IN early 1984, Village Kid was spotted by Perth farrier Dudley Anderson while he was holidaying in New Zealand and it was Anderson who suggested to Bill Horn that he buy the gelding.
Horn had enjoyed a great deal of success with Black Irish for owners Gordon and Celilia Cox, including wins in a Fremantle Cup and Australia Pacing Championship, and Bill and Norma Horn joined forces with Mr and Mrs Cox to buy Village Kid for $36,000.
Village Kid retired from racing after a special ceremony at Gloucester Park on October 15,1993, with a career record on 160 starts for 93 wins, 24 seconds and 12 thirds for stakes of $2,117,870.
Village Kid turned out to be a bargain buy and the horse that all owners and trainers dream about.
Village Kid won 90 races after he came to Western Australia and was driven in 88 of those victories by Chris Lewis. Phil Coulson drove the champion to two wins.
On November 16, 1984 Village Kid recorded the first of his 47 feature race wins in the Fremantle Trotting Club’s 4yo Classic. Fittingly this was the night that the port club honoured Black Irish with an official retirement ceremony at Richmond Raceway.
Thirteen of those feature race wins came in Group One races and included the 1986 Inter Dominion Championship at Brisbane’s Albion Park track, four WA Pacing Cups, two Fremantle Cups and two Miracle Miles at Harold Park in Sydney.
Village Kid still holds the most credible record for consecutive wins with 19 straight victories in a 12-month period. All came in first class company between February 20, 1987 and February 20, 1988 and included five Group One races, four other Group or Listed races and five heats of Group One races. Village Kid remains the only horse to win all three heats of an Inter Dominion Series twice (1986 and 1989) and is one of only three Western Australian horses to go through the heats of an Inter Dominion undefeated. With 93 wins in 160 career starts Village Kid had a winning strike rate of 58.1% which for horses with more than 100 career starts is far superior to the likes of Pure Steel 52.8%, Gammalite 52.5% and Im Themightyquinn 52.3%.
In 2010 Village Kid was inducted into The West Australian Racing Industry Hall of Fame and he was also a dual winner of the Australian Harness Horse of the Year title and was twice Australian Grand Circuit Champion.
Village Kid died on April 24, 2012 at the age of 31 years. For the past 27 years of his life Village Kid had ruled the roost at the Horn family’s Mandogalup stables. Village Kid’s story is more than a remarkable statistical achievement. It is the story of a truly amazing equine athlete. He was possessed of an incredible will to race against and beat the very best. He flew in the face of all the evidence which suggested his career should have ended five or six years earlier and this was due in no small way to the care and attention lavished on the gelding by Bill and Norma Horn.
