A ride down memory lane: George Simon

With our history spanning over 160 years, we thought it high time to ask a few (not so old!) friends of Ellerslie to recall their favourite memories of racing here at ‘The Big E’.

Today we chat to ‘the voice of Ellerslie’ George Simon.

Says George on his favourite Ellerslie memory…

My personal fondest memory at Ellerslie concerns a horse we raced with a bunch of friends called Midnitemagicman.

Midnitemagicman’s ownership group came about in a slightly unconventional way when, after a few ales drunk in honour of a horse that had passed away, my wife Marianne declared to all present that it was time to get back on the horse (metaphorically!) and proceeded to dish out various ownership percentages to the group of friends, free of charge I might add!

Midnitemagicman subsequentially started racing and won at Ellerslie on New Year’s Day with James McDonald aboard.

I remember calling the race and just watching ‘JMac’ weave his magic on the horse we nicknamed Travis. He was about knee high to a grasshopper but gee he had a big heart.

Two months after that maiden win on New Years Day, Midnitemagicman covered himself in glory when a brave fourth in the New Zealand Derby behind two of the best we’ve seen in recent years, Mongolian Khan and Volkstoknbarrell .

On the strength of that effort Midnitemagicman was purchased by Hong Kong interests – a great result for his ownership group and he provided all of us with several great Ellerslie memories!

‘JMac’ aboard Midnitemagicman here at Ellerslie at the 2015 New Year’s Day Races