Trent Forbes (6), of Invercargill, wants to be ''just like Dad'' when he grows up.
His father, Gavin Forbes, owns, trains and drives 8-year old pacer Lord Forbes.
While Mr Forbes, a meatworks butcher, admits his ''hobby horse'' has not been doing too well lately, that doesn't matter to Trent.
''I'm going to be just like Dad.''
They were both at the Wyndham Harness Racing Club's Cromwell meeting yesterday where Trent and mum Rochelle Mathieson watched Gavin and Lord Forbes in the feature race over 2600m.
Out of 12 horses, they came 11th; Smiling Star won the race.
Mr Forbes said the horse was getting ''reasonably old''. Ms Mathieson said Lord Forbes had had 114 starts over his 6-year racing career and yesterday's could be his last.
However, Trent seemed oblivious to the horse's plight. He said the best thing about race day was ''beating all the other horses ... and the go-karts''.
Go-karts, or mini jeeps, have kept the children entertained at all the recent race meetings in Central Otago. Yesterday's also featured a bouncy castle face-painting and, between horse races, moonhopper and sack races and a lolly scramble.
Southern Harness Racing promotions officer Lindsay Beer said more than 2300 people attended the 11-race meeting at Cromwell.
