Australian harness racing doesn’t have an overabundance of books written about its champions and the latest Our Mate Smolda by Marcus Kirkwood is more than a tome about one of the outstanding horses of the past decade – it is a book about the tragedies of life and the human spirit which overcomes these tragedies.
Marcus Kirkwood has pottered about with pacers for some 40 years but harness racing took a backwards step as Marcus and his wife Sharon raised their four sons and looked after the family stock feed business.
Their second son Tom was diagnosed with medulloblastoma, a brain tumour at the age of nine not long after his older brother Sam finished treatment for acute lymphoblastic leukaemia.
Tom, who had a great love of horses, battled the tumour for nine years before losing the battle on the eve of his eighteenth birthday.
Not long after Tom’s passing Marcus Kirkwood made the decision to again become involved in harness racing and began looking at yearlings by a stallion he had a soft spot for – Courage Under Fire.
There were a number in the 2010 Melbourne Australian Pacing Gold catalogue and shortly thereafter he noticed an advertisement for a share in a Courage Under Fire yearling on Mark Purdon’s All Stars website. Intrigued, he enquired through the website.
He was somewhat surprised when Mark Purdon called him and explained about the yearling and that while longtime clients Glenys and Philip Kennard and Neil Pilcher had taken two shares there was one available. It didn’t take Marcus long to begin what was to be the ride of his life.
Fate plays a hand in a lot of horse stories and Smolda’s was no different. The colt had originally been sold and then a bid dispute saw him put back in the ring.
Mark Purdon had already bought a yearling at the sale but it was for less than his budget and a single bid of $53,000 saw the Courage Under Fire NZ colt head across the Tasman for the first of some 14 flights across the ditch.
Unraced as a two year old Smolda retired in 2017 in New Zealand as a rising nine year old with a record of 68 starts which yielded 32 wins and 23 placings and stakes of $2,558,544 in a career which included victory in the 2016 Inter Dominion Final at Gloucester Park.
Those 32 wins included nine at Group One level and a host of annual honours including New Zealand 3yo Pacing Colt/Gelding of the Year, Australian Harness Horse of the Year and twice New Zealand Aged Pacing Horse/Gelding of the Year.
Smolda set track records in the majority of his Group One wins and these came in New Zealand, Victoria, Western Australia, South Australia and New South Wales which is in itself remarkable and in his second win in the Group One Ballarat Cup he became the only horse to beat Lennytheshark and Lazarus in the same race.
Smolda was an eight year old at the time of this win and he was giving the four year old Lazarus some head start in terms of age.
In Smolda’s 3yo campaign Mark Purdon decided that the now gelding would tackle the New South Wales Derby and Marcus felt that Smolda could become an ambassador for the Children’s Cancer Institute Australia and race in colours bearing the Institute’s logo.
Not only was the Cancer Institute happy for their logo to be used and Marcus was delighted when his New Zealand partners in Smolda were delighted to be involved.
Again fate seemed to have a hand in the matter as Glenys and Philip Kennard were longtime supporters of the Child Cancer Foundation New Zealand.
Mark Purdon was also happy for his All Stars silks to be used as the basis for a set of Australian colours which incorporated the CCIA logo while also featuring the words “Our Mate Tom” on the cuffs.
Not only has Smolda become the catalyst for Tom’s story being known across both islands of New Zealand and in five Australian States but the Kirkwood family, with the support of their community in Singleton in New South Wales, have raised more than $800,000 for fight against children’s cancer.
Our Mate Smolda not only includes Marcus Kirkwood’s story about his champion but also features chapters from a number of people who have documented their memories of their mate Smolda.
As for Smolda in retirement – he now resides on Marcus and Sharon Kirkwood’s property at Singleton in the Hunter Valley of New South Wales. With an adoring owner who has a stock feed business and a paddock full of green grass life couldn’t be any better for Smolda and his mates.
Our Mate Smolda can be purchased online from the website at a cost of $35 which includes postage in Australia https://www.ourmatesmolda.com.au/product/our-mate-smolda/
Alternatively copies will shortly be available from Garrards.
