Racing: Meet harness racing's new pin-up girl

Mainland Banner (above left), driven by Ricky May, beats Alta Serena to the line. Picture / Simon Baker

Perfection may be impossible to achieve on a racetrack but Ian Dobson went pretty close yesterday.

The Canterbury racehorse owner left Addington with the New Zealand Cup, our latest pacing champion and the buzz harness racing stallion all safely in his possession.

That was the final verdict after an amazing day in which Dobson's mare Mainland Banner produced one of the most unbelievable wins in New Zealand Trotting Cup history.

The four-year-old mare defied history and a hard run to sit parked before thrashing the best pacers in New Zealand, downing fellow mare Alta Serena and defending champion Just An Excuse.

It was a performance that left rival horsemen shaking their heads that a mare having just her 12th start could so dominate in her first open class start.

For Dobson the win was justification for the huge gamble he took in starting Mainland Banner in a race that had previously seen one other four-year-old mare take the plunge.

Dobson, who purchased Mainland Banner as an unraced maiden last season, never wavered in his belief she could tear up the history book and he was proved right in jaw-dropping fashion.

As if it wasn't enough to own the new wonder horse of pacing, Dobson's day was remarkable on other fronts.

He also raced and still owns Mainland Banner's sire Christian Cullen, who won the cup in similar fashion in 1998.

Christian Cullen had already had an incredible start to his siring career, leaving a string of high-profile winners and being king of the yearling sales ring.

Yesterday that went to another level as Mainland Banner was his first winner of a group one open class race and he sired three other winners on the day, including Sires Stakes champion Pay Me Christian.

Already the most expensive and sought after stallion in Australasia he is set to enter realms never dreamt of for a domestic-bred sire. Which gives Dobson the two biggest cards in harness racing's deck.

Yesterday's victory was so emphatic and dramatic driver Ricky May was struggling to believe he had been part of it an hour after the race.

"That was amazing, she is amazing," said May.

"I didn't really start believing she could do it until her last start win at Ashburton but even then I didn't think any horse could win like that.

"She might be better than her old man [Christian Cullen]," added May, which is about as big as harness racing complements get.

Trainer Robert Dunn was less stunned, having told anybody who would listen leading up to the cup that his overgrown pacing princess had what it took to become the Queen of Addington.

"I know no four-year-old mare had ever won the cup before but she is special and I knew that so I was never worried," said Dunn.

The performance capped a fairytale comeback to training for Dunn, who prepared the luckless pacing hero of the 1990s, Master Musician, but soon after disappeared from sight, eventually running a TAB agency.

He attributes so much of his comeback to Dobson, who backed him firstly with a handy horse and now with a true superstar.

"I thought 10 years ago that I had missed my chance to win the cup and without Ian I would have," said Dunn.

Mainland Banner will now have a well-earned spell before returning to the track later in the season, with Auckland fans a chance to see her in the Taylor Mile and Messenger in April. Mares don't have very good records there either, but Mainland Banner showed yesterday that no records or opponents hold any fears for her.

In the post-Elsu era when harness racing was screaming out for a new pin-up horse Mainland Banner's timing was perfect, just like her owner's day.

Flying Banner

* Mainland Banner thrashes her opponents in the New Zealand Trotting Cup.

* She rewrote the record book, becoming the first four-year-old mare to capture the race.

* The fashion in which she won left no excuses for her rivals.

* She will now be spelled but could race in Auckland later in the season.