"Thriving" trotter wins again at Manawatu

By Jordyn Bublitz 

Kink continued his remarkable rise through the trotting ranks with a dominant back-to-back sweep of this week's feature events across Palmerston North’s two-day meeting.

The seven-year-old son of Love You has been a revelation since joining the Marton barn of Rodney Dickson. Last night  was his fifth win this year (and ninth overall) and he has missed the top three just three times in 14 starts this year.

Lightly raced as a pacer earlier in his career, including a win in 2024 from 30 starts in that gait, the now established trotter has found a new lease on life, and then some.

Dickson, who trains a small team of just two horses for his own enjoyment, admitted even he didn’t see this level of success coming.

“Pete Davis is a good mate of mine, him and Margo (Nyhan) had him down south, and I think they just came to the end of trying with him so they offered him to me to have a go,” he said.

“It was a real big surprise how well he’s gone up here, I thought he might grab one or two in the lower grades for me, but he’s absolutely thriving. I haven’t done anything different than what Pete and Margo did, he’s still got the same shoes, everything’s exactly the same. A change of scenery is all I can put it down to.”

Kink’s latest victory came in the Herb Stent Memorial Handicap Trot (2500m) on Thursday night, where regular driver Michael Hay was content to let the gelding do it the hard way.

Parked for much of the journey, Kink loomed ominously turning for home before surging clear at the 400m, putting the race beyond doubt in a matter of strides and scoring by 3 ¼ lengths.

It was a carbon copy of his performance on the opening night on Tuesday, where he again sat parked outside the leader over 2000m before proving far too strong, cruising clear for a 2½ length win.

“I was quietly confident with a lap to go last night, because he likes getting up and sitting outside of them.”

“I expected him to go well, he’s broken the track record at Palmy three times now, he broke his own track record again last night,” Dickson said.

“And he set a track record for the 2000m on the first night. He’s just in the zone, he’s been completely amazing, I can’t thank Pete and Margo enough.

The run of form doesn’t appear to have taken anything out of the gelding either.

“He’s pulled up great, I put him out into a big paddock today for a run around and he took off like a bloody idiot so he’s definitely well,” he laughed.

Next on the radar is a step up in grade, with Dickson eyeing the South of the Bombay’s championship at Cambridge in a fortnight, a race that now looks well within reach for a horse who is firmly in the zone.