The death occurred recently of successful owner-trainer John Mason.
Mason, who was in his mid-70s, was a great nephew of legendary horseman Dick Mason, who in 2006 was inducted to the New Zealand Racing Hall of Fame in recognition of his training achievements in the early years of last century when he pioneered travel to Australia.
His most famous horse was fellow Hall of Fame member Gloaming, the post-World War 1 winner of the Great Northern and Australian Derby amongst a host of big wins on both sides of the Tasman.
John Mason believed firmly in establishing fitness levels to enable his horses to succeed, which included working his horses through the firebreaks of the Kinleith Forest south of Tokoroa.
An early winner was Tallifer, who he campaigned in Melbourne during the early 1980s and which led to him becoming acquainted with Tommy Woodcock, a protégé of Dick Mason who was to gain fame as the strapper of the 1930s Kiwi-bred icon Phar Lap.
Years later Mason made headlines in the Waikato Times when he revealed to racing editor Aidan Rodley that Woodcock had confided in him the cause of Phar Lap’s mysterious death after winning his first start in North America.
According to Mason, Woodcock revealed the facts about the trip back to California from the champion galloper’s Agua Caliente Handicap victory in Mexico, on condition that it could not be revealed until after Woodcock’s death.
“He said they were coming back from Mexico and Phar Lap hadn’t had any grass for a couple of weeks,” Mason told Rodley in late 2009.
“Driving down the road they spotted this paddock of lucerne. They took the horse off the float and gave him a big feed of lucerne. He got a crook guts that night and died.
“They panicked so they came up with the story that the horse was poisoned, to cover their butts.”
Retired Hall of Fame jockey Noel Harris wore Mason’s orange and white quartered colours to numerous wins, including the 2002 Winter Cup at Riccarton and Kiwifruit Cup at Tauranga on Real Vision, and the 2005 Taumarunui Cup at Te Rapa on Danzaman.
Both hardy geldings typified the Mason methodology of getting his horses fit and then leaving the rest to the horse and rider.
“John was someone who pulled no punches, he was a very confident sort of guy,” Harris recalled.
“He was an old-school horseman who wasn’t scared to take on the good horses, and when you were on one of his you always knew it wouldn’t lack for fitness.
“The thing I remember about winning the Winter Cup on Real Vision was that the horse deserved it and so did John.
“Getting to know him over the years, I realised he was one of the real characters in racing, those genuine people who made racing back in the day; John was definitely one of them.”
Mason’s last win as a trainer was the Rangitikei Gold Cup at Awapuni in July 2020 with the Irish-bred former Hong Kong galloper My Gift.
