Racing: Champ gives up record bid

Christen Me gave Dexter Dunn plenty of thrills, including this win in the Victoria Cup. Photo / Stuart McCormick

Champion reinsman Dexter Dunn says walking away from the chance to break the national record for wins is easier for him that it would be for another driver.

After all, it is his record.

Dunn will forgo driving in the last harness racing meeting of the season at Addington this Friday, leaving him stranded on 216 wins for the season, four short of his personal best of 220.

"To be honest, the record isn't something I have thought about this season at all," says Dunn.

"It is my record so I suppose extending it by a couple of wins wouldn't have changed anything much.

"So I'm not bothered by missing it because it has been a great year."

Dunn has a wonderfully unusual reason for missing the final week of the season - he is heading to Ireland to drive in one of its biggest harness meetings of the year.

Harness racing is very much the poor relation in Ireland, where the thoroughbred industry is a source of national pride.

However, the cottage harness racing industry there is undergoing a mini-renaissance, so much so that the winner of a local series will be invited to contest the Perth Inter Dominion series this year.

"Anthony Butt went last year and said it was a great experience, so Cran Dalgety and I are going this year and I will be driving at their two-day carnival," says Dunn, who leaves today.

"Its good to see different parts of the world so I am excited about the trip and hopefully I'll learn some stuff while I'm away."

Dunn says he has no immediate ambitions to move away from New Zealand to somewhere like North America, where he drove five years ago.

One reason is he recently became a proud father, the other is the success he has achieved in recent years.

He is averaging 208 wins a season in New Zealand alone over the past five seasons and, of course, also won the Miracle Mile and Victoria Cup in Australia with Christen Me, as well as group ones there with Sheemon and Katy Perry.

"Christen Me has come back well and has some huge racing this season so him alone would be a great reason to stay here," admits Dunn.

"And horses like him mean I get to drive a lot in Australia, which provides some great opportunities."

His 216 New Zealand wins came from 1001 drives and the domestic season is also over for the all-conquering Purdon-Rasmussen stable, who have rewritten the trainer's record book with their $4.2 million in stakes earned here, as well as more than A$1 million in Australia.

Their juggernaut moved to Victoria this week, when they begin a month-long assault on a series of races culminating in the Breeders Crown.

That leaves the junior drivers' premiership as the only one still being contested, with Stevie Golding three wins clear of Robbie Close and looking likely to claim the crown.