$20 a week and Waikato battlers are living the dream

A bunch of Waikato mates who used to meet in the pub for a beer, a bet and a play on the pokies are off to Addington to watch their own New Zealand Cup runner.

Carl Officer and fellow members of the Four Legs syndicate were among the big throng of people who were hugging and high fiving after Northview Hustler ran his rivals ragged in the SpCarl Officer, left, looks to the heavens amid the celebrations while syndicate member Stu Cappie gives John Street a hugring Cup at Alexandra Park on Friday night.

Officer initially looked skywards, thanking someone above, before giving two giant bear hugs to the real giver of his good fortune, Lincoln Farms’ boss John Street.

And afterwards Officer explained how Street’s uniquely affordable partnership scheme had transformed the lives of a group of battlers.

“There are eight of us and we’re all battlers who work hard and like a feed, a drink and a laugh.’’

With a school teacher, floor layer, electrician, kiwifruit nursery worker, hire pool rep, and two who install power cables and security cameras, Officer says they’re all ordinary blokes.John Street and Merle Gradwell hug as trainer Ray Green, right, gets in on the actionCarl Officer goes in for a second clinch

“We meet in the Te Rapa pub and the boys like to have a bet on the horses and play the pokies and I said to them one day we could have a horse for the $20 they were spending.’’

While his claim was met with cries of ‘bullshit’, Officer made good on his promise and they all took a share in a horse with Cambridge trainer Mike Berger.

When the horse never made it to the races, you could have excused the team for opting out.

But Officer was in a unique position to improve their odds. As the son of long time harness racing enthusiast Danny Boyle who worked for Lincoln Farms promoting their stallion Sir Lincoln, he found out about the partnership scheme Street had launched which fixed costs and guaranteed a winner.

“John said he’d find a horse for us and we ended up with 10 percent of Northview Hustler.’’

Hustler didn’t show much early and Officer says trainer Ray Green told him he would struggle to win a race.

“But we fell in love with the horse because he was like us, a battler. No one talks about him and no one thought he could beat that field tonight.’’

With eight wins and a Spring Cup now to add to his Winter Cup, Officer and his merry band are looking forward to a trip down south to watch Hustler try to win the New Zealand Cup for his trophy cabinet.Part-owner Shannon Flay in the winner’s room

“We’ve actually upped our payments to $30 a week to make sure we have enough for four nights in Christchurch every year. Sunday we’ll be on the drink, Monday is golf …’’

Sure to be in Christchurch in November are their partners in Hustler, Street and wife Lynne, Lincoln Farms’ business manager Ian Middleton, Ian Gradwell, Chris Western and Shannon Flay, who was out at the Pukekohe stable yesterday looking for another horse to take a share in.

Stable driver Andre Poutama, whose brilliant front-running tactics won the race for Northview Hustler, is hoping to be there too, in the cart behind his favourite horse.

“Not many people realise how good he is,’’ says Poutama.

“He’s under-rated but he’s always been my favourite, since I first started at the barn.

“I drove him in the learner heats when he was still green. He had speed but he didn’t know what to do.’’Andre Poutama acknowledges the plaudits after his brilliant drive

Poutama says he had a quiet word to Hustler 800 metres out last night when he decided to put his foot flat to the floor.

“I said to him, c’mon boy we can do this. I thought if I made the back straight my fastest, they’d have to be pretty good to get past him. I wanted to turn it into a staying test.’’

A 27 flat quarter down the back saw the favourites struggling to make ground and when Poutama turned for home still three lengths clear, the cheers from the Lincoln Farms’ supporters hit a crescendo.

“He was getting tired 100 metres out but he was entitled to,’’ says Poutama whose urgings saw Northview Hustler reel off a 56.5 last half to beat hot pot Star Galleria by a length and clock a swift 2:41.3 for the standing start 2200 metres.