Racing: Brassed-off Butt says stewards are biased

Champion driver Anthony Butt is considering reducing his involvement in Australian racing because of what he believes is biased treatment from their stewards.

Butt drives in more Australian races than any other New Zealand reinsman and would spend more time in Australia than any New Zealand-based horseman of either code.

But harness racing's greatest transtasman ambassador says he has almost had enough after copping a four-week suspension after driving Lyell Creek to a close second in the A$100,000 Australian Trotting Grand Prix on Saturday night.

Lyell Creek lost his unbeaten Moonee Valley record when just failing to catch leader Gold N Gold.

Butt was suspended for an incident soon after the start in which Sammy Do Good was checked and galloped, not only losing his chance but cutting open a front leg.

Butt says the incident was not his fault, believing Sammy Do Good's driver Kerryn Gath drove her horse's legs into Lyell Creek's sulky wheel as they competed for the same position.

He knew soon after entering the judicial room, though, that he was in trouble.

"It was a bad angle on the video replay and made it look 50-50.

"Even then, though, I think there was enough doubt for me to get off. I end up getting four weeks at one of the busiest times of the year."

Butt will lodge an appeal this week and because he pleaded not guilty is almost guaranteed a stay of proceedings.

The onset of the Christmas holidays means the appeal is unlikely to be heard until next week, and he should still be able to drive hot favourite Foreal in next Monday's Great Northern Oaks.

But not so clear is whether his appeal will be heard before New Year's Eve, when he is scheduled to drive Mister D G in the Auckland Cup and Lyell Creek in the National Trot.

"I would love to drive them but if I can't Mark Jones will be offered the drives.

"But this is not about getting a stay of proceedings for that night. I honestly don't believe I should have been suspended and I have some huge races next month too, so there would be no good time to have a break."

Butt says the incident has soured his usually buoyant attitude toward Australian harness racing.

"This is the third suspension I have copped this year in Australia, while I can only remember getting one in New Zealand in the last five years.

"A lot of other New Zealand drivers like David Butcher, Tony Herlihy and Ricky May have been suspended over here, too, in what were borderline cases.

"I think the stewards here are definitely harder on the Kiwi drivers than their own and it is making me think twice about how much driving I do over here because I can't afford to keep getting suspended."

Although disappointed with the aftermath of the race, Butt was happy with the performance of Lyell Creek, even though he lost his unbeaten record at Moonee Valley.

The champion was three wide for the last lap and appeared to be struggling at the top of the straight but dug deep in the last 50m to almost pull off the win the crowd had come to see.

"He went great but the leader got things a little too easy," said Butt.

New Zealand's other representative, Allegro Agitato, looked to be going well in the one-one until she galloped on the home bend.

The win of Gold N Gold will leave punters stunned because during his recent New Zealand campaign he was pathetic and would have struggled to win a class two race.

But since returning home he has returned to remarkable Australian form.

Exactly how the Kiwi-bred trotter can be so useless in one country and so good in another is one of the great mysteries of racing.