Vale Lionel Sinnamon

By Dave Di Somma, Harness News Desk 

A southern harness racing legend, Lionel Sinnamon will be farewelled next week.

A stalwart of the Central Otago Trotting Club, Sinnamon died in Omakau yesterday, aged 88.

He was a tireless worker at the Omakau racecourse along with his old mate Ginger Woodhouse, with the club holding its annual meeting there every January. It is always a huge event and a highlight of the Central Otago summer circuit.

Such was their notoriety they even featured on TV One's Seven Sharp programme in 2019.

Sinnamon owned horses since he was 17 and started training nearly 70 years ago, with his first winner being Lyric Lady in 1959. He had to wait 17 years before he got his second.

Overall he had 31 wins as a trainer, with his best year being the five winners he had in 2020 (three with Allandale and two with Gabby's Star).

Among Allandale's six wins was Sinnamon's first at Addington in 2020. He was 82 at the time. It was just the second time he lined up a runner at Addington following on from Idaten in the late 1970s.

Allandale was bred by Lionel's son Graham, the current president of the Central Otago Trotting Club, and his wife Dianne.

The family also shared in the ownership of Gabby's Star and had the thrill of seeing Graham Sinnamon steer the horse to a very popular home town victory at Omakau in 2019.

Lionel Sinnamon's last win was another father-son success story when Forty Wives, driven by Graham, won an amateur drivers race at Oamaru in 2023.

"He was a humble and special dad," Graham says.

"He proved you don't have to be the captain of the All Blacks to be a champion .. he did what he did because he loved it."

There have also been many on-line tributes.

Among them he's been called "one of the great characters of Otago Trotting" and a "man with a big heart and amazing sense of humour."

On Friday Girl's Night Out, who is part-owned by Lionel Sinnamon and races in his green and white colours, will line up at Rangiora in Race 5.

HRNZ would like to send its condolences to the entire Sinnamon family and recognise Lionel's enormous contribution to the sport, both on and off the track.

His funeral will be held next Monday.