Master

CASTLETON'S MISSION
8/10/1997 to 23/12/2006

CASTLETON'S MISSION WINS From the ChCh Press
Castleton's Mission was dream come true for Mike Gourdies's Trotting New Zealand Syndicate when he caused a huge upset in the $20,000 NRM Sires Stakes Championship. The Sundon gelding, closely related to former Interdominion trotting champion Sir Castleton, only gained inclusion to the field after West Melton trainer Michael House made the long trek to Oamaru last Sunday with the talented, but nervy youngster. He returned from Oamaru, mission accomplished, with Castleton's Mission winning the two horse qualifier, and doing everything right. House requested that Castleton's Mission be made unruly for future engagements after galloping at the start of last weeks Addington non-tote lead up, and he kept the horse out of the early hustle and bustle. Hot favourite Dependable extinguished all but 416 pick six tickets when he broke soon after the start, losing all winning chance. House moved Castleton's Mission round to be in the open down the back straight the final time and he was travelling sweetly outside the leader turning for home. Castleton's Mission drew clear by a length to win with a jubilant House raising his whip in triumph. Sundel, which led out, then trailed for Murray Edmonds, ralied well for second, with Glowing Gold holding third. Adding further lustre to the victory, Castleton's Mission trotted the mobile 1950m in 2:30.2, which lowered the New Zealand two year old colts and geldings mark, established a week earlier by Dependable, by 0.2 of a second.

Mission goes close to record
Castleton's Mission, a close relative of 1984 Interdominion trotting champion Sir Castleton, went within 0.3s of the New Zealand three-year-old trotters mile mark at Ashburton yesterday. The Michael House trained and Colin deFilippi-driven Castleton's Mission trotted the mile in 1:59.7, but would have broken the record held by Now Another Look if he had been pushed. A gelding by Sundon, who sired the first six to finish in the $25,000 Hambletonian Classic, sponsored by Roydon Lodge, the home of Sundon, Castleton's Mission had a three-wide trail until the home turn. In the straight he cruised clear to win by a length and a quarter from outsider Prince Sundon, who tried gamely to lead throughout, and favourite Dependable, who ran on late from midfield. Andandon, who had won his previous seven including his last six in Australia, was left in the open and battled away to finish fourth.Castleton's Mission, a $9000 New Zealand premier yearling sales buy two years ago by Mike Gourdie, was then syndicated and is raced by the Trotting New Zealand syndicate. "We will be back at this years sale in March after this win," Gourdie said.Castleton's Mission, who gave the syndicate early excitement winning the Sires Stakes Trotters Championship at Addington last May, then had a few problems with his gait later, has not put a foot wrong this term being unbeaten in two starts. from the Sunday Star Times Feb 11 2001.

Castleton's Mission makes Dashing Return To Racing
Castleton’s Mission made a statement and Michael House made it happen when the pair made mincemeat of the opposition in a slow-class trot at Rangiora last week. On his day, Castleton’s Mission is better than good, and his performance to win by 10 lengths after a 16-month absence from racing was a sign of it. Of course, they were there long ago, during his career at two and three, when he won the Sires’ Stakes Final at two, and the Hambletonian Classic over a mile in 1.59.7 at three. Last season, at four, there was no sign of him at all, as House battled to cure a repeating quarter crack in his near front foot. Three times in the summer he took him to trials which he won, but it opened during the third of them, and House went home to figure what he could do next. Syndicate manager Mike Gourdie sat back and watched with admiration as House searched for an answer. “During the nights, Michael would sit on the internet, looking for a solution to the problem, and we think he’s found it - an aluminium heart-bar shoe from the UK. He also got boots for him from Italy and a bit from America, so there’s a bit of an international flavour to him at present. “And during the days, he has spent endless hours with him. “What this has meant, is that he has turned down horses no doubt easier to train to spend more time with horses that are potentially better,” he said.House did not step him off the property until raceday. Gourdie, who has been an owner with the stable since 1996, heard House tell him something he had never heard before. “If you want to have a bet,” House told him, “this horse will not get beaten.” “He’d had a long, slow build-up. He was always going to be ready,” said Gourdie .Considered by many to have one of the best 400m sprints in the business, Castleton’s Mission now has his sights on bigger targets. Firstly, he races on Premier night at Addington next Friday with possibly a run on the grass at Methven to follow. “Then we’ll look at the Flying Mile at Ashburton,” said Gourdie. “We are prepared to stand up against the big boys,” he said.Castleton’s Mission is raced by the Trotting NZ Syndicate which paid $9000 for him as a Sundon yearling at the PGG sale. The NZ Trotting Syndicate paid $17,000 for his brother this year,and Gourdie says he is identical in every way .“One of our new shareholders in the horse is Rose Harrison, whose father was Mawson McPherson, owner and trainer of the brilliant trotter, Sir Castleton. “She feeds the old horse every day, and has been invaluable with the bits of information she’s been able to give us about various members of the family,” Gourdie said.

Stars shine bright in Dunedin
It was to be a big show down in little Dunedin. The clash between up and coming trotting stars Westland Sun and Castleton’s Mission was anxiously awaited but never happened. Westland Sun was at his cantankerous best and stood on the mark at the start but that wasn’t enough to get Castleton’s Mission the win. The upsetter was game four-year-old mare One Under Kenny who trotted the first sub 4.10 3200 metres in the history of Forbury Park Trotting Club. Her winning time of 4.09.5 took 1.6 seconds off the previous best record at Forbury.One Under Kenny made a lightning beginning from the top of the straight starting point and never looked back. Trainer-driver Phil Williamson kept up the even sectionals and it was enough to get her the win. She did need to dig deep though as Castleton’s Mission made a spirited bid from the 800-metre mark. One Under Kenny was recording just her fourth win but those who know are sure that she’ll win many more. Castleton’s Mission did his Inter-Dominion ranking no harm with a 4.08.2 3200m himself but a win would have helped his crusade no end to get into the top 24.

Mickey Mouse on a Mission to scale mountain by Frank Marrion
Michael House is feeling a lot happier now about Castleton’s Mission than he was a few weeks ago.The exciting Sundon 5-year-old had a week off after downing the equally promising Westland Sun at Addington on February 14, a race that effectively qualified him for the Inter-Dominion, but he was sore the day he resumed work and House feared the worse.“He’s had a problem with quarter cracks for longer than I care to remember, and in that week the problem seemed to bubble and resurface,” says House.“But we’ve got on top of it and today he’s very good - there’s no heat in his feet and he’s sharp and happy about life,” he added last Friday.Until resuming on January 3, from which point Castleton’s Mission has won twice and been second twice, it had been a rocky road since the gelding had locked horns as a 2 and 3-year-old with the likes of Dependable, Martina H, Sunease, Supreme Pat and All Action Son in what was a bumper crop of youngsters.He did not race for 17 months, and it wasn’t but for trying.“After his 3-year-old season came to an end (when third in the Trotting Stakes in April, ‘01), we figured we’d give him a good spell and just half a dozen starts at four, then do the Cup thing and the Inter-Dom thing.”The first set back to this plan though came in January of last year when in the third of three winning trials, Castleton’s Mission came off the track with blood streaming from a hoof.After going back to the drawing board, where there was also a realisation that “we had the fastest horse in the country who was still just a c2 and hadn’t seen a stand yet,” Castleton’s Mission resumed at Rangiora last September and jogged home by 12 lengths. A fortnight later, he was in trouble again though.“Three times we’d brought him up and three times he’d popped a quarter crack.”It was on December 1 that Castleton’s Mission began a countdown to the Inter-Doms, where “there wasn’t much room to manoeuvre,” but apart from the hiccup a few weeks ago, things have gone well.In four starts, three of them from a stand, he has looked rock solid, although he is “still inclined to get excited and over race.”Apart from importing special shoes from England, an aluminium heart bar shoe which are now also worn by Sly Flyin, House concentrates on “sweating the feet a lot.”“The problem is the drought - it’s been so dry that the ground will suck the feet dry in an hour.“The secret is the frog - keeping it moist, pliable, alive and working.“If you have a rock hard frog, there’s sharp shock going right up the leg.”Another aspect of keeping Castleton’s Mission on track is House driving him, which he has done since Rangiora after Colin De Filippi was normally at the helm in the 3-year-old features.“I have all the admiration in the world for Colin and would have him driving every horse if I could.“But I need to be driving him so if something’s not quite right, I know where we’re at.“You can have a driver relaying info on little things, but it’s just not the same and I wasn’t comfortable with it.“I spend three hours a day with the horse and take him to the beach everyday, and I couldn’t justify putting that much effort in unless I could do the whole job thoroughly.”House, who drove a couple of winners as a junior in the mid-80s, concentrated almost entirely on training until about five years ago.In that time, 16 of his 19 career wins have come from 160-odd drives, including six of Castleton’s Mission’s seven career wins to date.House is confident that Castleton’s Mission will handle racing four times in three weeks, safely through the first night.“He’ll improve with a run on the first night, and once we’re into racing every week, you don’t have to do much with them in between.“We’ll just be following them around, trying to be in the right place at the right time, and waiting to pounce.”

Almost, but not quite by John Robinson HRW
Michael House thought he’d won it. For a couple of brief, heart-pumping moments, the West Melton horseman grappled with the realisation that he’d pulled off the impossible and won himself an Inter-Dominion Trotters’ Grand Final. Having peeled off Take A Moment’s back at the top of the home straight, and edged closer and closer to him in the sprint to the line, House extracted one last lunge out of Castleton’s Mission and thought he’d got up. But he hadn’t, and the flourish of the whip that he gave soon after proved unjustified. Perched in a sulky much shorter than Take A Moment’s, House came back to earth with a thump as he realised his mistake.... appearing to be ahead of rival driver Anthony Butt at the post was no cause for celebration. A horrible case of being so close, and yet so far away. Regardless of the fact that he didn’t carry off the major prize, Castleton’s Mission’s whole Inter-Dominion campaign is still an amazing story; a tale about how a self-confessed battler and his injury-plagued youngster came within six inches of winning the biggest race of their careers. House shared the same opinion as everybody else, that there was definitely one horse to beat. And in the week leading up to the Grand Final, he certainly burned his fair share of midnight oil trying to figure out a way how. “I sat up night after night, thinking about it,” he said. “Ants (Anthony Butt) was always going to haul Take A Moment back at the start, because no matter what he’s drawn in past races he’s never pushed him out of the gate. “So I just wanted to follow Take A Moment all the way, and have the last crack at him. That’s the only way you could really beat him, like when Dependable and Martina H did when they won. “And the race unfolded beautifully for us. If the pace had slackened off Ants would’ve been up and around them and gone, but it didn’t, and even the horses that got into the three-wide line starting the last lap weren’t going forward. “So I just waited for him to move. Take A Moment got pushed four-wide around the last bend, and I really needed him to use more petrol and go five-wide. “But Ants sat, he was just too cool. “You don’t really beat champions anyway, it’s normally only bad luck that does. ”Right from the start, Castleton’s Mission’s Inter-Dominion bid was a rollercoaster ride of emotions for his connections.From a brilliant fast-closing second to Take A Moment in his opening heat, to a decision to let him run off the gate over the sprint distance on night two and win in New Zealand record time, to a soul-searching performance for sixth a week out from the Grand Final - Castleton’s Mission’s campaign had it all.“If we’d have been in the Grand Final two weeks earlier, he’d have won it by two lengths,” House said, not meaning to take anything away from the eventual winner.“That third night heat killed us. He was fizzed-up after leading all the way the week before, but I was a length out of position at the start and had no intention of going forward again.“But then Gold N Gold broke inside us, and within three strides my bloke’s up amongst it. I wasn’t going to let him sit parked after that, so had no choice but to go to the front.“Then when his inside wheel got hit and punctured at the 1400 metre mark, he was choking at the noise it was making. It was screaming.”In the week leading up to last Friday’s finale, House knew he didn’t have the same horse.“He was tired.“It’s the first time he’s ever jogged on a loose rein. I even took him down the beach, and let him pick at some fresh grass during the week in an attempt to freshen him up.”And then there was the flak Castleton’s Mission’s trainer copped for asking and being allowed to place his horse on the unruly for the Grand Final.“I did what was in the best interests of the horse.“People change gear on their horses all the time; changing where he starts from is not much different.“If anything, the unruly was his rightful place. Because as a youngster he hardly raced off anything else, and I deliberately put him there to protect him.“With the speed he had at two and three I could’ve led and smashed New Zealand records by open seconds. But I didn’t, because you just end up with a horse who’s got no heart.” Despite the horse’s owners, House had other people that he wanted to win the Grand Final for. “I wanted to win it for the guy that showed enough courage and put a large five-figure fixed odds bet on him.“ And I wanted to win it for Jeff Scott from the Press, who stuck with us in his selections right through the series. I couldn’t believe that certain members of the media were dumping us after that one run.” Now that the Inter-Dominions are over, Castleton’s Mission’s next target is the City Of Sails Free-For-All/Rowe Cup double in Auckland, which he flew out for last Sunday. “All in all I was really pleased with his performances over the carnival,” House said. “After what we’d been through, I would’ve rather been beaten by two lengths than come so close and still not win. “But it was a great effort by the horse, and we felt like winners just being there. “I’m just a bum who gets lucky enough with the odd good horse now and again. And I’m looking forward to the day I win a major race with Castleton’s Mission.”

Final Mission an impossible one by Barry Lichter
Top Trotter Castleton's Mission died in south Auckland yesterday after a four day fightagainst the crippling disease Colitis X. The brilliant Canterbury squaregaiter, who had beenstabled with Geoff Small for several weeks, was humanely put down after becoming dangerously weak and dehydrated. It ended a courageous battle by the horse who started so badly midweek Samll told syndicate head Mike Gourdie he was unlikely to last another 6 hours. Castleton's Mission, the New Zealand Record holder for 1950m, fought back in the style of his best racetrack performaces, but despite constant veterinary treatment and 30 litres of fluid a day it was obvious he couldn't be saved. Gourdie spent a harrowing day phoning all dozen members of his syndicate, relaying news of the sad end to a wonderful career. "I'm absolutely gutted and I know how Michael (trainer Michael House) must be feel", said Gourdie. "He was more than a horse to Michael. He loved him, spent so much time with him, and it wasn't supposed to end this way. But everyone I've rung has said they have some wonderful memories. Hes made a lot of people happy and not just those in the syndicate." Destined never to win a Group One race, even though he won 15 of his 69 starts, Castleton's Mission nevertheless won $237,000 and waged some of the most memorable wars. Two of his best races were his second to Lyell Creek in the Dominion and that close second to Take A Moment in the Interdominion Final. Colitis X is nearly always fatal and its cause is unknown.