Racing: 'Pilch' - A champion with a champion

Major Mark, driven by Mark Purdon, after winning 2YO Emerald with owners Philip and Glenys Kennard and Neil Pilcher (right) at Harness Jewels meeting at Cambridge in June 2010. Photo / Stephen Barker

Neil Pilcher owned a champion but that is not what people will remember him for.

Because tomorrow when hundreds of racing industry participants, family and friends gather at Addington Raceway to farewell "Pilch", his success as an owner will be part of the story. A small part.

Pilcher died in Christchurch early on Saturday morning after years of battling a range of illnesses one might inflict in 80 well-lived years.

That life consists of raising four children with his wife, Rose, a series of jobs ranging from a nurse at a psychiatric hospital and owning his own demolition company.

But it was as the owner-operator of Inter-Island Horse Transport, carrying precious equine cargo from one end of the country to the other that Pilch built his reputation for not only been an astute businessman but a relentless worker.

There were plenty of good and even great horses along the way, many in the last two decades with Tony Herlihy but more often than not Mark Purdon.

His Purdon success stories were numerous and included Derby winners Waikiki Beach and Russley Rascal but it was Smolda who gave Pilch late in life the champion he deserved.

He produced one of the great Harness Jewels wins of all time at three and then 18 months ago, when he looked past his best, won the Inter Dominion in Perth and Australian Aged Pacer of the Year.

But it wasn't all glamour.

"Pilch" would turn up at the All Stars, even when he struggled with his health in recent years, and tend to the training track and the morning teas.

That was the sort of bloke he was, doing what needed to be done, with a smile and a cheeky chuckle which hid his great eye for equine talent.

He will leave a unique hole in the New Zealand racing industry, especially in the lives of some of harness racing elite horsepeople as well as he brother Lee, who was Pilcher's partner in so many endeavours.

Neil's last starter, Mach Up, won the final race at Addington on Friday night, hours before his death.

That would have made him chuckle.

Pilcher's life, which will be celebrated long into tomorrow night, proved you don't have to be soft to be gentle.

He is survived by Rose and their four children Mark, Leanne, Jane and Brett.