'd have a bad word to say about him as friend, as a businessman, as a husband to Dianne and as a father to Robert and Samantha."

Logan was also the stepfather to Dianne's son Bronson.

"He did everything to the fullest until the very end, and he fought better than any tiger or lion that you'd meet in the jungle."

Logan's family will don black armbands in his honour at Ellerslie tomorrow where their mare Rising Romance is one of the favourites for the Group One New Zealand Stakes.

Dean Logan's funeral will be held at Waipu Presbyterian Church on Monday, at 1pm.