Ivan Court……Spuds & Horses

Rob Courtney

Ivan Court, brother of Graham & Brian, all sons of Royce Jnr, has been in the ‘racing game’ for as long as he can remember but modestly, even after training 90 winners, he sees himself as a farmer who has horses.

He vividly recalls working 1200 acres back in the day but present day, he is ‘famous’ for growing potatoes, onions, barley & grass seed on 300 acres at Ladbrooks.

While brother Graham (of Terror To Love fame) didn’t think enough of his father’s Lustre breed to keep it going, Ivan did.

After all, it had been a steady stream of winners in the 60s and Lustre Scott (8 wins) is one that came to mind straight away.

The other memory of horses trained by Royce Court Jnr was that they were always immaculate when presented to the races.

Ivan has fond memories of True Lustre (True Averil – Bonnie Lustre) to Adover Rainbow, leaving Adover Lustre who was the very first horse to go sub 2 mins at Macau.

Vermeer Lustre, Court’s latest winner

While now several generations removed, Court’s latest winner in Vermeer Lustre (Art Major – Valor Lustre) traces directly back to these bloodlines.

He has a full-time helper with the horses in Roger Batey who has a share in Comic Lustre (Sky Major – Atomic Lustre) who duly obliged at just her 2nd start at Methven back in November.

Court has become quite a fan of Sky Major & has 3 of his broodmares returning to his court (no pun intended) this very breeding season.

Shepherd’s Delight (3 wins to date) is another of the progeny of Sky Major that the trainer has had success with.

Shepards Delight winning at Ashburton, May 2024. Court is a big fan of the progeny of SKY MAJOR

He has 9 mares on the books and 7 of them are off to stud this time around. ‘Queen’ of that group is probably Valor Lustre (McArdle – Regal Lustre / 9 wins + $106k) and she is due anytime to Always B Miki, another stallion Court has much time for.

Unfortunately, her first foal, Forte Lustre (by Sweet Lou) died a short time ago after showing any amount of promise but alas was only able to grace the racetrack on 2 occasions after having a number of issues along the way before his untimely demise.

Silk Lustre is due to Downbytheseaside this season but the horse that has the Ladbrooks trainer really excited is Edict (3g Sky Major – Domina)

“He has run a couple of placings in 5 starts but knows nothing and has yet to understand what it takes to be a racehorse. He is a handful at home and would be the strongest pacer I have ever had anything to do with,” Court explained.

By his own admission, Court is not a fan of pushing horses early into 2yo racing (especially for bonuses) and his memory suggested that he had only ever won 1 2yo race in 36 years of training.

What his horses are famous for, though, are their standing start manners. On many occasions you will see an Ivan Court runner begin brilliantly and be several lengths clear after 200m. He wouldn’t tell this writer his secret but continued by stating that it was no training out of the ordinary.

If he had a ‘gripe’ with the current industry, it would be around the professionalism (or lack of) of some clubs and what they offer to the industry participants on raceday itself.

“I am happy to pay for good service from neat & well-presented people in clean & tidy facilities but personally I think some clubs here in the South Island let themselves down,” he added.

The last comment is a genuine remark from a man who is quite unique in modern day harness racing.

In a time when the costs of racing a horse continue to rise and enthusiasts elect to join larger ownership groups with small ownership shares, Ivan Court not only breeds the horse and trains the horse, he very often owns 100% of the horse.

And many of those horses do win races!