On the eve of today’s barrier draw for the 2017 TABtouch Inter Dominion Grand Final, harness racing owner Merv Butterworth reflected on his first experience of a Perth Inter Dominion.
Four days before the final round of heats for the 1962 Perth Inter Dominion the New Zealand champion Cardigan Bay was badly injured in a training accident and there were initially fears that the gelding would have to be put down.
Both Cardigan Bay and New South Wales champion James Scott were unbeaten after the first two rounds of heats and they were scheduled to clash on the third night.
Cardigan Bay’s lost his trackwork driver when the jog-cart hit a bump and, with the cart on its side he panicked, took off and then slipped and fell, severely damaging his hip in the process.
It was Perth trainer Ted Greig, who leased stables from the Cushing family in Riverton Road (now Leach Highway) in Cannington, who thought Cardigan Bay could be saved and set up a series of slings to take the weight off the injured hip.
Greig’s stablehand at the time was a young Merv Butterworth and, moments after last Friday’s win of Mr Mojito in the Group Two 4yo Championship, he reflected on the events of February 1962.
“I remember feeding and watering Cardigan Bay and it was a month before the slings were removed to allow him to walk”, he said.
Merv Butterworth, the oldest of 12 children, was well and truly bitten by the trotting bug when Cardigan Bay made a full recovery, albeit with a limp from his hip injury, and went on to win the 1963 Inter Dominion in Adelaide and then become harness racing’s first millionaire when racing in America.
Merv has raced a host of top flight horses including Arden Rooney, which took out the Hunter Cup/New Zealand Cup double a little over a year ago, and next Friday he will watch his horse Our Jericho score-up behind the barrier in the $1.1 million Inter Dominion final.
Like his starter Our Blackbird in last year’s final, Our Jericho will start at long prices but that won’t stop Merv dreaming of a win in a Perth Inter Dominion – after all he has seen an Inter Dominion champion overcome bigger obstacles to win harness racing's ultimate prize.
by Alan Parker