Tony Herlihy's name has remained ever-present in the consciousness of racing fans in the last 35 years. The Auckland-based horseman made his first visit to Waikouaiti last month, and Otago Daily Times racing/sports reporter Matt Smith grabbed a few moments with him in the drivers' room.
Harness racing has been pretty good to Anthony Grant Herlihy.
In return, the man better known as Tony Herlihy - or The Iceman, to his many fans - has provided the New Zealand harness racing scene with some of its greatest moments.
Chokin, Luxury Liner, Christopher Vance, Bella's Boy, Pride Of Petite, Comedy Lad, One Over Kenny, Delft, - that's just a snapshot of some of the great standardbreds Herlihy has steered to glory on either side of the Tasman Sea in the last three decades, making owners and punters happy.
And to be fair to Herlihy, who describes himself as ''about 53'', he wouldn't have wanted it any other way since he stole away from Te Awamutu when he was 10 to spend time with his uncle, Arnie Gadsby.
Gadsby was stable foreman for the legendary Roy Purdon. Though Herlihy may not have realised it at the time, Purdon and his family would become an integral part of his own life.
But back to Herlihy's own family for a moment, and his uncle Arnie.
''He went out private training for a fellow called Ted Bennett who had Captain Harcourt and all the Captain horses back in those days,'' Herlihy said.
''I waited until there was a job there for me because he only used to work 10 or 11 horses. In those days, it was all straw [in horse] boxes and it all took a bit of time.''
The job came up when Herlihy was not quite 16, which meant Herlihy had to say goodbye to school - not that he was too fussed about bidding farewell to the halls of academia.
''I was quite happy - and school was quite happy to see me go, too,'' Herlihy chuckled.
It did not take long for Herlihy to go from a stable hand to earning his driving stripes, and his first win came at Cambridge in 1978 - appropriately enough behind Gymea Gold for his future employer, Len Bayer.
''I stayed with Arnie for quite a few years and I used to drive quite a bit for Len Bayer. So [I] trained for a couple of years on his property in my own name when I came out of being a junior driver.''
Herlihy's training stint in the mid-1980s was brief but he prepared seven winners in just over two seasons before the familiar name of Roy Purdon came knocking again.
''I had been driving off and on a little bit for Roy, but Owen and Barry [Purdon's sons] were driving for Roy, too, as well as Peter Wolfenden and other drivers.''
The offer was for Herlihy to work a team of horses from Purdon's second Clevedon property, which worked well before Herlihy joined up with Roy and Barry back at the main property.
''That accommodated for about 60 or 70 horses in those days and I was more or less fulltime driving.''
The 1986 Auckland Cup winner, Comedy Lad, was the first of a string of great pacers Herlihy teamed up with from the mid-1980s.
''I drove him before that as a 4yr-old, and went on from there and kept the drive.
''He won the Auckland Cup and a lot of other races. He was a great horse.''
Comedy Lad's win came the season after Herlihy cracked 100 driving wins in a season. After managing 87 wins in the 1985-86 season, Herlihy went on a run of 11 successive 100-win seasons.
''A big launching point was going to work for Roy and Barry and I had a lot of bigger and better drives,'' Herlihy said.
The Purdon family by this stage had now formed a strong link with Herlihy, who had taken a shine to Roy and Margaret's daughter, Suzanne, when he first worked with his uncle and Roy Purdon as a teenager.
''I'd known Suzanne for a few years before that - she had been away to Australia working - and when she came back, we ended up getting together eventually.''
The couple's four children - Mark, Angela, Richard and Rachael - have varying levels of interest in the horses, with oldest son Mark forging his own career in harness racing in Canada.
Herlihy considers himself ''privileged'' to have driven horses such as Christopher Vance, Luxury Liner and Tight Connection, but his eyes light up when the conversation turns to Chokin.
''In the end, he had a few problems, but Chokin was probably the all-round top horse,'' Herlihy said.
''Luxury Liner was a great stayer, but Chokin had the supreme ability of speed and a heap of stamina.''
If there was a horse who encapsulated the soaring highs and dark lows of harness racing, it may have been Chokin. The gelding won 34 of his 59 starts, but his career could best be defined by the 1991 and 1993 Miracle Miles at the tight Harold Park circuit in Sydney.
Chokin swept all before him in the spring of 1991 as a 3yr-old before heading to Sydney and simply could not cope against older and tougher horses, collapsing before he could get near the line, while Herlihy was winning the race with Christopher Vance.
A tendon injury two months later put a line through the rest of his 3yr-old season.
Two years later, redemption came at the same venue, but Herlihy wonders what the 3yr-old failure took out of him.
''It was just disappointing he missed so much in the interim. If he hadn't gone there [to the 1991 Miracle Mile], he could have been a superstar - which he was anyway - but he probably would have won the derbies and all that as a 3yr-old.''
Chokin's 1993 New Zealand Cup triumph provided Herlihy with one of his three victories in the New Zealand classic - the other two being Luxury Liner (1988) and Christopher Vance (1991) - which all came during his purple patch with the Purdons.
His connection continued when he and brother-in-law Mark Purdon bought the property where Herlihy is based now, with Purdon providing the polish and Herlihy pulling the reins.
''When Mark moved south about 10 or 11 years ago, I was quite happy to work for Barry,'' he said.
''But my wife was quite keen for us to give it a try and we had the property so we took it over from Mark. Most of the owners stayed with me and it all worked out pretty good.''
''Pretty good'' is probably on the gentle side of self-praise. Herlihy has trained more than 660 winners in almost 13 seasons, at a strike rate which would be envied by most other trainers in the industry.
When asked to pick a favourite horse he has trained, Herlihy had several reasons to choose 2003 Victoria Derby winner Bella's Boy.
''I owned half of him with John Seaton and had a couple of good trips away with him.
''He won us good money in those days when we needed it, and we sold him for good money, too.
''I actually bred a foal to him [Ohoka Du Nord] and won a race with him and sold that as well, so he never stopped earning for me.''
Herlihy hasn't stopped adding to his achievements, including an acknowledgment outside the racing industry when he was made a Member of the New Zealand Order Of Merit in 2012.
He and long-time rival and friend Maurice McKendry are the only drivers with more than 3000 wins to their name, although Herlihy is five years younger and has a buffer of more than 200 wins on McKendry.
But he knows whenever he gives up the reins, his record won't last for long thanks to Dexter Dunn, who already has 1200 wins at the age of 24.
''With Dexter going the way he is - and he's still young - records are there to be broken which is what happens.
''It's great to see those young guys coming through and they're keen and dedicated to it and love their driving.''
Tony Herlihy: Roll of honour
New Zealand Cup: 3 (Luxury Liner, Christopher Vance, Chokin).
Auckland Cup: 8 (Comedy Lad, Luxury Liner (twice), Christopher Vance, Chokin (twice), Sharp And Telford, Gotta Go Cullen).
New Zealand Derby: 2 (Badlands Bute, Fly Like An Eagle).
Northern Derby: 4 (Godfrey, Christopher Vance, Badlands Bute, Ohoka Punter).
Rowe Cup: 4 (Gee du Jour, Diamond Field, One Over Kenny (twice)).
Dominion Handicap: 1 (Directorship).
Interdominion trot final: 4 (Diamond Field, Pride Of Petite, Buster Hanover, Delft).
