'Red' still has the fire that made a racing champion

Minder Sharlene Mitchell with the indomitable Bonecrusher at Takanini. Picture / Kenny Rodger

If Shaune Ritchie wins this afternoon's $50,000 Bonecrusher Stakes at Ellerslie, two things will race through his mind. The second will be that Magic Cape, the horse he trains, will have just proved he is one of New Zealand's best 3-year-olds.

That will be overshadowed by the fact that, as a trainer, he has won the race commemorating one of the immortals of the New Zealand turf.

Ritchie was at high school when Bonecrusher became a champion. As his strapper, he travelled the world with the horse.

"What a great thrill it'll be if we're able to win this," said Ritchie yesterday as he walked the unbeaten Magic Cape out for some grass at Cambridge.

Bonecrusher, or Red as he is affectionately known, will be languishing in his Takanini paddock during today's feature race.

As a New Zealander, you know you've made it in sport when the Australians claim you as their own, and Bonecrusher is an idol across the Tasman. Five years ago he was declared the inaugural winner of the Kingston Town Award at Moonee Valley because everyone regards his 1986 clash with Waverley Star in the Cox Plate as a defining moment.

The 24-year-old has not wintered as well as in previous years, and both Shaune Ritchie and his father Frank, who trained Bonecrusher, are calling in to see the old bloke on their way to the races today.

"He might be getting on, but he's still got the fire in him," said his minder Sharlene Mitchell, daughter of owner Peter Mitchell.

Mitchell had to catch Bonecrusher yesterday, saying: "If your photographer had arrived and Red had still been in the paddock, he'd have taken one look, said 'Nah' - and I'd never have been able to catch him."

"He's still such a hard case.

"If there was going to be just one horse that could talk, it would have been him."