Some Jockeys Shine As Trainers At Wingatui 

With the 2006-07 just completed it's a good time to look at the winning jockeys and trainers Wingatui, a long established course. It makes interesting reading.noting some of the well-known names in New Zealand racing appearing on both lists. 

The top jockeys are:

Trainers, with partnership wins in brackets and included in the totals:

"No Shares So Go Home." 

That leviathan owner, W. E. (Bill) Hazlett from Southland, won more than 1000 races as an owner.  He trained nearly half himself, the rest nearly all being trained by Bill Hillis at Riverton.  Hazlett had a ‘thing" about journalists or for that matter anyone else timing his horses during training gallops.
One young journalist turned up one morning and was asked the name of his newspaper.  "I haven't got shares in that, get the hell off my property!"

Astute Foresight Of Cambridge Jockey Club.

Training venues are a most important part of our racing.  A most successful one is Cambridge.  Back in 1960, the Cambridge Jockey Club, then racing at Te Rapa, purchased 50 acres in Hannon Rd, Cambridge for a training track.  It cost $25,000, a lot of money in 1960.  Many said it was not a good move with the Te Rapa track and facilities just down the road.  Those committee-members with vision pressed on and paid $225,000 for another 100 acres adjoining the original purchase in 1976.
Today it is a splendid memorial to those who could see ahead and racing in the north is indebted to it being there.  It was fully and officially opened in September 1978 and the club hold its race meetings at Te Rapa.

Sensation After Great Start For Owner.

At the start of the 1961-62 season, it looked as if Mr George Walton was in for a super season with his two colts, Commanding and Castlebrae.
They won the Wanganui, Hawkes Bay, Great Northern and Wellington Guineas between them, but then the Racing Conference announced a positive return from Commanding after the Wellington Guineas.
After a protracted four-day inquiry, Mr Walton, his trainer L.W. Lewis and stable employee, W.A. Gower, were found guilty under the rules covering drug detection.  Once the disqualification of the owner was announced, none of his horses were eligible to race, so there was the situation of the two best three-year-olds in New Zealand out of action.  Walton and Lewis appealed.  Walton's term was reduced from five to three years and Lewis' increased from one to three years.  Walton finally appealed against Commanding's disqualification from the Wellington Guineas. It was first allowed and much later reimposed.  Walton sold the two colts to America and many people I have spoken with say, in the case of  Commanding, we may have lost one horse to be ranked with the very best ever seen here.