Poutama kicking goals

By Michael Guerin

The handicapping rules of a private bet between two of the North Island’s best reinsman might need a bit of a rethink.

Because the days of Andre Poutama getting a handicap start from good mate Zachary Butcher might be numbered.

 The two stars of the sulky have a private bet, no money at stake, every year on who can drive the most winners.

 “Zac keeps giving me a hard time, asking whether he has to give me a 10 or 15 start each season,” says Poutama.

But after driving an Arna Donnelly-trained treble at a rain-soaked Cambridge on Thursday night Poutama is up to 30 wins for the season and a clear third on the premiership.

 That also makes him the leading driver in the North Island while Butcher is back on 16 wins.

 “I drove four on a night at Manawatu and when Zac saw the results he rang me and told me to calm down,” laughs Poutama.

 Beating his mate aside, Poutama is kicking far more serious goals as he aims at the best season of his life.

“I set myself a target to start the season strong and drive 30 winners before April and I got that tonight,” says the 35-year-old.

 “That is really satisfying but my best season so far is 59 and I now want to beat that, which I think I have a good shot at.”

Poutama works mornings for Nathan Purdon which provides a steady string of drives before training his own four horses in the afternoon.

 And while he has driven for Donnelly for some time he would love to spend more time in the sulky for her as her stable, luckless to start the season, has some real three-year-old depth.

One of those is Nazare, who won the last race on Thursday night to land some big bets, including for Trackside’s Out The Gate team who backloaded it into a series of multis.

 Fresh out of taking on Jumal and company at Alexandra Park he wore down the much-improved The Night Fox in a race Donnelly targeted to help him regain his confidence.

The night started with the trainer-driver winning the first with Lulana, who started off the unruly so wouldn’t have been affected much by the oddity of their being no mobile car in use because of the wet track, with mobile start races more or less controlled by the Clerk of the Course.

 While that provided those drawn inside barriers with an obvious advantage it didn’t stop Lulana winning in what will clearly not be her last success.

 Sandwiched in between the pair was the win of Midfrew Lando, who was remarkably the most favoured of the three winners the pair had.

 “He has improved so much,” says Poutama.

“I qualified him and he didn’t do anything special but a trip away to Manawatu has helped make him.”

 Donnelly is hoping her training treble helps bring a change of luck.

 “It has been a tough start to the year, we have had something like 16 seconds so it is nice to get some on the board.”