High Hopes For Geegee Last season Paramount Geegee won nine of 11 starts including the Australian Breeders Crown and his trainer John Dickie predicts better things to come this year at three. By Jeff Scott Photos by Stuart McCormick
Cambridge, New Zealand, trainer John Dickie has some frightening news for those trying to knock Paramount Geegee from his pedestal as Australasia s best young trotter. Dickie says he will be very surprised if the Australasian Breeders Crown Two Year Old Colt Trot winner doesn t return 10 times better than when he dominated the Australasian juvenile trot scene at two. You don t know until they come up. Some don t come up and don t get any quicker but I doubt it will be the case with him, he said. While young trotters never get the attention accorded their pacing brethren, Paramount Geegee is one that is difficult to ignore. From 11 starts he fashioned nine wins and a second for earnings of $215,487, a very nice return for a $26,000 investment not that many months earlier. Dickie, who mixes preparing the horses with a managerial role as co-owner of the Clubhouse Cafe and Sports Bar at Cambridge Raceway, said Paramount Geegee returned to work in early November in magnificent condition. He d had nine weeks out after winning the Australasian Breeders Crown in Australia and has really filled out.
HIGH HOPES FOR GEEGEE Photo by Trish Dunell Dickie said it was imperative the Pegasus Spur gelding be given a decent holiday to mature after his busy juvenile campaign. As long as he comes up well we ll target the Yearling Sales Series Trot in early March, then the NZ and Northern Derbys, the Sires Stakes, the Harness Jewels, and then back to Melbourne for the Breeders Crown, he said. I would like him to only race against his own age group without racing the older horses if we can this season. Dickie says Paramount Geegee's best quality is his gait. His gait was unbelievable for a two-year-old. He would be the nicest trotter you d ever want to buy," he said. He s got speed and can stay but his biggest attribute is his gait. He has an amazing stride. I ve always said he s better in behind. In most of his two-year-old races because of his good manners he went forward and led but he s so much better in behind. His gait was unbelievable for a two-year-old. He would be the nicest trotter you d ever want to buy. He s got speed and can stay but his biggest attribute is his gait. He has an amazing stride. trainer John Dickie on Paramount Geegee. Dickie is well qualified at his craft. He s held a trainer s license for 25 years with a distinct ability behind the trotters. I began training after going to the United States for three years. I started right from the bottom, training trotters that I had bred with my mum (Gwen) and breaking in a few for other people, he said. His late father Ivan died fairly young. Ivan Dickie, who learned his craft in Canterbury then moved north to Te Awamutu, trained Inferno to run fourth in the 1969 Dominion Trot at Addington and won the 1965 Franklin Cup with John Dickie's namesake John Dee. John Dickie's first star trotter was the former NZ mares mile record holder Thriller Dee (1:57.8 in 1983), who he raced with mother Gwen and sister Marlene. She won $119,725 from 24 wins but didn t leave anything close to her own ability at stud. She always found one better on Summer 2011 The Harness Edge Downunder
the day in the top races, but was racing in an era which had Scotch Notch, Basil Dean, Sir Castleton, Jenner and Stormy Morn. She was by Crockett, who was double gaited. She was a beautiful trotter but when she bred on she left a lot of horses who had mixed gaits and with half a brain. She left nothing like herself. John is breeding from only one descendant of Thriller Dee in Taylamade Dee, a Sundon mare who won $42,164 from six wins, who is going to Pegasus Spur. However, Last Sunset, a Sundon offspring from an imported Royal Prestige mare Catherine The Great, is the best trotter he s had. People never saw best of him, John said. Last Sunset won $220,501 in Australasia, including the 2001 NZ Trotting Free For All in a NZ record 2:00.3 mile rate over 2,600m, and finished his career in North America and Canada with a 1:55.2 mile mark. John transferred him to Mark Purdon, and latterly with Tony Herlihy, after he couldn t get to the bottom of him breaking in his races. Mark and Roy Purdon couldn t figure him out either. When Mark took him to Brisbane he was an odds-on favourite for the Inter Dominion and broke in the final. He was making a breathing noise so I took him down to Massey University for a week and they said he didn t have a wind problem. To cut a long story short he was breaking through pain. He had ringbone and no-one knew he was lame. We sent him to the States on a deal through Brett Pelling but he rang us up and said he couldn t keep him right. He put him in a pool and won four but couldn t do any more for us. Last Sunset was competing in claimers on the WEG circuit in Canada when NZ bloodstock man John Curtin claimed him and brought him to Australia for stud duties. He stood there for two years serving about 80 to 90 mares and had to be put down with cancer. He s left a twoyear-old winner. I ve got a three-year-old by Last Sunset and he s a big, immature, nice horse. He will make the grade, Dickie said. Other smart trotters he s trained include Paramount Geegee's dam Paramount Star ($54,131, seven wins), Romper Stomper ($180,579 from 12 wins), who was plagued by bad knees, and current smart trotters, Real Deal Yankee ($163,430 from 11 wins) and Great Getaway ($42,064 from five wins) the latter pair both a Dream Vacation half-brother, and sister, to Last Sunset. Sock It To Me was a good pacer I trained too. We only paid two grand for him and he got through to one win off open class before we sold him to Australia. When it came to buying Paramount Geegee at the NZ Premier Yearling Sales, it was a case of a picture telling a thousand words. The North Island trainer searched for an image of the gelding after he was catalogued in the New Zealand Premier Yearling Sales and fell in love with the image. I trained his dam Paramount Star for breeder Graham Gimblett. She went to open class but was a typical Sundon. She would let herself down a bit because she used to shake and shiver a lot, he said. I wasn t going to buy at the sales because I had no one to buy for. But I was taken by the photo and thought what a nice individual he was. Dickie sent his good mate Robbie Holmes (of Kiwi Ingenuity fame) to inspect him in the flesh in Christchurch (South Island) where the sales were held. Robbie said he was fine, so I decided to go for it and syndicated him after that. I thought Paramount Star would breed on. I was loaned the mare to breed her first foal Ellevenfiftyseven (by Malabar Maple) but he s just a horse, Dickie said. Paramount Star, a half-brother to Paramount Jack (12 NZ wins including third in a Dominion Handicap), is from Karenero, who also won seven. They are from the same family as a top 1970s NZ trotter in Darky Forbes (11 wins including a NZ National Trot and third in an Inter Dominion Trot Final). Paramount Geegee, bred by Gimblett with successful Canterbury sales vendor Brian West of Studholme Park Ltd, was cashed at the sales for the now bargain price of $26,000. Less than 18 months later, the gelding had banked $215,487 from nine wins and a second in 11 starts for owners Hamilton farmers Jack and Jo Davies, Te Awamutu dry stock ADVERTISING SALES REPRESENTATIVE THE HARNESS EDGE DOWNUNDER is looking for an enterprising individual to handle advertising sales on behalf of The Harness Edge Downunder in Australia. This individual must be a self starter who is familiar with the harness racing industry, have attention to details with a strong regard for the clients needs and be computer literate in basic programs. Please forward a resume to The Harness Edge Downunder to the attention of publisher Harold Howe at hhowe@theharnessedge.com. The Harness Edge Downunder Summer 2011
HIGH HOPES FOR GEEGEE farmer Basil Blackwell, Cambridge vet Jonathon Hope and his partner Jenny Sutherland. His record at two could have been unbeaten but for suffering from corns in his feet leading up to the $55,200 Sires Stakes Trot at Addington on May 15, when beaten into second by Kylie Ree, which also affected him when he broke early in the $100,000 Harness Jewels at Cambridge on June 5, staging a huge recovery for fifth. Without making excuses, when he got beaten at Addington in the Sires Stakes on the morning before the race he couldn t walk he was that sore. He wasn t right through to the Jewels a month later. It was an amazing amount of ground that he made up there but he had a lot of deep-seated bruising because of the corns. It finally got on top of him, Dickie said. Paramount Geegee shows no obvious signs of nerves, unlike his dam. He s quite the opposite to his dam. His temperament is unbelievable. He ll stand in his stall at the races with his head down and fall asleep to the point where you are worried about him. John believes the Pegasus Spur siring influence in Paramount Geegee is responsible for his temperament. I bought another Pegasus Spur at the sales this year and he s a lovely horse too. I don t know how good he ll be but I hope to have him down south early next year to try to emulate what Paramount Geegee did (as all the early money races are in Canterbury). He s a lovely trotter. This two-year-old's temperament is terrific too and exactly the same as Paramount Geegee. I d say it s something to do with the stallion (Pegasus Spur) over Sundon mares. The two-year-old cost $61,000. He is Flying Isa, by Pegasus Spur from Sun Isa, whose granddam is a sister to Count Isa (12 NZ wins, 1:54.8, US). Paramount Geegee is easy to spot on the track as he races with a noseflap and undercheck. He didn t like the grit early on but it didn t seem to upset him much now. About the only thing Dickie doesn t enjoy about Paramount Geegee is his habit of throwing his head up in the air when he s being jogged on a lead. Earlier on he had a habit of throwing his head up. He s done it all along and would be the most annoying horse of all time on a lead. He doesn t wear an overcheck because he s always kept his head low when he s working. The Dickie name has become more famous through the deeds of John s junior driver son Joshua, who has quickly racked up over 40 wins. He s working for Tony Herlihy and will stay with him for sometime yet, then go overseas. One day he ll drive all of mine, John said. The emergence of Paramount Geegee and junior driver Joshua Dickie is very exciting for John s 80-year-old mother, Gwen. There isn t a day that goes by that she doesn t watch Joshua driving in races on Trackside television, he said. Summer 2011 The Harness Edge Downunder
BUY NZ BRED NZ BRED 2009/10 Australian Grand Circuit NZ Bred winners: CONSISTENT Performance, Results, Winners Pacing Group 1 s: 9 NZ Bred winners Trotting Group 1 s: 4 NZ Bred winners Follow us on: www.harnessracing.co.nz Kiely Buttell P: 03 341 7093 E: kiely.buttell@vodafone.co.nz