1979 Interdominions - Pacers' Grand Final, Addington, Christchurch: Rondel

Rondel, in the hands of champion reinsman Peter Wolfenden, trailed Sapling for most of the journey. Wolfenden, noting that Sapling had moved away from the rail starting the run up the home straight with just under a mile to go, patiently waited behind the leader. Sure enough, as wee Win challenged Sapling early in the run home, Sapling again drifted out. Wolfenden punched Rondel through the widening gap, and while Sapling fought back strongly, Rondel was too good and won in 3:20.0, a mile rate of 2:03.9, with Miss Pert running into 3rd place.

[@darfielddx58]

Fantastic, thanks, Ian. I was there that day as a young university student. I would have been one of the only ones on the course with a bet on the winner. Rondel was a very tough stayer and he won his 2 mile heat on the middle night. Wolfenden was worth several lengths to a horse - a wonderful driver - the best I have seen.
I had moved down from Auckland and a friend of mine had had a horse in Peter Young's Kumeu stable. We followed Rondel from the early days. It was a wonderful win. My best was entirely based on sentiment.
The other interesting thing about the day was that there was a printers' strike and no racebooks were available. We all had photocopied/ cyclostyled sheets of the fields to go by.

[@iangrant1932]

darfielddx58 Thank you for your comments and great to re-live those memories. Rondel's heat win on the second night was over 3200 metres and was the fastest of the three heats over the distance that night. Wee Win was the top qualifier with 45 points having won all three of his heats. Rondel scored 31, which was the last qualifying points total along with Miss Pert, Ice Wise, Lord Module and Nimble Yankee.
I was not aware racebooks were not available that day.
Cheers,
Ian

[@darfielddx58]

Ian Grant Yes, he was a marvellous stayer. He also won either the Franklin or Thames Cup over 3200m. I remember Wee Win being the really hot form horse of the series. Sapling was a pretty good horse too. It is a great win, but I still rate No Response's Grand Final win as the greatest I have seen anywhere.

[@ianwatson7920]

I had moved from Auckland to Wollongong to work in the coal mines in 1978 but knew Rondel was a stayer and backed it each way in the heat at 250/1 when it won the 2 mile race. I then backed him in the final at 22/1 so it was a great result. Wolfie was a master driver..

[@brianjschumer]

Interesting race, Sapling, would have been a great miler in the States, seems he had gate speed and liked the lead, and had some staying power.