By MICHAEL GUERIN
The great gamble of Tim Butt's career paid further huge dividends yesterday.
The 33-year-old Canterbury horseman has never been scared to put his head on the block, setting up a Sydney stable four years ago, at a stage when his main stable was in its adolescence.
He continued to back his talent this year, by investing heavily in a new property which would be enough to sink most trainers.
They were bold moves from a young trainer, but that is how Butt and his brother Anthony want to live.
"I know I could have taken things easy but I want to give this a real go. I want to be a better trainer as I get older and I want to train better horses," said Butt.
"If that means taking a gamble then that is what will have had to do."
While the Sydney stable closed, associations established there have proved a windfall, helping Butt to secure Australian owners who race horses like Pocket Me and the much-hyped juvenile Mark McGuire.
And the connections of both opened their cheque books again at Karaka yesterday, securing the two most expensive lots of the day for Butt to train.
The star of the show, as expected, was the In The Pocket half-brother to Mark McGuire who was knocked down to West Australia's Neven Botica for $140,000.
Botica, who owns Mark McGuire, also purchased one of the top lots at the Christchurch sale.
Just minutes earlier, the Sydney-based syndicate which races Pocket Me paid $100,000 for an In The Pocket son of outstanding mare Tigerish. Yesterday's top two lots took Butt's haul for the three sales days this week to 12 yearlings, over half of which were purchased for more than $50,000.
Butt draws much satisfaction from knowing his services are sought because of results and not his ability to talk owners around.
"Having Lyell Creek has been a big help for us and of course having horses like Happy Asset and Pocket Me, but now we just have to keep producing results."
To ensure that success continues Butt will spend much of his time with the young horses, leaving Anthony and stable foreman Phil Anderson travelling with Lyell Creek.
While Butt has been the big winner at this week's sales, owner Frank Cooney was understandably thrilled with the $140,000 for his top lot Wayne Gretzky.
"It is great to see him go to a top trainer," said Cooney.
Just as happy were Lindsay and Pam Turner after their muscular colt Hezatiger brought $100,000.
"We just love him. We wouldn't have wanted anything less for him but at $100,000 he is a good sale and they have got a good horse," said Pam Turner.
While yesterday's sale started slow, with few star lots in the first hour, the turning point was when Mark Purdon paid $71,000 for a Falcon Seelster colt from Gliding By.
That sparked other buyers into action and by day's end there had been some outstanding prices, with interest in fillies particularly strong.
The top filly honours were shared at $80,000 each by two daughters of In the Pocket.
The first, out of Corbie, was bought by the Gold Rush Syndicate from Central Otago while just minutes later Pukekohe trainer Steven Reid secured one of the best buys of the sale, a daughter of Cosmic Rain, a close relation to Interdominion favourite Atitagain.
In The Pocket was clearly the top stallion with 34 lots sold for an average price of over $33,000, while there was still strong money for stock of Falcon Seelster, whose 21 lots fetched an average of $21,470.
On the trotting front the six Sundons fetched an average of $10,333 while the star squaregaiting lot was the US-bred colt by Lindy Lane from Sanchiola, who was bought by Barry Purdon for Victorian trainer Chris Lang for $40,000.
While the slow start to the sale threatened the average, the strong second half took it to $18,550, a record for a Karaka standardbred yearling sale.
In total, 152 lots were sold for a turnover of $2,819,650.
Racing: Gamble paying off still
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