Racing: Shoji a shot in the arm

Some mornings Earl Harrison can't get out of bed. Fortunately they are in winter.

He now has a fresh incentive to get his feet on the floor - Shoji, a $51.15 winner at the Matamata last Saturday.

Shoji appears under the name of the former Waikato-based jockey, but in reality much of the work is done by his partner Annette because of the arthritis Earl Harrison suffers as a result of the back injury that ended his career in the saddle.

"The back pain is so bad I can't get out of bed some winter mornings," says Harrison.

There won't be much of that in the near future as Harrison sets lofty targets, including 3-year-old stakes races in the autumn.

Shoji is having a short break and will be aimed at summer and spring racing with the idea of possibly getting a run in the Auckland Racing Club's relocated Derby in March.

"I don't know yet if he's good enough, but I'm sure he'll stay. He's out of a Sound Reason mare who has left 10 individual winners.

"If you can run a middle distance these days you've already got half of them beaten because most young horses are being bred to sprint.

"We don't breed stayers any more."

It's no surprise the one horse in the stable carries a Japanese name - Harrison's partner runs a home stay, catering for young Japanese coming to New Zealand through Rural Tourism to learn English.

That level of diversity is nothing new for Harrison.

When still riding in 1989 he took over the lease of Cambridge's Masonic Hotel.

"I continued to ride for nine months and in the finish it got too much, so I retired from riding."

Five years later and out of the pub, he took out his licence again and made a successful comeback, riding work at the Cambridge track and at Alan Jones' private training establishment.
A fall from a stunt horse while filming a Joker Poker television advertisement ended all that.

"I broke my pelvis in four places and broke my tailbone."

He bought land opposite the Cambridge training track and dabbled with Annette in a successful bar venture.

Harrison built a stable block on his property, which is now leased by trainer Don Sellwood.

He bought Shoji for $3000 as a foal still on his mother at an Ashwell Farm dispersal sale and passed him in for $10,500 at the yearling sale.

"We wanted $12,000 so we decided to race him."

He took into partnership his bank manager Graham Moir and his wife Joy, Brisbane lawyer Mike O'Connor and his wife Rosa and Michelle Walk, whose husband John is a Brisbane trainer.

"Mike and Rosa home-stayed with us to get away from the Queensland summer heat, fell in love with Cambridge, and have been back six times."

You can bet a lot of money the pair will be back again in March if Shoji makes the Derby field.