And it was, not that brother-in-law and co-trainer Cran Dalgety had much to say about it.
Tour Party’s debut was a happy homecoming for Butt, a champion driver in Canterbury for decades before moving to Victoria.
He will move home in a few weeks to take up a role at the Stonewall Stud base in Canterbury and will also do some of their Alexandra Park riding in the coming months as needed.
REPLAY OF TOUR PARTY
Since Butt is the brother of co-trainer Chrissie Dalgety, you might think she and husband Cran booked “Ants” for partner Tour Party when their son Carter was suspended.
“That would have been very nice to do, but Ants booked himself,” Cran laughs.
“Carter was in Victoria telling Ants how he had been suspended and we had some nice two-year-olds who might need a driver this week.
“I think Ants booked his tickets straight away and we found out later.
“Luckily for us he did as it is always a bonus to have someone with his experience on a horse for the first start and you get the feeling that Ants will get a lot of drifting when he moves home permanently.”
It was by no means the toughest ride of Butt’s stellar career and Cran, or Chrissie, could probably have piloted Tour Party to win the three-horse race.
And while the Republican Party’s little brother still has some maturing to do, he clearly has some of the family chops that might earn him a trip to Alexandra Park next month.
“We’ll see the Young Guns warm up there tomorrow [Friday] and see what we think of them, but he could move up for the final heat and hopefully the final on March 20.
If Tour Party reaches Alexandra Pak, he could have a good name because he might be able to sell a few plane tickets himself.
“It has over 40 owners and many of them were here tonight and loved it,” said Dalgety, of Addington.
“We paid $150,000 for it and the first owner was Ange Boyd [wife of trainer Stephen] and she has 24 of her female partners in him.
“And we have about 16 or 18 others in him and they all love it.”
The Dalgetys will marry more horses to their owners this Saturday when they hold the annual post-yearling open house, starting at noon at Kentuckiana Lodge.
“We have a total of 14 yearlings and we are really looking forward to showing them to the people on Saturday.”
For full race results, click here.
by Michael Guerin, for Harness Racing New Zealand
#Tour #Partys #debut #victory #caps #Butts #return #Canterbury