By Duane Ranger (Courtesy of Redcliffe Paceway)
Stockleigh trainer, Doug Lee, was chuffed that his Mr Feelgood gelding, Nikalong Henry, was last week named Redcliffe Paceway’s ‘2020 Horse-of the-Year’.
Nikalong Henry (8 wins) actually tied the premier award with the Lachie Manzelmann trained Cannan (5), and the Allan Sanders trained Downtown Lucca (4) on 50 points, but got the chocolates on a countback of wins.
Lee trains and owns the 7-year-old bay to go on and win his first Redcliffe Award. The 64-year-old said it meant a lot to him because he had always enjoyed racing at Redcliffe Paceway and liked the way administrators were progressing with the club.
“The Club has always been good to me, and to win our first major Award is even more heartening. I had an inkling in November that ‘Henry’ was up near the top of the leader-board, and then in December I knew it was going to be a tight race.
“Cannan and Downtown Lucca also deserved to win ‘Horse-of-the-Year. The only difference between the three of us was a couple of wins. Well done to them as well,” Lee said.
Nikalong Henry was last victorious at ‘The Triangle’ on December 9 when driven by Zac Chappenden.
Lee, a New South Wales native and his wife, Joedy, a Queenslander, relocated from New South Wales just on a decade ago. Lee was based in Cowra for 25 years after having previously lived in Sydney.
“I have won training and driving titles at Penrith, Forbes and Cowra and Horse-of-the-Year titles at Forbes. Our mare Justabitlooney was also nominated for New South Wales Trotter-of-the-Year,” said Lee.
Lee said the Redcliffe Horse-of-the-Year title was extra special because they owned Nikalong Henry.
“He was originally sent up to me from Sydney (July 2018), but at the start of last season (September 2019) we bought him outright for $1,000. He then went on to win $43,585 last season. It could have been nine, but he got relegated to second in one of his Redcliffe starts.
“He’s a solid pacer and deserves his break. I spelled him after his run January 20. If any horse deserved a break he did. He will come back into work in a couple of months,” Lee said.
Nikalong Henry has now won 13 of his 149 lifetime starts. He’s also placed 41 times since making his race debut at Bathurst in February 2016.
“Up until I spelled him ‘Henry’ had raced every month since May last year. Before that I had to spell him for six months because he got kicked in the knee, so I think that lay-off in the long run did him the world of good.”
Lee has driven him a couple of times on race-day, but those days are now over.
“I only drive the trotters these days. My specialist actually told me I’d never drive again, but I was always determined to get back in the sulky.
“I told him I would drive again, and once I passed my medical, I was right to go. However, the days of sitting in behind the pacers have gone. I only drive trotters now. I did take his advice on that,” Lee said.
In October 2019 Lee was badly injured in a race-fall where he tore his rotator cuff, which connects the muscle to the bone and tendons around the shoulder joint. He also broke his right hand when thrown to the ground behind Blue Shard – after the horse inside him galloped violently towards him.
“I held the rein and was dragged along for about 20 to 30 metres. An older horseman once told me that if you hold the reins in these situations the horse will veer wide out of trouble. That’s where I suffered my injuries.
“I had a few operations since, but one of the worst things about it all was sitting on the sidelines for almost a year before I was cleared to drive,” said Lee, who has had seven drives this season.
Lee is currently spelling several of his team at the moment and is currently working seven trotters. He said he loved working with horses. It’s all he’s known.
“You can blame my grandfather. He gave me the racing bug more than half a century ago. I was born in Blacktown (NSW).
“We made the move to Queensland because it was just too far to travel to Menangle and back from where we were living at the time. In total it was about an eight-hour return trip,” Lee said.
Lee’s stable reps include Justabitnoisey, Justabitlikemum, Blue Shard, Lifeinheaven, Devouged, Dee Dior and Fortes In Fide which
finished a nice second (with Shane Graham in the
bike) behind 2020 Mare-of-the-Year, Ashlee Nitro
at Redcliffe this Wednesday night just gone.
Nikalong Henry was bred by Peter Cockburn, and is last and most successful of the four foals out of the six-win, 1994 Nikalong Shadow mare, Nikalongtheground.
However, her first two foals – Nikalongbloulevard (by Pacific Rocket), and Nikalongthebeach (by Jennas Beach Boy) both won 11 races.
Results from the Redcliffe Harness Racing Club’s annual Awards were:
Horse-of-the-Year (on a countback):
Horse, starts, wins, seconds, thirds, points:
1) NIKALONG HENRY 38 8 11 4 50
2=) Cannan 51 5 8 19 50
2=) Downtown Lucca 61 4 13 12 50
4) Burmach 45 7 9 9 48
5) Arbit Major 40 6 11 7 47
6) Barboo 52 9 4 8 43
7) Patchwork Jet 53 8 5 5 39
8) Ashlee Nitro 33 7 5 4 35
9) Manoflisa 43 6 8 1 35
10) Beef City Starzzz 33 6 5 6 34
Driver of the Year:
Driver, starts, wins, seconds, thirds, points:
- Nathan Dawson 414 74 69 56 416 $349,290
- Peter McMullen 433 77 58 58 405 $371,706
- Angus Garrard 449 72 50 59 375 $308,192
- Paul Diebert 415 60 58 54 350 $289,400
- Taleah McMullen 410 64 37 58 324 $291,255
- Matt Elkins 366 41 46 49 264 $205,873
- Narissa McMullen 326 43 51 30 261 $213,167
- Hayden Barnes 334 31 47 32 219 $178,874
- Grant Dixon 193 38 33 31 211 $220,379
- Trent) Moffat 311 28 38 43 203 $148,217
Trainer of the Year:
Trainer, starts, wins, seconds, thirds, points:
- Grant Dixon 316 68 45 46 340 $358,491
- John McMullen 421 46 32 51 253 $228,909
- Donny Smith 207 49 28 25 228 $217,125
- Peter Greig 240 36 36 35 215 $160,284
- Lola Weidemann 416 19 33 50 173 $156,227
- Chantal Turpin 158 33 24 24 171 $154,902
- Graham Dwyer 136 27 32 12 157 $125,529
- Jack Butler 150 27 25 26 157 $136,985
- Ron Sallis 181 24 27 16 142 $118,479
- Melissa Kendall 204 16 20 21 109 $91,842
Mares Premiership:
Name, sire, dam, starts, wins, seconds, thirds, points:
- Ashlee Nitro (Western Terror – Ashlees Gem) 33 7 5 4 35
- Whata Stride (Stonebridge Regal – Classic Stride) 42 5 5 8 33
- Trunky Digger (Rock N Roll Heaven – Headline Franco) 27 2 10 5 31
- Mademoiselle Jujon (Betterthancheddar – Miss Real) 10 7 3 0 27
- Rayong Princess (Roby Roy Mattgregor – Morning Fire) 43 4 7 1 27
- Vanto Hanover (Falcon Seelster – Vaucluse Hanover) 26 4 5 5 27
- Talahurst Kate (Sportswriter – Make Some Magic) 23 5 4 3 26
- Traces Of Tara (Artistic Fella – Taralinger) 52 4 4 6 26
- Torque To The Max (Camelot Hall – Torque Reaction) 39 4 2 10 26
- Bronski Macarena (Mach Three – Bronski Gorgeous) 26 3 7 3 26
Concession Driver of the Year:
Driver, points, starts, wins, seconds, thirds:
- Angus Garrard 447 449 72 50 59
- Taleah McMullen 388 410 64 37 58
- Matt Elkins 305 366 41 46 49
- Zac Chappenden 221 333 29 34 37
- Brendan Barnes 214 171 36 22 26
- Chloe Butler 187 235 23 34 27
- Chris Geary 176 191 25 27 22
- Lachie Manzelmann 159 234 20 29 21
- Jonah Hutchinson 105 179 14 13 23
- Justin Elkins 89 110 11 16 13.
