Richmond combo preparing for summer races

By Stephen Stuart 

It is a team that spans the ages.

Octogenarian horseman Murray Pash and his juvenile pacer Sargent Henry stole the show at the weekend's Nelson Harness Racing Club trials.

And it was Pash calling the shots. He's been training horses for more than 50 years and still drives them at the trials.

The pair made no race of their heat on Sunday, leading throughout to donkey-lick the opposition by 24 lengths.

Pash is getting the two-year-old ready for the West Coast Christmas circuit and the following two day meeting at his home track at Nelson on January 9 and 11. 

“I sent him to race at Addington and Timaru to gain experience but he didn’t eat well on the trip. However since he’s come home he has started to blossom. Time is on his side,” enthuses Pash.

Sargent Henry, a Sky Major two-year-old, finished sixth and eighth in those starts earlier this year.

“Any horse still gets me excited. I am usually out of bed at 5.15am and come to the Richmond track to work them.”

It helps that he lives close by at Waimea Village.

He is president at Club Waimea and has six of his mates from there involved in racing Sargent Henry.

The best horse he has trained was Eastburn Gee which won four of her last six races in 2007 before breaking a bone in her foot.

“And I sold a two-year-old Macraider to Australia, for the owners, for $110,000 after just two starts. People said you would never get over 100k for a horse from Nelson,” says the 80-year-old owner-trainer.

Just a couple of hours after his Sunday success, a horse he formerly trained to win, Archie, won at big odds at Rangiora.

There were 15 horses in action at the trials with the numbers bolstered by visiting trainers from Blenheim and Westport.