Danke thanks Martins with another victory
New Zealand’s busiest racehorse thrives on his ‘‘free range’’ lifestyle.
At start number 173, 10-year-old trotter Danke won his ninth race last Thursday at Cambridge and will have the chance to add a 10th at Alexandra Park in Auckland on Friday night.
Last racing season, which wound up on July 31, Danke set a record for the number of starts by a horse raced in New Zealand.
Over the 12-month period he averaged better than a start a week, lining up an amazing 58 times eclipsing the previous highest mark of 54. He won three times, ran lots of placings and banked around $39,000 for his caring and appreciative connections.
By day Geoff Martin is a Cambridge drainlayer, in his spare time he trains Danke for his wife Ali, the couple sharing the hobby of racing their iron horse.
‘‘We haven’t got an expensive car or a boat, we like to have a horse,’’ Martin said. ‘‘I work him before or after work and Ali feeds him lunch and does things when I’m not around.’’
Their ‘‘fun horse’’ is by dominant trotting sire Sundon is out a mare named Thanx which inspired Danke’s name. Danke is German for thanks or thank you and his 173 starts represents a number seldom reached.
The 13-year-old Motu Speedy Star became the oldest pacer to win a race in New Zealand for five years when he was successful at Oamaru last month.
Motu Speedy Star, owned and trained at Oamaru by Eion Latimer, was having start number 209 and win 13.
Now retired, Greg Brydon won as a 13-year-old at Alexandra Park in March 2012 when trained at Cambridge by Andrew and Lynn Neal. The gelding wound up his racing career with 15 wins in 219 starts.
By comparison Danke is a youngster and if he can keep going at his current rate he will far exceed the number of starts those old boys racked up.
His trainer has a happy, sound horse who has a clean bill of health apart from ‘‘a couple of windgalls in behind’’.
Windgalls are soft, round, fluidfilled swellings on either side of the fetlock generally not accompanied by heat, pain or lameness and easily managed.
Martin’s biggest concern is whether the horse he bought in a claiming race for $4,000 as a 90-start veteran in June 2016, can cope with the rise in class of opposition he is required to meet after each win.
‘‘He’s getting up in the classes,’’ he said. ‘‘It makes it a bit harder for him.’’
There’s no problem with the regular racing, several times in two races at the same meeting, and he generally goes better second time round, or the interval training ‘‘like Arthur Lydiard did with his great athletes’’ which can require Danke jogging up to 15 kilometres in one session.
‘‘He thrives on it,’’ Martin said. ‘‘I’m not hard on him he just does slow work. His races are like a holiday for him.
‘‘He doesn’t need fast work when he’s racing at least every seven or eight days. He’s a happy free range horse.’’