Racing: Horsemen miss worst effects of big Canty quake

Michael Pitman / Otago Daily Times

Michael Pitman's reaction sums up how most Canterbury horse trainers feel after Saturday's earthquake shock - relief.

The region's leading thoroughbred trainer was surprised at how little the quake affected his horses and how minor the damage to his stables was. "It was like it never happened as far as the horses were concerned.

"We had some structural damage to the house, with a broken chimney, but the stables were virtually untouched.

"There was nothing to indicate the horses had panicked or anything like that so we are very lucky."

Especially as Pitman is just a week away from launching a four-horse assault on the Victorian Spring Carnival, headed by his sprint machine Coup Align.

His relief was echoed around the Canterbury horse training community, with many reporting structural damage to houses but few reporting injury to horses.

And, most importantly, most trainers seem to have avoided damage to their tracks, which enables them to keep working.

Among the worst affected were Greg and Nina Hope, who train harness horses beside Woodend Beach, 30km north of Christchurch and had a unique response.

Their house suffered damage, when cracks opened and pipes underneath the floor burst, as well as minor damage to their training track.

Their response: to train stable star Cullini to win the feature race at Methven on Sunday at 53-1.

"If it was up to me I would have scratched her but Greg isn't like that," said Nina Hope on Monday.

"The first thing he was doing once the sun came up on Saturday was checking out the track to see if we could work the horses.

"So when she [Cullini] won on Sunday I just burst into tears. I think it was relief that we had got out of this all right. I mean, nobody was hurt and when you have kids that is the most important thing.

"But it was definitely upsetting. I was at the trials yesterday and some pretty tough men were admitting it scared the hell out of them."

Several trainers reported damage to their houses and stables, with leading harness trainer Cran Dalgety among the worst hit, his house losing an external wall.

Addington and Riccarton racetracks escaped major damage, especially important as Cup Week in November is a massive contributor to the now battered Canterbury economy.

While both facilities reported broken televisions and windows, neither track was damaged, with Addington good enough to hold trials on Monday and a race meeting scheduled there for tomorrow night.

One trainer hoping to get an unusual insight into the quake was Brendon Hill, who runs the state-of-the-art Dancingonmoonlight Farm.

"We have cameras installed at the property so we can check on mares ready to foal and that sort of thing and we were hoping to have some film of how the horses reacted," said Hill.

"But the power must have gone out straight away and the cameras went down. It is real shame because that is not the sort of thing many people would ever get to see."