His father died in NZ last month
Racing legend Peter Wolfenden, whose fame transcended harness racing, has died.
One of the greatest drivers in New Zealand history and the man who guided the career of the best-ever Australasian standardbred in Cardigan Bay, Wolfenden passed away after a brief illness, aged 88.
He won a remarkable 14 New Zealand drivers’ premierships, Inter Dominions, New Zealand and Auckland Cups, and for three decades, had no peer as a driver.
“He was phenomenal,” says New Zealand’s most successful reinsman Tony Herlihy.
“When I started driving, Wolfie was the best and would have been the best anywhere. He was a great, great driver. Very fair out on the track but you knew there was something different about him, something special.”
The winner of 1762 races driving in New Zealand, back when there was often only one meeting a week, Wolfenden was quietly spoken but respected worldwide.
For all his talent, recognised with an MBE, it is his association with Downunder’s greatest pacer Cardigan Bay, the first standardbred in the world to win $1 million, that made him a household name.
“Dad was on The Ed Sullivan Show with Cardigan Bay in the 1960s, he used to be on the front page of the Herald often,” says son Glen. “As kids when we grew up, it was normal to us, but he was famous in racing all over the world. He didn’t talk about it much and he rarely discussed the great horses like Cardy, but we knew everything about them because everybody else talked about them.
“But when he did talk about them, Cardigan Bay aside, the one horse he loved talking about was Armalight [the 1981 NZ Cup winner], who he said was a great mare. Dad was a wonderful trainer, he had a great eye for detail and keeping the horses healthy, but when we started training together, he pulled back from the driving a bit.”
