Fulfilling career in harness racing for Robin Butt

He’s won a New Zealand Cup, a Miracle Mile, a Dominion Handicap and a Rowe Cup and has owned more than 100 winners including a $2 million racehorse. Harness racing has been quite a ride for Robin Butt and it’s not over yet.

Robin’s racing lineage goes back to his grandfather on his mother’s side, David Bennett. He trained 45 winners including Springbok which won six races. And Robin’s father Wes began his harness racing career in the early 1930s with Dick Humphreys.

“He worked the first six months for nothing and after that they started paying him. He remembers driving a horse from Templeton down to Sumner, then up over the hill and down to Lyttleton where he caught the boat to Wellington. When he got off the boat he drove the horse out to Hutt Park. He slept in the box next door to the horse. The horse won the first day, so he splashed out and got board somewhere for the rest of the meeting,” Robin said.

Wes carved out a successful driving and training career, training 722 winners between 1937 and 1991 and as a driver he reined 761 winners. He drove Wee Win to win seventeen of nineteen races including the 1978 Allan Matson FFA and 1979 Easter Cup.

Robin said under his father’s guidance he was always going to be part of the trotting game.

“I used to drive horses in the morning before I went to primary school.”

Once he’d left school he started full-time work for his father and his first winner as a driver was Caledonian Lad, trained by Wes at Nelson in January 1962. However getting drives proved difficult for the young reinsman.

“I had to go back to Nelson the following year with him (Caledonian Lad) and get my second win. It was so hard to get drives in those days. We only had three or four probationary races. All the good drivers got all the other drives. We were only racing every Saturday, it was not like it is today.”

Robin married Jackie Litten in November 1962. Jackie is the daughter of Jack Litten who trained Caduceus, a legend in the sport.

Robin started his own training career in 1967 at Rolleston before heading to Weedons, then Greenpark. His first winner was Charles, at the Masterton meeting in October 1967.

“When Jack Litten gave up we bought his place at West Melton. That’s where we had all the success. We’ve been here forty years and are still here now (laughter). We’ve still got the stables, but the track is gone. It’s all gone into housing. David (son) started training here too.”

As a trainer he’s trained three Group One winners in New Zealand – Locarno and Camelot (2).

Camelot’s thirteen wins included the 1984 New Zealand Trotting Cup and the 1984 New Zealand FFA, when he beat Hands Down. He also finished second in the 1983 New Zealand Cup won by Steel Jaw and the 1985 New Zealand FFA won by Preux Chevalier.

“He wasn’t a big horse, but he was a very good stayer.”

Of his eighteen wins, Locarno won the Group One Pan Am Mile, the New Zealand Messenger and the 1980 Miracle Mile.

“He went back the next year and he ran second. Up until then no horse had won two Miracle Miles. A fortnight before the race he got a dicky leg and we couldn’t get the work into him. If he’d been 100% I think he would have won the second one too. He was a beautiful looking horse with a mane and tail that was a bit lighter than his body colour.”

Other good winners for Butt were Agrinion, City Rogue and Lady El.

Agrinion won nine while City Rogue’s fourteen wins included the $100,000 Group One Australian Derby, the 2000 Kindergarten Stakes, the Three Year Old Championship and the Golden Mile in Auckland. Lady El won eight races.

“When she won on the same day as we won the Cup, she led all the way and won one of the minor races in New Zealand record time.”

Lady El was bred by All Black Nelson Dalzell.

“He used to have a farm up at Culverden. Sometimes he’d send them down here and we’d work them for a bit but most of the time he worked them and brought them down to the races. He was a real good horseman and a bloody good footballer too.”

Robin drove twenty winners for Dalzell including Diamond Moose, the winner of nine including the 1983 Kaikoura Cup, Golden Moose which won the 1973 NZ Welcome Stakes and New Zealand Champion Stakes and Lord Moose which won six.

Nelson’s daughter Caroline married Braeden Whitelock and they created their own racing dynasty.

Butt also trained for Captain Olaf Andersen of David Moss fame and had success with Van Fair (5) and Enna Gee (4).

Bondy was another good horse Robin developed.

“We trained him early on and when Davey was trying to win one of his premierships, he wanted a horse that was pretty nice so he pinched him off me (laughter).”

Bondy won twenty three races – one for Robin, eighteen for David and Catherine and a further four in Australia, including the 2010 Hunter Cup.

His other feature wins as a trainer have been in the 1970 Rowe Cup with Global Hall, the Cheviot Two Year Old Stakes and Ladyship Stakes with Kiatina, New Zealand Championship Stakes with Ostrava and the Superstar Championship with Pathfinder.

Robin trained Global Hall late in her career. She was owned by Mick Gaffaney and trained by Ray Teahen.

“They’d taken her to Auckland and she hadn’t gone any good. They lived at Timaru and dropped her off on the way home to be served by Local Light (whom the Butts stood at stud). We served her and she got in foal and they told me I could race her. We went on and raced her and she won the National Trot and a couple of other races. When they took her home she lost the foal. They sent her back the next year and we got her in foal again and she won the Rowe Cup. She was a lot happier and raced a lot better in foal.”

Robin also had a lot of success with the progeny of Bravine who was owned by Bruce Francis. Her progeny included Kiatina, Locarno, Ostrava and Agrinion.

“Jack Litten had her (Bravine) and she was quite a good mare. When he gave up training we got her and won a race with her and then she went to stud.”

As a driver Robin drove 387 winners including three G1 races- the Pan Am Mile with Locarno and the New Zealand Trotting Cup and New Zealand FFA driving Camelot.

He drove twenty one winners for his father, twenty for Nelson Dalzell, seventeen for Paul Newton and fourteen for Jack Litten.

Outside of his wins in the Pan Am Mile, New Zealand FFA and New Zealand Cup, he’s also won the Ordeal Trotting Cup, New Zealand Trotting Free-For-All and Canterbury Park Trotting Cup with Tony Bear, Rowe Cup (Global Hall), New Zealand Welcome Stakes and New Zealand Champion Stakes (Golden Moose) Cheviot 2YO Fillies Stakes and Ladyship Stakes (Kiatina), New Zealand Champion Stakes (Ostrava), New Zealand Messenger (Locarno), Kaikoura Cup (Diamond Moose), Superstars Championship (Pathfinder), New Brighton Cup (Rolls Hanover) and Northern Southland Cup (Bondy).

The Australian bred Tony Bear won nine races and ran second twice in the Dominion Handicap.

“Johnny Gee and Tony Bear used to win quite a few of the Free for Alls. Tony Bear was a lovely horse but he couldn’t go the Auckland way round. They brought him over from Australia for the Interdominions in Auckland. The fella gave him to Dad to train and he was as good as gold at Addington. He taught me to get cracking and get drives. Jackie’s father retired when he was 65 and I got a lot of his drives with the ones he trained which helped me a lot.”

Robin has been a very successful owner over six decades, owning 203 winners across Australasia. His first winner was Untrue at Westport in December 1963 trained by his father.

Other horses to have carried his name have been Gold Chain (9), Masterly (9), Lady El (8), Dynasty (7), Maria Tsarina (4) and Gold Bullion (6).

“We’ve chucked him (Gold Bullion) up on the hills for six months and he’ll come back in the winter. At times he’s looked pretty nice and at other times he just hasn’t finished his races off.”

They raced Himself successfully in Australia winning twenty seven races including the 2022 $100,000 Group One Golden Nugget.

It’s fair to say that Minstrel has been the star.

Owned by Robin, Jackie, David, Catherine and Penny Butt and her partner Tony Hickman, Minstrel won four races for David and Catherine before he was exported to Australia where he’s won a further twenty seven and banked over $2 million. His three biggest wins have been the G1 WA Pacing Cup twice, the G1 Freemantle Cup and the G1 Golden Nugget.

“He ran second in the Pinjarra Cup the other day and is getting ready for those big races. We’ve been over there a few times to see him race.”

Robin and Jackie are still breeding from a small number of mares, including Ovaride the dam of Minstrel, who has since left the promising Fanfare.

Fanfare today became the first winner for the stallion King Of Swing when he dominated from the front in a Macca Lodge Kindergarten Stakes Prelude at Wyndham.

FANFARE REPLAY

The couple are rightly proud of the family’s involvement in the sport and the four generations of Butts have won the Rowe Cup – Wes with Even Speed in 1979, Robin with Global Hall in 1970, David driving Stig in 2013 and Bob (grandson Bob Butt) with Bet N Win in 2025.

Wes won the New Zealand Trainers Premiership seven times and the Drivers Premiership twice, while David and his wife Catherine won the Trainers Premiership three times – 2004, 2006 and 2007.

Jackie’s grandfather Jack Litten also won a New Zealand Trainers Premiership in 1960.

Bob is continuing the family tradition, training from the Woodend Beach base that’s owned by his parents.

A good handful of horses he’s training are owned by his parents and grandparents too.

“Yeah, we go out there quite frequently and keep an eye on him (laughter).”

Winning the New Zealand Cup with Camelot and the Miracle Mile with Locarno have been two of the biggest highlights in Robin’s career.

Robin is now eighty two and has been married to Jackie for sixty three years and they’re still enjoying the sport that’s been central to their lives.

by Bruce Stewart, for Harnesslink

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