Ray: Over to you, Andrew, enjoy the experience and I’m sure you’ll do the champ proud

An exciting chapter that few people get to experience starts for Andrew Drake at midnight tonight when Copy That leaves for Melbourne - and trainer Ray Green is confident his protege will thrive on it.

The task of campaigning New Zealand’s best pacer in Victoria has fallen to Lincoln Farms’ stable foreman with Green still recovering from what could have been a fatal kick to the stomach last November.

“I’d like to have gone. I always said wherever Copy That goes, I go, but in this case I couldn’t do anything with him,” said Green who is making slow progress but is still unable to drive work.

“This sort of opportunity doesn’t come along very often in horse racing, not many people get the chance to work so closely with a champion.

“Campaigning overseas at the top level is a bit different from going to Hawera on the grass. It will be a great learning curve for Andrew but I’m not anticipating any problems, Andrew has got used to the horse in the last two months.

“Copy That has lots of little quirks but Andrew has him worked out. Andrew is also quite fastidious, neat and tidy, and I’m sure he’ll look after the horse properly.”

Green says Drake has really warmed to the task in recent weeks, solely handling Copy That, and he was enjoying his association with the horse.

Drake greets Copy That after his win in the Thames Summer Cup.Drake’s sense of achievement was easy for all to see after Copy That bagged the Thames Summer Cup (Group III) last month at Auckland.

In years to come, Green says the former Palmerston North junior, who has been with Lincoln Farms for six years, will look back on the campaign with fondness.

“When I was 17 or 18 I was lucky enough to be working for Peter Wolfenden when he had Cardigan Bay and 40 years ago, when I was in the United States, we had the fastest mare in the world at the time, Yankee Mistress.”

Green also looked after champion pacer Christian Cullen for a while in the late 1990s when trainer Brian O’Meara used to stable him at Kumeu.

“I was doing nothing at the time and it rekindled by interest in the game, I was getting a bit sour on it.”

Green says the way Copy That trialled at Pukekohe last Friday confirmed he was in the right order to really make a statement on this campaign.

Though headed late by Old Town Road, who will be on the plane with Copy That tonight, Drake had not pressured the champ on a blazing last quarter of 25.6.

“He seems to be good. He’s certainly had plenty of tough racing lately.

“The last time we went over (to Australia) he was still coming back from his long layoff and wasn’t race hard. That’s why we went - to get him fit for the New Zealand Cup. This time he’ll be a lot more race hard.”

And the horse would have every chance again, being stabled at the well appointed Yabby Dam Farm, on the outskirts of Ballarat.

From there he will prepare first for the A$150,000 Ballarat Cup (2710m) on January 21 then the A$500,000 A G Hunter Cup (2760m) at Melton on February 4.

Green says just like Copy That was forced to get fit for the cup in another country last year, the lack of racing here now forced him to adopt the same path to ready the horse for the $1 million slot race, The Race by Grins, at Cambridge on April 14.

Ray Green … “This would be the worst country in the world to own a horse like Copy That.”With no open class racing here in January or February, and only two small stakes races in March, it was a no brainer to flee New Zealand.

“This would be the worst country in the world to own a horse like Copy That. Racetracks all over the world would love to have him racing on their track. I don’t understand the rationale of our officials.”

Green described as ridiculous the new racing calendar, the architects of which had seemingly ignored northern horses and catered only for those in Christchurch.

“It’s a good deal for them but if you live anywhere else it’s a disaster. And Harness Racing New Zealand doesn’t seem to give a toss. It’s like they’re trying to create a cottage industry, doing nothing to help the North Island, everything is negative for the north.

“These small fields we’re seeing are the tip of the iceberg.

“I could see it happening 10 years ago but they put their heads in the sand and tried to discourage all the negative talk. Everything was wonderful and negative people were bad people.”

Green welcomes the initiative by the Cambridge board to run forums next month to try to find solutions.

“But I can see nothing coming of it. HRNZ will kill whatever they suggest doing.”

Green believes there has to be some kind of amalgamation of Auckland and Cambridge, with racing under one umbrella, run by one leader, though he worries about Auckland’s $75 million debt. It would be curtains if the ATC sold its Pukekohe training centre and, after paying off the banks, didn’t have enough money left to build another.