Busuttin in tribute to ‘iron horse’ Castletown

One of New Zealand’s finest stayers of modern times Castletown has died, age 31.

Trained by Paddy Busuttin, he won 16 of his 103 races, among them six at Group 1 level and most famously three Wellington Cups at Trentham.

He retired to the Cambridge property of Mark and Carlene Jones and shared a paddock with Auckland and Wellington Cups-placed Ebony Honor.

“He certainly had a very good retirement. He was spoilt and was in very good condition, even at 31. He had a shampoo yesterday morning before he was put back into his paddock and had a heart attack that afternoon,” said Victorian-based trainer Trent Busuttin, Paddy’s son.

“He was a horse that meant so much to so many people and especially to me. He was dad’s pin-up horse and the horse that gave me the racing bug, following him around in the big races.”

A two-time winner as a 2-year-old, Castletown was placed in the 2000 Guineas (1600m) at three before going on to claim the New Zealand Derby (2400m) at Ellerslie.

While he didn’t win again at three, he was twice placed in Group 1 weight-for-age races in New Zealand and finished fourth in the Canterbury Guineas, Rosehill Guineas and Australian Derby and third in the Queensland Guineas and Queensland Derby, chasing home another Hall of Fame galloper Rough Habit in the latter Eagle Farm feature.

At four, he won the first of his three Group 1 Wellington Cups (3200m), preceding that win with his first of three straight wins in the Group 3 Trentham Stakes (2400m).

As well as adding two more Wellington Cups, Castletown won the Auckland Cup (3200m) and Caulfield Stakes (2000m) at elite level and placed in the Sydney, Melbourne and New Zealand Cups.

“He was an iron horse, so tough and so genuine. Obviously his most memorable win was his third Wellington Cup because by then he was an older horse and past his peak but he was just such a warrior,” Busuttin said.

“When he won his Auckland Cup, there was a tearaway leader and that was a spectacular performance to win and his Caulfield Stakes, that was run on a bottomless track and he was tailed off by 20 lengths behind the second last horse with 1000m to go.

“Noel Harris said he was going so badly, he was going to pull him up and he ended up coming down the outside and winning the race.”