The Stallion Station announced Wednesday that no decision had been made on a race career for Auckland Reactor at this time. It confirmed he will stand at stud here.

Co owner, Neil Pilcher did the only thing he could after Major Mark's disastrous Breeder's Crown Final at Melton yesterday.

"I am having a few tubes. It was all bad in the race and it is hard to take but if you are in racing as long as I have been in it these things happen'' Pllch said.

"We had the Russley Rascal disappointment at the Harness Jewels but this is a lot worse. You just get on with it. It is racing''

He confirmed Major Mark had his sulky wheel whacked about 1600m from home which caused havoc with the tube. Ultimately the only thing Mark Purdon could do was take the stylish colt out of the race.

"It was acting like a brake. There was no point in carrying on'' Mark said.

"But the horse has come through the race. The sad thing was that he was better today then he had been at the Harness Jewels. It is just part of the game ''

Major Mark is due to leave Australia next Wednesday and will have a break which rules him out of the Sires Stakes at Addington. The Sales Pace at Alexandra Park in late December will be his goal.

He went roughly when competing for the lead earlybut that was because of some close run action from a horse outside him.

"I don't know what the final decision was in the room but the other horse more or less came down on us. '' Mark Purdon said later. He spent some time in the judicial room after the action packed race.

"It was so disappointing because the horse was so well. We had done the job going on to the track for the race but after that it didn't turn out like we hoped. It is no good crying afterward. It was one of those things but one that was a bit hard to take to be honest.''

66 year old Brian Gath set a record as the veteran of Breeder's Crown triumphs after Royal Verdict won. His handing up of the front to Sushi Sushi to put Major Mark three back in the middle stages probably cost the Kiwi his winning chance.

116 WINS -SOUTH ISLAND STABLE RECORD

$3.070M IN STAKES-ONLY THE SECOND TIME $3M HAS BEEN TOPPED BY A NEW ZEALAND HARNESS STABLE. THE FIRST TIME WAS LAST SEASON. THE STABE ? ALL STARS

12 OF THE TOP 30 STAKES WINNING HORSES -A RECORD NEVER MATCHED IN THIS COUNTRY.

MOST GROUP ONE WINNERS- ALL STARS NOW 25 IN TOTAL. MARK PURDON NOW 58 IN TOTAL-A RECORD IN THE HISTORY OF HARNESS RACING IN NEW ZEALAND

MARK PURDON WAS THIRD IN THE NATIONAL UDR DRIVING LIST -ONE OF ONLY TWO IN THE TOP TEN TO HAVE DRIVEN MORE THAN $1M IN STAKES WINNINGS

FOUR HORSES VOTED HORSE OF THE YEAR IN THEIR CATEGORY.

STREAMLINE FREIGHT LEADING STABLE OF THE YEAR

MARK PURDON and GRANT PAYNE- along with valued staff members like Auckland stable manager Jeremy Young, southern reinsman, Blair Orange and northern reinsman, James Stormont-to name a few of the chief helpers- lead the most successful and famous pacing stable in the southern hemisphere.

Year after year they top the table in their fields of endeavour. Records fall nearly too numerous to mentiion. Their facility at Rolleston is regarded as the finest of any pacing stable outside of North America. Their horses have won tens of millions of dollars in this decade and each year seems greater than the last.

How does this happen ? Well success obviously breeds success and as the All Stars horses dominate age group racing and Harness Jewels events more owners want a part of the All Stars action. So how does the success happen in the first place.

Professionalism, patience, persistence, processes and procedures-the same factors which make any business a success.

Mark, the team leader, likes to talk about the contribution from his helpers.

"Without good staff you cannot run a stable of this scope. Opening our Auckland stable has been a huge success but again thanks to the people who run it day to day. One or two people can't be everywhere at once and it is the strength, skill and work ethic of t hose working with us who make it all possible''

Grant is the underrated man at All Stars, one who prefers to be out of the limelight but who is always in the thick of the work schedule. His wife, Jan, and her sister, Vicki, Mark's wife, are essential cogs in the All Stars smooth running machine. Their contribution has been immense.

Mark Purdon has never been one to blow his own trumpet. He likes his actions and that of his team of horses and people do the talking. But he is always happy to hear from owners or those who might be interested in joining the All Stars tour of greatness, the emphasis being on developing young horses to win the rich stakes on offer in age group racing.

Sometimes, too, there are vacancies available on the All Stars staff.

If you fit into either category 0274728064 is Mark's contact number-maybe your biggest step toward racing success.

It is not only in modern times that judicial panels in harness racing take many hearings to solve a case. Consider the strange Free Advice affair, a sensation of 1927.

Free Advice, a cup class mare often hard for punters to follow and raced by the McKendrick brothers of Auckland, won the Eclipse Handicap at Addington in March 1927 beating Baron Bingen in a tight finish. The stewards opened an inquiry and not only relegated the winner but fined her driver, Jimmy Bryce jnr, the considerable sum then of 25 pounds for causing severe interference. There were rumblings from Auckland over the decision and the New Zealand Trotting Association, which then controlled the judicial system, referred the case back to the New Brighton club for a rehearing. Surprise, surprise, the club adhered to its original conclusion.

The third round of the case came several weeks later when the connections of Free Advice appealed to the NZTA. It's panel found the club was at fault, reversing the final placings so that Free Advice was now the winner, withdrawing Bryce's fine completely and merely censuring both Bryce and rival horseman Jimmy Clarke for their driving.

The New Brighton club, riled by this decision, appealed to the New Zealand Trotting Conference. In the meantime its president, William Thomson, made some derogatory public statements about the blameless McKendricks refusal to respond to correspondence. George McKendrick,it turned out, was out of town at the time it was received.

The NZTC finally came up with the strangest finding of all loosely known as covering all the bases. It excused Bryce his hefty fine but suspended him for a month for careless driving. Then it demanded that Jimmy Clarke be investigated over his drive on Baron Bingen but did nothing about it themselves -and then left Free Advice in first placing !

As usual nearly everyone lost especially the big punting McKendricks who had needed to register their tote tickets with the club on the day of the race to get their money with a win on appeal. Free Advice who nearly won a New Zealand Cup subsequently, was a top breeder and one of her descendants, Invicta, did so many years later. In racing, it seems, some things never change.