“When I started driving, Wolfie was the best and would have been the best anywhere. He was a great, great driver. Very fair out on the track but you knew there was something different about him, something special.”
The winner of 1762 races driving in New Zealand, back when there was often only one meeting a week, Wolfenden was quietly spoken but respected worldwide.
For all his talent, recognised with an MBE, it is his association with Downunder’s greatest pacer Cardigan Bay, the first standardbred in the world to win $1 million, that made him a household name.
“Dad was on The Ed Sullivan Show with Cardigan Bay in the 1960s, he used to be on the front page of the Herald often,” says son Glen. “As kids when we grew up, it was normal to us, but he was famous in racing all over the world. He didn’t talk about it much and he rarely discussed the great horses like Cardy, but we knew everything about them because everybody else talked about them.
“But when he did talk about them, Cardigan Bay aside, the one horse he loved talking about was Armalight [the 1981 NZ Cup winner], who he said was a great mare. Dad was a wonderful trainer, he had a great eye for detail and keeping the horses healthy, but when we started training together, he pulled back from the driving a bit.”
Peter and Glen still trained successfully with standout pacers like Victor Supreme and Agua Caliente, while Wolfenden’s other son, Ross, is a hugely successful driver in North America, with over 7500 winners.
Wolfenden, who is also survived by wife Lois and daughter Julie, was rarely seen at race tracks the past two decades, many of his former mates and rivals having long since retired.
Wolfenden will be laid to rest this week after a private family service.
Sales hold strong
For all the challenges facing harness racing, some big numbers were put up at the Karaka yearling sale yesterday. The boutique sale was topped by a $300,000 filly (lot 74), a half-sister by Captaintreacherous to Elle Mac, sold by Breckon Farms to Paul and Mary Kenny, co-owners of the north’s other standardbred breeding power house in Woodlands.
The leggy filly attracted heated action, with at least five bidders still in play when she reached $200,000, with the Kennys landing the telling blow when they went from $285,000 straight to $300,000.
A Captaintreacherous colt out of Elle Mac, so a very close relation, was the second top lot at $270,000 sold to Stonewall Stud, to be trained by the Telfer/Cullen partnership.
The sale ended with an average of over $61,000, rarefied air for a standardbred sale with last year’s Karaka average the only other time an average of over $60,000 has been recorded in the Southern Hemisphere.
A son of Captaintreacherous in Captain Crunch out of the Harness Jewels winning mare The Orange Agent was the third top lot at $220,000 bought by Barry Purdon.
Four of the top five lots were sold by Breckon Bloodstock, whose draft averaged over $80,000 per lot.
The clearance rate of 68 was down and indicated a softer middle to lower market, not unusual at standardbred sales where many of the biggest buyers end up chasing the same 10-15 lots.
