BIG SUNDAY READ: How Ray turned ‘pain in the arse’ Copy That into the NZ Cup favourite

Lincoln Farms’ trainer Ray Green says Copy That felt like a good horse from day one. So why was his early form line 55657? BARRY LICHTER talks to Green about the challenges and frustrations in the making of a star and the life experiences that helped him.

When you look at Copy That now you’d wonder why Lincoln Farms trainer Ray Green ever sold him.

The $2.80 favourite for Tuesday’s $540,000 IRT New Zealand Trotting Cup seems the perfect racehorse. For the last 17 months every time Green has taken him to the races he’s earned a cheque.

But Green, more precisely his wife Debbie, owned the horse for only the first two of his 14 wins.

And when he lines up from the ace at Addington on Tuesday it will be Melbourne owners Merv and Meg Butterworth who stand to win the $297,000 first prize.

Ray Green can tell you a few stories about why Copy That wears a brush shadow roll. PHOTO: Trish Dunell.Copy That might project an air of innocence and superiority but behind that peculiar brush contraption on his head there lies a much more complicated creature.

The brush shadow roll gives only a hint of the trials and tribulations which Green went through to turn him into such a crowd pleaser.

Green, in his typical no nonsense style, puts it bluntly when he recalls Copy That as being “a pain in the arse.”

“People who question now why I sold him don’t know he started out “a bit different”.

“When I did sell him people who knew the horse reckoned I’d robbed the guy (Butterworth).

“He’s tested us at every yard.”

The fun and games started within minutes of Debbie Green paying $7000 for the horse at the weanling sales.

“Deb went to look at him in his box and when she opened the door a couple of inches he launched himself at her. Had we realised what he was like maybe we wouldn’t have bought him.”

No sooner had the fiery little American Ideal youngster arrived at Lincoln Farms than he jumped a couple of gates.

Terrible jumper

“He was a terrible jumper when he was working and that’s why he wears the brush shadow roll on his head. We tried him in a regular shadow roll and he still jumped. He’d jump a tyre track, if there was a tiny bit of shit on the track he’d jump it.

Copy That galloping in his favourite place at Pukekohe, a once familiar sight during his early workouts.“He did stupid things on the track for months,” said Green who tried virtually every piece of gear he had to get the horse to concentrate and pace properly.

For several months he routinely galloped at the same spot on the same bend for no apparent reason.

But it wasn’t just the horse’s antics on the track which nearly drove Green to drink. Before Copy That even covered the few hundred metres from the barn to the training track Green would routinely have let out a string of swear words.

You couldn’t tether him up like any other horse because, Houdini-like, he’d work out how to slip out of his bridle and go scampering off to the other end of the farm, tail in the air, with everyone scrambling to recapture him.

Put him in a box while he was waiting and he’d do circuits of the walls trying to rub off any head gear that annoyed him.

“It’s fair to say sometimes I got very frustrated and even despondent. I might have said I’d take $10,000 for him at times but I’d never have cut him loose because there were other times when he’d show you glimpses of brilliance.

Ray Green tried every piece of gear imaginable on Copy That.“He was always fast, he had that real burst of speed. But he had all that other baggage and it took a while before we eliminated all the nonsense.

“We tried all sorts of stuff with him and eventually he got better and then we were able to start peeling a lot off him again.”

No to gelding

It was just as well that Green was a steadfast proponent of keeping his horses colts as there were numerous times when Copy That’s negative displays saw Debbie call for him to be gelded.

“I don’t like gelding them if I can help it. Sometimes you have to if they’re a danger to themselves or they’re not concentrating.

“A lot of trainers take their balls out as soon as they walk in the gate because it makes their job easier.

“But you’re taking the power away from them. It’s all about age group racing now and you can’t have horses diminished as two and three-year-olds by gelding them.

“We’re lucky at Lincoln Farms that we have such good facilities - we could have 20 colts at a time.”

Now that he’s four, Copy That can often be heard screaming and roaring when he gets to the course and sees other horses but once he’s out onto the track, Green says he’s fine.

As a youngster working with the legendary Peter Wolfenden, Ray Green got to learn what driving a good horse like Cardigan Bay felt like.“He’s always had a lot of character and thankfully I’ve had enough experience to know what areas to explore to get a result with a problem horse.

“You have to go through shit loads of horses to get a good one and I was lucky I got an idea what a good horse feels like when I worked for Peter Wolfenden as a kid.

“I worked for Wolfie for five years when he had Cardigan Bay and all those other cup horses like Waitaki Hanover and I got to drive most of them.

“At one stage when I was working in the States I was driving the best mare in the world, Yankee Mistress.”

But when Green and his wife returned to New Zealand in 1982, with toddler in tow, he seldom came close to a good horse.

“It was hard to find somewhere to operate from in those days but I had one or two horses up at Kumeu. The most I ever had was about a dozen, but I was mostly trying out young horses. I won a handful of races but didn’t get many going horses.”

In 12 seasons between 1989 and 2000 Green trained just 24 winners.

‘We struggled like hell’

“We struggled like hell. We lived hand to mouth for years.

You’d never know from looking at him in the paddock but Copy That was a real handful early on. PHOTO: Trish Dunell.Once I remember we didn’t have enough money to put petrol in the car.

“I was making garden sheds, shoeing the odd horse, anything I could do to turn a dollar.

“In hindsight I should have done shoeing full time but I tried to persevere as a trainer.”

Green’s big break came when he ran into Ray Norton, then Lincoln Farms’ trainer, who offered him a job after one of his staff left.

When Norton retired, Green became Lincoln Farms’ co-trainer with Robert Mitchell and between 2004 and 2008 they prepared 80 winners.

In the ensuing years Green has trained another 298 winners for John and Lynne Street, spoiled for opportunities with some of the best bred young stock joining the team every year.

And it’s through this experience that Green has learned that in the long run it’s better to be a seller than a keeper.

“We’ve sold plenty of horses for big money. Some have gone on and done nothing. Others like King Of Swing, Beaudiene Boaz and Hard Copy have won a million.

“But you can’t have your cake and eat it too. They reckon the first profit is your best profit and you’ll never go broke selling.

Ray Green … “You can’t have your cake and eat it too.” PHOTO: Ajay Berry/Race Images.“Plenty of people have hung on to horses and ended up with nothing.

“We could still have King Of Swing but if you analysed it over a period we’ve been better off selling.

“You have to decide if you’re a seller or a keeper. We’re sellers.

“Deb and I have very little mortgage on our property now thanks to selling Copy That and we still have his half brother. The better Copy That goes, the more valuable he gets.

“I don’t think we’re financially secure enough to not continue being sellers. If you’re a keeper you need a million dollars in the bank.

“Debbie’s threatening to keep one but she gets a bit emotional about them.”

Green says it’s been a pleasure simply training Copy That in the last 18 months.

“We’re still earning from him. I suppose it could have been different for me if I was younger. If I’d had a horse like this when I was 35, not 75, it could have been life changing and set us up.

“But your attitude changes as you get older from when you were young, ambitious and keen. Now I just enjoy the job and I’m more sensible and business like.”

Blair Orange brings Copy That back to scale after a dominant win at Addington last season. PHOTO: Ajay Berry/Race Images.Green’s attitude even stretches to the New Zealand Cup, so often quoted as the holy grail for trainers.

“The New Zealand cup doesn’t actually get me all fired up. To me it’s just another horse race. It’s nice having a horse in it, especially a contender, as it’s big money, but it’s not the be-all and end-all of my ambitions.

“It’s not the end of the world if he doesn’t win on Tuesday there are plenty more races like the Auckland Cup, free-for-alls, the Taylor Mile, Messenger … we won’t be slitting our wrists over it.”

Excellent owner

Green says he couldn’t have a better owner than Merv Butterworth in that respect.

Debbie Green pictured with Merv Butterworth after Copy That’s second win - seconds after they shook on the deal.“Merv’s an excellent owner. I’ve had numerous horses for him now and he’s an experienced owner with horses all over Australasia. He knows the game.

“He’s so easy to deal with and even when things go bad he doesn’t get all twitchy.”

Green says Butterworth knows a horse like Copy That will be a contender in anything you put him in.

“I’ve had a lot of good horses over the years thanks to John Street but this is the best one and just proves again that champions can come from anywhere.

“He’s the only one who’s been best of his age group. The others were really good horses but they were only in the top three or four. This guy’s number one.

“He’s fast, he’s able to keep running, he has a high cruising speed and he’s pretty versatile. He’s got it all.”

Headlines of the early stories on Copy That on www.lincolnfarms.co.nz tell it all.