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<strong>Selwyn</strong> <strong>Times</strong> Wednesday <strong>October</strong> <strong>25</strong> <strong>2023</strong><br />
14<br />
NEWS<br />
Latest Canterbury news at starnews.co.nz<br />
Harness racing icon ‘Dobbie’ finds<br />
• By Barry Lichter<br />
IAN DOBSON, one of harness<br />
racing’s most successful owners<br />
of all time, died on his 90th<br />
birthday.<br />
Dobson, whose name is synonymous<br />
with the champion pacer<br />
Christan Cullen, started winning<br />
races in 1986 but, incredibly, was<br />
only now enjoying the best run<br />
of his life.<br />
In a February interview before<br />
cleaning up at the annual harness<br />
racing awards, Dobson said<br />
“the horses keep me going. I’m<br />
having a bit of fun and I don’t<br />
think I’ve ever had such a good<br />
run.”<br />
Dobson was a notable absentee<br />
at Addington last Friday when<br />
his three superstars Akuta, Don’t<br />
Stop Dreaming and Muscle<br />
Mountain went within a whisker<br />
of repeating their unmatched<br />
treble of last December when, in<br />
a golden 90 minutes, they bagged<br />
three Group I races, the $<strong>25</strong>0,000<br />
New Zealand Derby, the<br />
$100,000 Ace Of<br />
Spades and the<br />
$86,500 Trotting<br />
Free-for-all.<br />
Long time<br />
close friend Noel<br />
Kennard said<br />
Noel<br />
Kennard<br />
“Dobbie” always<br />
tried to be on<br />
course but in the<br />
last month his health had gradually<br />
slipped.<br />
“I went in to the rest home<br />
with his son Stuart to watch the<br />
races with him but for the first<br />
time he wasn’t with it at all.<br />
“Up ’til about a month ago<br />
he could walk unaided and his<br />
memory was brilliant. If we<br />
talked horses or money he knew<br />
exactly what you were saying.”<br />
Dobson’s passing brings to a<br />
close one of the most spectacular<br />
ownership chapters in harness<br />
racing – he won 385 races in<br />
New Zealand alone, with 73 individual<br />
winners, including 31 at<br />
the very highest Group I level.<br />
But while his newest trotting<br />
sensation Muscle Mountain has<br />
been the most prolific, with 29<br />
wins, Dobson still rates Christian<br />
Cullen as his number one<br />
champion.<br />
“Christian Cullen was my best<br />
horse,” Dobson said in February.<br />
“I still own him – he’s alive<br />
and well at the age of 28, at the<br />
best old people’s home in New<br />
Zealand, Dancingonmoonlight<br />
Farm.”<br />
Dobson’s first foray into<br />
ownership in 1984 wasn’t so<br />
successful. He shared in a mare<br />
called Jam Cover – named after a<br />
business he had which made jam<br />
WINNING TEAM: Ian Dobson with, from<br />
left, his daughter Lynne, partner Janice, and<br />
Muscle Mountain’s trainers, Nina and Greg<br />
Hope.<br />
covers – who placed three times<br />
from 14 starts.<br />
But he had been racing horses<br />
with some success for 10 years<br />
– his first winner was Lord<br />
Christopher at Hutt Park on<br />
September 2, 1986 – before Cullen<br />
came along, winning his first<br />
race on November 22, 1996 at<br />
Addington.<br />
By the time Cullen retired in<br />
June 2000, with recurrent leg<br />
problems, he had captured everyone’s<br />
hearts with his arrogant<br />
pacing style, winning some of<br />
the most coveted prizes in harness<br />
racing, including the New<br />
Zealand Cup, Auckland Cup and<br />
Miracle Mile.<br />
When he left trainer Brian<br />
O’Meara’s stable he became the<br />
country’s champion sire, giving<br />
Dobson more prizes than he<br />
could fit in his trophy cabinets.<br />
Kennard recalls how Dobson<br />
prized the collection so much,<br />
he even contradicted the red<br />
sticker ban on his Redcliffs home<br />
to rescue the collection after<br />
the earthquake demolished his<br />
house in 2011.<br />
But among the racing trophies<br />
were also plenty of golfing<br />
memorabilia as Dobson for<br />
many years was a scratch golfer,<br />
Kennard said.<br />
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