Dunstan Horsefeeds – NZ record

Trainer Ray Green had an usual reaction to Copy That’s staggering win from a 70 metre handicap at Cambridge.

Green knew his horse’s 3:16 clocking for the standing 2700 metres was a New Zealand record, slicing 1.2 seconds off Triple Eight’s old mark, an effort that saw the crowd give the horse a standing ovation on his way back to the stables.

But the enormity of Copy That’s feat – he’s the first pacer to overcome such a long mark in at least 42 years – really only became apparent when Green was told the horse’s sectional times.

Incredibly, Copy That paced his last 2200 metres in 2:38.3, only six tenths of a second outside the track record for the distance.

And he ran his last mile in a white hot 1:52.7. Compare that to the Cambridge track record for a flying mile of 1:51.6, jointly held by Adore Me and South Coast Arden, just a second quicker than Copy That who ran 1100 metres before reaching his last mile.

“I hope he hasn’t gone too well,” Green said. “I was hoping we didn’t have to do something like that. I just hope he pulls up ok.

“But we’ve got some time up our sleeve, it’s 10 days ’til the cup.”

It wasn’t surprising driver Zachary Butcher reported to Green that Copy That was feeling it near the finish – he ran from the mile to the 800 in 56.8, then ripped home in 55.9 and 27.8.

While it might have looked like Copy That was struggling to make up the leeway on his main rival, Hot And Treacherous, who had a 20 metre start, Butcher said the horse knew what he was doing.

“The horse was thinking for me and we got a bit of a breather when we caught the field.”

It was Butcher’s first drive on Copy That in a race for three years and three weeks but he said the horse always had a great will to win.

“The last time I drove him he was a green, two-win horse but now he has great manners. He doesn’t overdo it and, when you’re going into a two-mile race, you need to be relaxed, you can’t be getting too keen.”