Claim and counter claim were yesterday echoing around southern sheep yards as trainers vied for a place in the history books of the fledgling sheep racing industry.
It began with Christchurch woolclasser David Cone saying at the weekend he had what he believed was New Zealand's, and possibly the world's, first sheep racing team.
That, theoretically, put the international spotlight on the 12-sheep team's first outing, at the Brighton Gala Day on Sunday.
But Mr Cone's claims have been challenged by Otago sheep racing interests who point out that, not only did sheep race at last year's Taieri A and P Show, they will also be in the programme this Saturday, 24 hours before the Brighton event.
John Miller, owner of the Taieri team of seven crossbred ewes and one lamb, said last year's event had proven extremely popular with show crowds who were able to bet - via a Rotary club-operated equalisator - on the outcome of five races over 200m.
Mr Miller (65) said he had begun racing sheep as a boy on the family's Maungatua farm but moved into the public arena for the first time last year.
"I've been playing with racing sheep for 60 years, put it that way."
Mr Cone said yesterday his sheep would arrive at a location south of Dunedin tomorrow and would be training at Brighton on Saturday in readiness for Sunday's series of 80m races, which will also have an equalisator.
He was unequivocal about the event's place in history.
Otago Daily Times: "Do you know of any other sheep race that has ever taken place before?"
Mr Cone: "Never."
When later told of last year's Taieri event, Mr Cone responded simply: "Oh, was there? I didn't know that."
Mr Cone said his Perendale-cross sheep included rams, ewes and lambs and he had spent three years training them.
Taieri show promoter Hazel Murtagh said the Taieri show's racing sheep carried stuffed-toy jockeys, while Mr Cone's racing sheep "only" had numbers painted on their sides.
