Reply With QuoteMaori's Idol - Trotter
46 starts
40 Wins - 8 against Pacers
4 - placings
Had a 24 in a row winning sequence!
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62 starts
49 wins
7 seconds
3 thirds
Maori's Idol - Trotter
46 starts
40 Wins - 8 against Pacers
4 - placings
Had a 24 in a row winning sequence!
Oh well, I guess Emma Stewart is not going to take offence at being compared to those horses
per un PUGNO di DOLLARI
Hey Kev, Maori's Idol did not beat just any pacers, he raced at Cup class level, just watch him against horses like Paleface Adios, Rip Van Winkle, Koala King & Roma Hanover in the video attached! I love to reminisce, but this is some sort of trotter....I hope another comes along soon! The story below will make the hair stand on end!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcKRd...layer_embedded
His greatest performance was in heat of the Sir Clive Uhr Championship in 1978!...Now known as the Queensland Pacing Championships!
I attach extracts of a story, which I don't know who wrote it, but I apologise for;
There was then some talk about him contesting the Miracle Mile,
> which was very exciting, but that, eventually, came to nothing. What he,
> Rick Healy, really wanted to do was take on the best pacers in the
> upcoming Grand Circuit event, the Sir Clive Uhr Championship at Albion
> Park. As the rules stood, however, he was ineligible, as the rules stated
> "for PACERS assessed at 2.18 or better". No problem! The Albion Park
> committee, in record time, altered the conditions to read "for HORSES
> assessed at 2.18 or better"! HE WAS IN!
>
> Over the years many, if not ALL, the top trotters, had, at various times,
> raced against pacers. Most of them, the very good ones, could beat the
> average pacer but NONE had ever taken on Grand Circuit pacers in a Grand
> Circuit event! In 1956 the great Victorian trotter, Carlotta's Pride beat
> Maestro's Melody by 36 yards in a pacer's race. Maestro's Melody later
> finished 3rd in the 1960 ID Final won by Caduceus. In 1965 the absolutely
> outstanding S.A. trotter, Gramel, took on Minuteman in a pacer's FFA and
> had him "flat as a strap" to beat her by just 3 metres. Minuteman was one
> of THE outstanding pacers of the 1960's and won an Inter Dominion Final as
> well as 2 A.G. Hunter Cups! However NONE of the best trotters had ever
> taken on a task like Maori's Idol was about to undertake. This would be,
> to my way of thinking, the ULTIMATE test of his greatness. The heats and
> Final series attracted a top class lot that included Paleface Adios, Sammy
> Karamea, Sporting Son, Roma Hanover, Koala King and the pre post
> favourite, Rip Van Winkle.
>
> The first heats were on 3-6-78 and Maori's Idol started at 4-1 on the
> first night, the longest price he had been in his entire career, due to
> the fact that Australia's favourite pacer and Albion Park idol, Paleface
> Adios was expected to lead all the way. Paleface jumped straight to the
> front and set a solid pace with Maori's Idol sitting behind him. Down the
> back the last time he made his run and astonished the huge crowd by
> sprinting straight past "Jacko" and racing to the front. He was headed
> slightly by Right Action on the home turn but Healy just gave him more
> rein and he came away to win well from Right Action and Sporting Son. He
> was immediately installed as the new favourite for the Final.
>
>All great harness horses have at least one, and sometimes two or three,
> really great runs that define their greatness. With Mount Eden it was
> DEFINITELY his Miracle Mile win, with Hondo Grattan, his first Inter
> Dominion victory. And so, unbeknown to anybody before the race, Maori's
> Idol was about to produce HIS personal best, HIS unforgettable run, His
> performance that would, for the rest of his career, be held up as proof of
> his greatness! The second set of heats.
>
> His heat attracted a good field but his main danger was a mare called Roma
> Hanover. Not just "any old mare", she was that fastest race mare of all
> time in the Southern Hemisphere courtesy of her win in the inaugural
> Ladyship Mile at HP a little over two weeks earlier. In that race she
> broke the HP track record rating 1-57 4/5 and went faster than ANY horse,
> ANY Miracle Mile winner, had EVER gone at HP. She was a high speed mare
> with a withering final sprint and was the winner of 37 races, 17 of them
> at HP. She had Time Trialled at Albion Park a year earlier in 1-57 1/5
> which remained her personal best. She was WITHOUT DOUBT the horse to beat
> and an awesome hurdle to overcome!
>
> Maori's Idol galloped for a short distance at the start but soon got down
> to a trot and raced up to sit outside the leader for a short distance
> before going to the lead. He was challenged mid race by Tarport John but
> retained the lead, however he DID have to use up some "juice"! Roma
> Hanover, driven this night by John Binskin instead of her usual driver,
> Clarrie Sweeney who was on crutches, was beautifully placed in 5th spot
> just waiting for the right moment to make her run. Down the back the last
> time Maori's Idol raced 3 lengths in front and started to "spreadeagle"
> the field, but Roma Hanover "hadn't spent a penny" and was angling for a
> run. Binskin extricated her from the pack about 150 metres from the home
> turn and began his sprint. She was at least 10 lengths off the leader who
> was starting to really stretch out, but when she saw daylight she
> sprinted, BOY did she sprint! She made up those 10 lengths in the space of
> 100 metres and coming to the home turn was just a half a length behind the
> leader. So fast was she coming that I, and probably everybody else on
> course, thought that she would give Maori's Idol "wind burn" as she
> sprinted past him, but then an amazing thing happened. Brian "clicked up"
> the "Big Fella" and he went up a gear, or two, and left her absolutely
> standing! She was only half a length from him on the home turn, in the
> middle of her sprint, one of the fastest sprints in the country, and at
> the peak of her form, but Maori's Idol, without ever being shown the whip,
> just left her for dead. At the line he was 10 metres in front and
> extending with Sammy Karamea ( no slouch himself!) 15 metres further away
> in 3rd place. It was the greatest performance by a harness horse I have
> ever seen in 48 years of "going to the trots".
Last edited by The Form Student; 10-30-2014 at 11:43 AM.
All this with bad feet. What could he have done if he was sound? A true champion!Originally Posted by The Form Student
You forget how old I am - I remember it well
per un PUGNO di DOLLARI
Blacks A Fake
105 Starts
72 Wins
19 Seconds
5 Thirds
$4,575,438
Unless my maths is wrong that's top three finish 96 out of 105 starts. WOW
Maori's Idol's prizemoney for his whole career was $98,821.
I suppose that the amount of money Maori's Idol won was classed as amazing in his time, but it's good to know that he is remembered for his deeds not his dollars. He was no slouch as a sire either.
They are some of the very best horses to race in Australia aren't they. It somehow seems unfair to be comparing them. But I don't suppose we are, we are just naming them.
It is the good horses we have seen in the past, that makes us want more in the future!...........Bart Cummings says "we should not compare champions of different eras", but it's hard not to!
The pacers that Maori's Idol raced against and beat, as a trotter, put him in the absolute top echelon for all-time! Generally, a trotter cannot go as fast as a pacer, look at Mr Zion - Group 1 winner as a pacer & trotter, his trotting times were slower than when he was a pacer!......Maori's Idol's performances when you take this into perspective, are therefore even greater!.....when he can beat the best pacers in the land at the time, as a trotter!
Last edited by The Form Student; 10-30-2014 at 02:18 PM.
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