Horse racing: Copy That repays resolute Green

Copy That winning the New Zealand Cup. Photo / file.

Copy That’s career-defining performance may have come in the bright Addington sunshine but it was earned in a lonely horse stall in Victoria.

And the man who was there for both moments, the gutting and the glorious, fought back tears thinking about it yesterday.

The Pukekohe pacer won his second consecutive IRT New Zealand Cup yesterday, leading most of the way to beat the brave little Australian pacer Majestic Crusier, with Spankem and Akuta next.

There were excuses for some, none more so than second favourite Rock N Roll Doo, who lost all chance with an early gallop, but the cold, hard fact is Copy That lead was there to be run down but his rivals couldn’t get to him.

He was aided by a perfectly rated Blair Orange drive to give the reinsman his third Cup and by Trainer Ray Green never giving up on the pony-sized pacer twice in the past year.

The first and most testing time came when Copy That kicked a fence and fractured a leg during a Victorian campaign last December, which meant he has to spend months in a box, all but unable to move.

Green couldn’t move either, because with the transtasman border closed due to Covid soon after their campaign had started, the broken horse and his exasperated trainer were stuck in Victoria together for four months.

“It was incredibly frustrating,” remembers Green. “It was bad enough not being able to come home but for the horse to injure himself so badly and not be able to race, we were both feeling pretty sorry for ourselves.

“But we got through it. I’d go down the road to where he was staying and hang out with him and I always knew he would recover.

“But to be here together today, after what we have been through, is quite emotional.”

Once Copy That recovered and returned to the racetrack, Green had to show faith again just a month ago when Copy That had three defeats in a four-start Victorian campaign that included a minor bleeding setback.

The 77-year-old trainer was adamant back home, happy in his own environment, Copy That would be happier and he went old-school, allowing him to start off 55m and 70m handicaps to win two minor races that mentally toughened him up.

Orange and the little horse who refused to lie down then stood up on harness racing’s biggest stage. The winning time of 3:54 was the third fastest in the history of the iconic race (Lazarus recorded the fastest), which is why Copy That was entitled to be getting tired at the line.

“I enjoyed that more than last year,” offers Orange, “the crowds being back makes it so much better.”

●Copy That and most of the other major players from the Cup are likely to return to Addington on Friday for the NZ Free-For-All, where horses like Rock N Roll Doo will be better suited by the mobile start.

But past that challenge and the return to Australia for this summer’s highlights like the Hunter Cup and Miracle Mile, Copy That now has a chance to join the greats.

Only three horses have ever won the New Zealand Cup three times and Copy That should get his chance to join them next November.

If he can break into that most elite of all clubs, the lost months of that Victorian summer for a man and his horse will have been worth it.