Small amount of trouble taints harness year

Dexter Dunn was amazing, Monkey King fantastic, but the Geoff Small soap opera dominated the harness racing headlines for 2009, leaving a bad taste in the mouths of most in the industry.

Officials would have hoped in January when Small was penalised on a raft of offences stretching back a couple of years that their problems with the south Auckland horseman were over.

But others thought racing's judiciary were far too lenient on him. Small, one of New Zealand's most successful trainers, was fined $18,000 and suspended from driving in races for four months over five offences, including improper driving, misconduct towards a vet and a positive test to caffeine returned by his star pacer Changeover.

Fast forward to April. Changeover won the Len Smith Mile at Menangle in New South Wales, but tested positive afterwards to the anti-bleeding drug tranexamic acid. Small was banned for two years because of this, but appealed and this month the ban was quashed after a judge decided tranexamic acid was not a prohibited substance.

In Victoria, one of Small's pacers, Zenad, tested positive to aminocaproic acid. Stewards there have not yet decided whether a charge will be laid.

In October, stewards at Addington ordered the scratching of Changeover from a race because the scab on an abrasion on the horse had lifted on the way to the races. A furious Small, who was in Auckland, withdrew another horse, All Tiger, from the race just minutes before start time.

Stewards charged him with committing an act detrimental to the interests of the sport and also with abuse of the vet who had advised them that Changeover was not fit to run.

Small was outed for six months and fined $5000, but has appealed and a rehearing is due early in the new year.

Stewards alleged team driving occurred with Small's runners in the NZ Free-For-All at Addington in November when they charged Philip Butcher with improper driving on Awesome Armbro. Butcher had attacked Auckland Reactor in the lead, but when Awesome Armbro started to tire at the 400m mark the way was clear for Changeover, driven by Butcher's brother David, to spear through. Changeover couldn't match the finishing sprint of winner Monkey King and finished third, but raging hot favourite Auckland Reactor was spent, and ran down the track.

But there was no evidence presented on collusion and a judicial committee cleared Butcher of improper driving, suspending him instead for three weeks for driving in a manner which diminished his horse's chances of winning.

The various incidents sparked anger in the industry. Supporters of Small stood by him, said the caffeine positive was a mystery, pointed to his clearance on the Sydney charge and said he was being hounded by officialdom.

But in Invercargill, the harness club president Tom Kilkelly declared he would reject any nominations Small made for horses to run at the club's meeting.

"I am making a stand because I've had enough. Everywhere you go, people are talking about Geoff Small and it's just bringing harness racing into disrepute, he said.

While Changeover, the 2008 NZ Cup winner, was in the news for the wrong reasons, Monkey King overtook Auckland Reactor as the code's top horse with a blistering late-year performance.

The seven-year-old gelding stormed home to grab the $1 million New Zealand Cup in November, giving trainer Brendon Hill his first win in the race and driver Ricky May his fourth. Three days later he sprinted hard to win the NZ FFA and later in the month won the $A500,000 Miracle Mile in Sydney.

"He's a neat little horse with a big heart," said Hill.

Auckland Reactor cleaned up the Horse of the Year at the industry awards in August, after winning 13 of his 16 starts during the 2008-09 season for $1.1m in stakemoney.

He lost some of his sheen in preparing for the NZ Cup, disgracing himself at standing starts, leading to trainers Mark Purdon and Grant Payne to abandon a Cup start and concentrate on mobile races.

He was brilliant in winning the junior free-for-all on Cup day, but faded to fifth in the NZ FFA three days later after the Awesome Armbro debacle which led to some ugly scenes at Addington.

He failed to make an impact in the Miracle Mile from his wide draw and is destined to continue his career in the United States.

Purdon and Payne easily won the trainers' premiership, with 115 wins, including 10 group ones. The latter figure is a national record.

Kiwi Ingenuity won three group one events during the calendar year, including the Harness Jewels race for four-year-old mares in a sensational time of one minute 52.1 seconds for the mobile mile.

Lauraella gave plenty of cheer to the Small stable, winning three group ones as she swept to the three-year-old filly of the year title, while Stunin Cullen was the top male pacer of that age for 2008-09. Smiling Shard was the brilliant juvenile of the year, with Gotta Go Harmony the best filly.

Stig won the trotter of year title, but missed the latter part of the year with injury. One Over Kenny, who won the mares' trotting award, Springbank Richard, Sovereignty, Leighton Hest, Ima Gold Digger and youngster The Fiery Ginga were others trotters to excel.

- NZPA