Racing: Patterson to relinquish role as caretaker of Gore course

Neville Patterson is retiring in July after 18 years as caretaker of the Gore racecourse.

Patterson (67) and his wife, Pam, are retiring to the property of their daughter at Wendonside.

A track has been built on the property and Neville will continue to train a few horses.

He has won a host of races as a trainer, most recently with Hobes, winner of the 2007 Gore and Wyndham Cups and the 2006 Winton and Queenstown Cups.

The Gaius gelding also won over 3200m at Wingatui.

Patterson won the 2001 Cromwell Cup with Harp Lager.

Patterson won 27 races with Zing between 1973 and 81.

The Minuit gelding won the the 1974 Tapanui Cup and 1977 Wairio Cup.

Zing won over hurdles and raced until he was 12 when he won the Riverton Steeplechase.

Zing was ridden in several of his wins by Gareth McRae and Neill Ridley, both now established trainers.

Patterson was then working at Ironwood Station, near Mataura, for Stanley Perkins, the owner of Zing.

Patterson was 35 years at Ironwood after serving an apprenticeship with Riverton trainer Bill Hillis.

Patterson trained Yipp and Gladaub for Aub Perkins, father of Stanley.

Yipp won 16 races including an open sprint at the 1969 New Zealand Cup meeting.

Gladaub came under the direction of Patterson after the Kurdistan gelding had won 25 races (20 for Rex Cochrane).

Patterson produced the 9yr-old to win an open sprint at Riverton in 1968 and a steeplechase at Waimate the following season.

Trainer Jon Sargent has races on both sides of the Tasman in mind for Banchee, winner of the $100,000 Matamata Breeders' Stakes for 2yr-old fillies on Saturday, NZPA reports.

Sargent is keen to run Banchee, by Oratorio, in the group one $200,000 Diamond Stakes (1200m) at Ellerslie on March 13 and the gr 1 $200,000 Manawatu Sires' Produce Stakes (1400m) at Awapuni on April 3.

The $A300,000 AJC Sires' Produce Stakes (1400m) at Randwick on April 10 and the $A300,000 Champagne Stakes (1600m) at the same venue a fortnight later are also on her programme.

Banchee, owned by Hastings merchant banker Sam Kelt, was having her fourth start.

The half-sister to top 3yr-old filly Katie Lee was a $375,000 buy at the premier yearling sale in January last year.

Katie Lee had then won the Eclipse Stakes at Ellerslie from six starts.

"She could be the best 2yr-old I have trained," Sargent said.

Sargent won the 2006 Matamata race with Naturo, the 2008 Manawatu Sires' Stakes with Il Quello Veloce and the 1994 Magic Millions with Vedodara.

The owners of Tavistock have cancelled his flight back to New Zealand and decided to start him in the Blamey Stakes at Flemington on March 13.

Tavistock, racing as Lord Tavistock, finished fifth of six runners in the Futurity Stakes won by Typhoon Tracy at Caulfield on Saturday.

Manhattan Rain has been retired from racing to stand alongside his half-brother, Redoute's Choice, at Arrowfield Stud, AAP reports.

Manhattan Rain, winner of the gr 1 AJC Sires' Produce Stakes last year, has been disappointing in two starts recently. The son of Encosta De Lago raced 11 times for two wins and three second placings, including a second to So You Think in the Cox Plate.

Trainer Rodney Douglas has been fined $A1000 ($NZ1288) over race-day comments he made on television last month.

Dr Cliff Pannam, QC, appeared on behalf of Douglas before the Racing Appeals and Disciplinary Board after Racing Victoria stewards charged the trainer with conduct prejudicial to the image and interests of racing in a TVN interview on February 17.

Douglas, who pleaded not guilty, had assured stewards his horse, Limbo Down, had not been treated after she initially returned an elevated TCO2 (bicarbonate) reading in a pre-race blood test.

Limbo Down, who was allowed to start in the last race, was subsequently cleared on a second pre-race test.