What a Dude! The Big Lebowski bowls ‘em and sets aim for Friday’s $200,000 Free-for-all

Trainer Ray Green admits to being excited about the prospects of The Big Lebowski in Friday’s $200,000 NZ Free-for-all after his cup day demolition at Addington.

Despite having to make a solo run three wide as far as 700 metres from home, and facing a strong headwind up the home straight, the giant pacer easily put away the strongest Junior Free-for-all field in years.

The effort gave Green plenty of confidence that the seven-year-old will more than hold his own when he backs up against the cup horses on Friday.

“I’m sure he’ll handle it. He’s a big, strong horse and the ones in the cup have had a tougher experience so they’re less likely to back up as well.

“People under-rate this horse because he’s not fashionably bred (by Mach Three out of an unraced Safely Kept mare Cool Maiden) but as well as being tough, he’s very fast. And as we saw on Tuesday he carries his speed a long way.”

The Big Lebowksi has a length and a half to spare over dead-heaters Sooner The Bettor, inner, and Ohoka Connor. PHOTO: Ajay Berry/Race Images.Clocking 55.36 for his last 800 metres, when three wide, then an impressive 28.37 for his last sectional into the wind, The Big Lebowski had a length and a half margin on second place dead-heaters Sooner The Bettor and Ohoko Connor at the line. He recorded an overall time for the mobile 2600 metres of 3:09.7, a mile rate of 1:57.3.

“He’s just a very good horse,” Green said. “And I don’t see it as so much of a step-up on Friday.

“A horse like Merlin might be more difficult to deal with but the first two home in the cup (Swayzee and Don’t Stop Dreamin) aren’t going to be there and the rest are pretty much on a par.”

Green said Tuesday’s win, on harness racing’s biggest stage, was a deserved success for Melbourne owners Merv and Meg Butterworth, who were there to enjoy the moment.

Getting the big horse to win on cup day was at least some consolation for being denied the chance to see if their little champion Copy That could win three New Zealand Cups, wear and tear having forced his retirement in September.

It also rewarded the time and expense they had put into The Big Lebowski who damaged a hind tendon in August, 2023, and spent 15 months on the sideline.

Owners Merv and Meg Butterworth on the victory dais. PHOTO: Ajay Berry/Race Images.“It took a lot of work to get him back and he was on the water treadmill at Margaret Park in Matangi for six months before we got him back at Lincoln Farms.

“He hasn’t put a foot wrong since - apart from that race at Ashburton when they backed off the pace and he ran into a horse in front of him and broke.”

Green said from virtually the day the Butterworths sent The Big Lebowski north from Southland he could tell there would be some fun ahead even though he had taken 10 starts to win a race and had a record of only five wins from 28 starts.

With a wonderful nature, The Big Lebowski, at more than 17 hands, is one of the biggest horses Green has trained and as a consequence didn’t start racing until he was a late four-year-old

“Sr Lincoln was stronger looking - but he was a big stallion, whereas this guy is a gelding, but he’s much taller.

“And he has an enormous heart rate recovery so he has a very big motor.”

Green said that was evident for all to see when The Big Lebowski finished only three lengths behind Akuta in the 2023 Auckland Cup in only his second start in the north.

“Go back and look at that race and he was dog lame and couldn’t get round the corners but still finished hard on Copy That’s back.”

Green ran out of time to get The Big Lebowski into the New Zealand Cup this year - Tuesday’s run was only the fifth on his comeback. But he is hoping he’ll get another chance next year and, in the meantime, prove his worthiness in Friday’s 1950 metre Group I dash.

Green sees driver Blair Orange as a key ingredient, after his cup day clinic, when his expert handling of The Big Lebowski gave him one of three wins on the day.

“I wasn’t worried when he took off three wide so far from home. He’d done nothing in the run, slotting into the one-one before ending up four back at the 900.

“He had to make a fairly long, sustained run but I liked how he got onto the back of the parked horse on the corner for a bit of a breather.

“We’re not holding our breath for Friday but we’re hopeful.”