The Race By Grins – Track Record
Speed turns slot race into procession
2200 metre mobile, Cambridge April 14, 2023
It might not have been ranked as a Group I race but Copy That’s biggest payday came in New Zealand’s most international event, the $1 million The Race By Grins at Cambridge.
In what would be the last of his 33 wins, Copy That turned the 2023 slot race into a procession, streaking to the front inside the first 200 metres and leaving Old Town Road, Self Assured and Australian Better Eclipse in his wake.
His time of 2:36.3 was a track record and represented a mile rate of 1:54.3, the ease of his win allowing driver Blair Orange a rare victory salute.
The winner’s purse took the entire’s bankroll to just on $2 million and cemented his position as one of the very best pacers of recent decades.
Copy That became New Zealand’s 12th standardbred to earn more than $2 million and, with 33 wins, he eclipsed the tallies of five on that list, Smolda (32), Terror To Love (31), Self Assured (30), Changeover (29) and Elsu (27).
Another five ahead of him also boosted their totals significantly by racing in the United States – notably champion trotter Lyell Creek (56), Bit Of A Legend (53), Christen Me (51), Have Faith In Me (49) and Lazarus (37).
Copy That’s earnings would also have been considerably higher had racing not stopped during the Covid pandemic, when he looked to have the NZ Derby at his mercy, and had he not fractured a splint bone in Victoria, which sidelined him for eight months.
The Grins was Copy That’s 16th win at 2200 metres but a mark of his versatility was that he won at 10 different distances from 1609 metres to 3200 metres.
Trainer Ray Green described Copy That as a remarkable horse and easly the best he’s trained.
While the stable’s Auckland Cup winner Sir Lincoln had been a very good horse, Copy That was in a different league – “world class.”
Few at Cambridge that night would have argued with him, certainly not the Karapiro sweepstake ticket-holder Wayne Keoghan, yelling his lungs out trackside, as the little horse he’d never heard of three days earlier won him a cool $50,000.
