Purdon group 1 maestro
AS milestone wins go, the timing could hardly have been better.
Clevedon training great Barry Purdon brought up what is believed to be his 100th group 1 winner in the last race of Harness Jewels day at Ashburton on Saturday, beating a pacer trained by his brother, Mark, and with a horse he bought at the yearling sales for a key syndicate of owners.
Not that Purdon knew it at the time, of course.
The 62yearold Hall of Famer has never been a statistics man, hardly surprising considering how big his career numbers are.
This is, after all, a man who has trained 2404 winners in New Zealand alone, worth $32,039,936 in stakes. Add in his hugely successful Australian career and Purdon could be forgiven for not knowing which milestone was coming next.
After the race driver Zac Butcher, who played such a crucial role in getting Jack’s Legend home, suggested to his boss it might have been the magical 100, working off numbers since a countup was done years ago.
The ton would be counting group 1s in New Zealand and Australia, which is hard to get an exact number on, because some of Purdon’s early training feats outdate the computer system.
But personal records, crossreferenced with the official ones, suggest Purdon now sits on 100, if not even one or two more wins at the highest level.
‘‘It is one of those things I never think about, because you go about your business and hope to train winners and the records sort of take care of themselves.
‘‘But now it looks like I’ve done it I’m proud of it because it is not something a lot of people have done, I guess.
‘‘And of course there have been a lot of people who helped — owners, training partners, drivers, staff.’’
Purdon trained an enormous number of winners in partnership with father Roy, then in a 122win stint with Scott Phelan. The last 819 domestic winners have come solely on his own account.
While the 100 group 1s include his enormous Australian success, there are no official statistics on exactly how much money his charges have won Australasianwide. But a figure approaching $40 million in stakes would be a safe bet.
With the group 1s finished for the season Purdon will soon take a short break, including supporting brother Mark at the World Drivers Championships in Canada in August.
But there are no thoughts of stretching that holiday into retirement.
‘‘I still love what I do and it is hard to think about giving up when you have enthusiastic people around you, so it is not on the radar at the moment.’’
His last five years have been enormously productive, albeit with a smaller team than in the crazy 1990s, with Sky Major (five group 1s), Maxim (two), Cheer The Lady (two), Jack’s Legend and Mach Shard keeping the wins coming at the highest level.
But as good as they are, the horses and races etched deepest into Purdon’s heart come from another era.
‘‘I have been lucky to have so many great horses but Chokin would still be No 1. And then I had horses like Homer (Holmes D G), who won 13 group 1s and Christopher Vance and Luxury Liner.’’
It is the latter who provided Purdon with his most special win, his 1988 New Zealand Cup comeback over Our Maestro, one of Addington’s most memorable moments.
‘‘That is the race that meant the most to me, and still does. It was incredible what he did that day.’’
In Purdon’s time at the top of the industry, harness racing has gone through many changes, none more so than the speed explosion of recent years.
‘‘So much has changed, from the tracks to the sulkies, but the biggest thing in the last 1015 years has been the breeding.
‘‘We now have world champion stallions standing here and the horses are just faster.
‘‘Who would have thought we would have horses pacing 25.5 for their last 400m at Ashburton the other day. It’s almost galloping speed.
‘‘I was saying to Mark, if the right horses ended up in the Miracle Mile under the right conditions they could go close to breaking the world record [1min 46sec].’’
Purdon should know; he has won five Miracle Miles. As well as just about everything else. — NZME
❛Who would have thought we would have horses pacing 25.5 for their last 400m at Ashburton the other day. It’s almost galloping speed❜