TALENTED Tasmanian-owned and trained pacer Our Chain Of Command powered his way into the record books at Menangle in NSW last Sunday when he outgunned a quality field in the Group 3 $40,000 Pacer’s Cup over 1609 metres.
Our Chain Of Command motored home to set a world record mile rate for a standing start over the metric mile, stopping the clock at 1m.55.4s.
The six-year-old is a former Group 1 Tasmania Cup winner (2010) when in the care of Dean Braun but in February he was purchased by a group of Hobart harness racing enthusiasts and dispatched to the care of talented Tasmanian trainer Juanita McKenzie who prepares a small but select team at her Magra training complex.
When the gelding landed in McKenzie’s stable he had not won a race for over a year but within four months she has prepared him to win the Golden Mile in Launceston in race record time and this latest feat that puts both horse and trainer in an elite group.
Historians are still sifting through the record books to try and find the last Tasmanian owned and trained horse to hold a world record mile rate.
The gelding was reunited with experienced Victorian reinsman Chris Alford who had driven Our Chain Of Command in nearly all of his early races when trained by Braun.
Our Chain Of Command is owned in partnership by Jamie Cockshutt, Barry Cooper, Steve Allie and Ross Payne.
“Winning the feature race at Menangle was good enough but for him to run a world record was just incredible,” Cockshutt said.
“I know there aren’t many standing start mile races run but a world record is a world record and we’ll take it,” he said.
Our Chain Of Command was bred in New Zealand and purchased as a tried four-year-old by his original trainer (Braun) and while in his care the gelding won eight of his first 10 starts in Australia including the Group 1 Tasmania Cup.
Cockshutt also has a share in Tasmania’s star free-for-aller Our Sir Jeckyl and when that horse was dispatched to NSW trainer Paul Fitzpatrick for a campaign in that state he was on the lookout for a replacement.
“I was looking around for another horse and I came up with this one that was trained by Dean Braun but was racing here in Tasmania at the time,” Cockshutt said.
“I heard he might be for sale because his form had gone off but I just had a feeling that we might be able to get him back to where he was when he won the Tasmania Cup two years ago.”
“He won the Golden Mile at his second start for us so we have only owned him since late April,” he said.
McKenzie had been training the gelding during his Tasmanian campaign for her former partner Braun so when Cockshutt and his partners bought the horse they decided to leave him with McKenzie who was familiar with all of the horse’s idiosyncrasies.
The Menangle exercise was a hit and run mission. Our Chain Of Command will return to Tasmania later this week.