Our Pegasus Pearl Proving A Thriller for Morrison
Rob Courtney
Blenheim trainer Don Morrison must be disappointed that the Manawatu harness racing season is coming to an end with winter approaching.
Although he has held a public trainer’s licence since the early 90’s, the Blenheim horseman has only ever had a couple in work at any one time, usually his own, and the updated stable win total now sits at 26 courtesy of the impressive double scored by his little trotter Our Pegasus Pearl (Pegasus Spur – Earl’s Lady) at Manawatu this week.
Alan Brown, Tony Thomas and Andre Poutama with Our Pegasus Pearl
(c) Peter Rubery
In fact, there have been five wins in the last four seasons (none in 2023) and all 5 were delivered by his bonny mare with 4 of those coming at the Manawatu raceway.
Bred by Woodlands Stud Our Pegasus Pearl is by the underrated Pegasus Spur from Earl’s Lady and now aged seven, is in the best form of her life with six wins & 13 placings collecting $67k in stakes. Three of those wins have come in her last five starts.
Morrison should be smiling right now, because she should make a nice broodmare when the racing career finishes and when one explores her pedigree further, there is some real value in this pedigree page.
Her dam Earl’s Lady (not surprisingly by Earl) won seven for Manawatu trainer Stephen Doody with nearly $51k in the bank.
She in turn was from Lady Odette (Armbro Invasion – Pride Of Dee) who was bred by Milburn Farms in Mid Canterbury and was good enough to win three times for Mike Berger when he trained with Warren Rich in the ‘north’.
Ironically, Mike Berger called time on his training career at the same Manawatu meeting last Thursday and finished with aplomb, training two winners on the night.
The best horse left by Lady Odette was clearly the grand old trotter Charlemagne who for the late Colin Butler won 16 and with a further 29 placings, accumulated $278k in stakes. Arguably, the best moment of his career was running a 1:55.9 mile and upsetting in the ‘Jewels’ at Ashburton back in 2013.
John Dickie and his family bred Pride Of Dee (by Game Pride) from their top mare Thriller Dee who won 24 races and $120k back in the late 70’s and early 80’s when that kind of money would have been a small fortune.
Often driven by the ‘master’ PT Wolfenden, she raced in the best Group races of her time against the likes of Sir Castleton, Basil Dean and Aussie star Scotch Notch to name just a few. She won 7 races at 3 then 7 races at 7 in her last season of racing.
But wait…….there’s more !
Thriller Dee was by Crockett from Gay Marlene and a half to Marlene Dee (by Great Evander), again bred by the Dickies. As a broodmare the latter left 6 handy winners but the most valuable of them turned out to be Chiquita Dee (2 placings from 7 starts) and by Pernod Eden.
Chiquita Dee left 5 winners including Uncas (10 wins + $113k) but most notably Stardon for Colin and Nancy Hair who has gone on to leave the 3x Dominion Handicap winner and millionaire trotter Sundee’s Son (34 wins + $1.4M) and his full sister Sunny’s Sister (7 wins + $184k) after winning both the trotting Derby and trotting Oaks last season as a 3yo.
This family is ‘littered’ with winners and there some champion horses to boot. Don Morrison and his family should look forward to the future with their ‘Pearl’ and with good reason, as there are likely to be more chapters added to this story.