Vale Colin Berry

By Dave Di Somma, Harness News Desk 

A stalwart of South Island racing, photographer Colin Berry has died in Christchurch, aged 89.
 
With action shots, finishes and presentations as his stock and trade, Berry  was a race day regular at harness racing and thoroughbred meetings from Oamaru to Nelson and Marlborough for more than half a century.   
 
"I'd hate to think how many ks (kilometres) he did over the years," says son Ajay Berry who joined his dad in the business in the early 1990s.
 
"We had a great working relationship ... Dad always made time for us kids."
 
Living in Springston in Canterbury, and with a darkroom on-site, Colin Berry started out taking photos of "prelims" at the races in the 1950s and selling them to owners, trainers and drivers (and anyone else who wanted them).  
 
"In the early days he was the only one doing it," says Ajay.
 
It evolved into a full-time gig.
 
Along the way Berry senior sold the business to Race Images when it became  a national bureau. The Berrys would later get it back, with Ajay now running it as an owner-operator.

Of the estimated 60 New Zealand Cup weeks it's believed Colin Berry covered, Show Day at Addington in 1961 is without doubt his finest hour.
 
It was the Free For All on Show Day when harness racing's first millionaire Cardigan Bay won while fire blazed through the grandstand at Addington.
 
"It was back when everything was done on film of course and Dad had four shots left on his last roll," says Ajay, "He had to wait for the right moment."
 
The photo has become part of racing folklore. 

Over his career Berry took countless analogue and then digital photos, with a portrait of Courage Under Fire, the mighty little horse  who won his first 24 starts in the late 1990s, being a personal favourite.
 
Harness Racing New Zealand would like to send its condolences to the entire Berry family and congratulate Colin  on his contribution to the sport over six decades.

Footnote: Race 1 at Addington this Friday will be the Remembering Colin Berry Handicap Trot (3.14pm)