Racing: Farewell to Lyell Creek a tough one for driver and punters

Driver Tim Butt and Lyell Creek are led out onto the track before his last ever race in the Rowe Cup at Alexander Park last night. Picture / Fotopress

Anthony Butt is taking the positive approach to the toughest farewell of his career.

Last night the outstanding reinsman drove New Zealand's greatest ever trotter Lyell Creek for the last time.

Their association, professionally at least, came to an end in the Rowe Cup at Alexandra Park, a race they had managed to win three times before.

Saying goodbye to Lyell Creek will not be easy for Butt and his wife Karen as the great one has taken them around the world and earned $3 million, roughly 25 per cent of that for the Canterbury couple.

But money can't buy what Lyell Creek has given Anthony Butt.

He has driven him against some of the best horses and horsemen in the world, getting a chance to star on a stage most Kiwi reinsmen don't even realise exists.

"He has given me extra confidence because every race with Lyell was a pressure race. He was always expected to win," said Butt.

"And that taught me a lot about handling pressure, which has helped my driving."

So saying goodbye could have been a touch depressing for Butt, who faces the probability that the highlight of his career may have happened 25 years before he retires..

Yet he doesn't see it like that.

"That isn't how I look at life, in fact, it is completely the opposite.

"I remember the first time I drove Lyell and I knew nothing about him and exactly the same could happen with the next horse I drive at the trials or workouts.

"You never know where the next champion is coming from. But I'll be looking."

Butt is pleased Lyell Creek goes into retirement sound, without any obvious scarring from six years on the racetrack which took him around the world.

That is just one aspect of Lyell Creek that Butt marvels at.

"He really hasn't had any serious problems his whole career, which is incredible."

The other is the complete domination he exhibited in the golden years of 2000 and 2001.

"At this level great horses might win a lot of races but very few can just dominate their opponents.

"But with him it got to the stage where I expected to win all the time. I was actually more relieved than happy when he won because I just didn't want to get him beaten.

"That is the rarest thing in racing, to be that dominant. I mean, he won 20 in a row, then lost one and won another 13 in a row."

Those tallies helped Lyell Creek to his $3 million in stakes from his 56 career wins.

Trying to select the best of those 56 is almost impossible, with even Butt struggling to settle for his top five Lyell moments (see graphic).

Yet the most memorable, most historic, might be last year's Rowe Cup, which he won by over seven lengths just weeks after almost being retired.

There have been other champions, there have even been a select few who have briefly dominated in the same fashion as Lyell.

But it is doubtful any other horse in the history of racing has campaigned in another hemisphere for three years, returned home to retire and then won his country's premier group one event by over seven lengths - before adding two more group ones as an 11-year-old!

In that respect, Lyell will always stand alone.