Racing: Holmes D G a real people's champion

By MICHAEl GUERIN

Racing fans should love Holmes D G.

In fact, you could even say anybody who loves horses should love Holmes D G.

But there is much more to the great pacer, who will run his last race at Alexandra Park on Friday night, than that.

Because he is the horse who anybody who has lost more battles than they have won can love. And that is most of us.

Holmes D G is one of us, an equine version of the majority of people who go to work, do their job and occasionally have their moment in the spotlight.

But more often than not Holmes D G - like most of us - lost.

Actually he was pretty good at it. He lost on tracks from Ashburton to Perth and plenty of places in between.

Yet when his owners close his bank account after the City Of Auckland Free-For-All this Friday he will have won more stakemoney - $1.94 million - than any other pacer in New Zealand history.

He will also have won 13 group one races, another record, among his 32 victories.

He will also have been beaten 65 times.

He has taken on the best almost since the start of his career and will finish by taking on the best on Friday night. That is when he will lose for the 65th time.

But that is Holmes D G. He is a real racehorse. He goes to work, he races, often wins but even more often loses.

And then he does it all again next time there is a decent dogfight on.

When great horses retire they are often referred to as "People's Champions".

But usually they are not.

Christian Cullen, Courage Under Fire, Lohnro, Sunline, Lyell Creek are champions. But they aren't really the people's horses because they have nothing in common with most of us.

They are superior. Supreme athletes gifted by the racing gods. They are the equine equivalent of olympic sprinters or All Black greats.

They are not like us.

Okay, Holmes D G is also a great horse, but to him winning rarely comes easy.

He is a beautiful pacer with great speed, a master trainer and plenty of natural gifts.

He can also be a standing start rogue, a bad traveller, he was never as good when he had to work and sit parked and often cocked his head to the side when sprinting at full pace. He won only once in plenty of starts over 3200m.

Like normal people, he had problems. But he overcame them.

He wasn't beautiful to look at like Christian Cullen or endearing like Courage Under Fire.

He didn't have a fancy name or a fan club.

He was kind of plain and had his knockers.

He wasn't the best two-year-old of his year, and even though he was the best 3-year-old everybody still talked about Christian Cullen.

At four he lived in Cullen's shadow again and later in his career he has had to fight for the headlines with Yulestar, Homin Hosed, Shakamaker, Young Rufus and now Elsu.

But somehow through a mixture of heart, genetics, superb training and good luck he has come out on top.

Mostly it was heart.

As a three-year-old Holmes D G tore a huge hole in his leg a week before the Great Northern Derby and vets said he would not make the race.

Of course he won it, beating Christian Cullen and never took a lame step from the time the leg was stitched close.

In human terms, he got off his arse, didn't sulk and went to work.

Then as a six-year-old he had a dreadful New Zealand Cup carnival and an interrupted trip home that left him so exhausted he lay down and slept as soon as he touched the grass of trainer Barry Purdon's paddocks.

Hours later he was on a plane to Sydney where he was given little chance of winning the Miracle Mile.

Three days later he won by a nose. He refused to be tired until his work was done.

Probably sounds like somebody you know. Maybe you.

There are plenty of ways of keeping score in racing but only one really matters: Who wins the most money.

And Homer has won the most.

It is perhaps a shame his old legs are too weary to carry him to one last moment of glory on Friday night, where the winning stake would make him our first $2 million pacer.

But in a way it is fitting. Because like most people Holmes D G will finish his career maybe short of his ultimate dream.

He will not have climbed all the way to the top of the mountain but far enough to be proud of what he has achieved. And that is why he is a true People's Champion.