Forget coast to coast. Try hemisphere to hemisphere on the same day. A harness racing yarn of Concordic proportions straight out of Westport!
O M actual G!
As horse racing yarns go, you won’t get many more engaging than this.
The one about the longtime harness horse breeder, racer, trainer, tragic from Westport, South Island, New Zealand — responsible for half‑sister standardbreds winning classic races on both sides of the planet on the same day.
Stop it?
No.
Strap in for the true story of Bob Higgins and his family of harness racing fanatics, a.k.a. the Patsy Marie Syndicate.
What Bob’s gone and done, after as good as 50 years trying, is breed arguably the best pacing mare in the world right now, Francent — reluctantly sell her to Canada — where she’s hit the ground flying!
On Sunday (NZ time) at Mohawk near Toronto, she cleaned up the best pacing mares North America can offer, including Twin B Joe Fresh (yes, Dexter’s $4 million earning champion), en route to the Grade 1 Milton Classic next weekend.
That’s just half of it. Not even, in fact.
About six hours later, the little half‑sis Matty Nevin rips out of the gate at Ashburton trying to qualify for a finals berth in the Nevele R Fillies Series. Takes a trail behind her stablemate then — similar to her older sibling — sprints up the inside lane to double down and win the heat and a spot on Cup Day.
So, the first one, Francent, Bob didn’t really want to sell but had to relent because “they just kept ringing and offering more money so I couldn’t not let her go in the end.”
And the second one, he tried to sell but couldn’t get a whiff of interest.
“No, Matty didn’t make the catalogue for the yearling sales because she was shy on commercial pedigree at that stage, so she stayed home,” he recalls a bit wryly.
Last breeding season Bob, who’s coming up 75, had the dam, Mary Niven, in foal and for sale on the internet auction site Gavelhouse.
Couldn’t get a bid.
Her sister or cousin, or something close, was there too.
Same. No result.
It sort of doesn’t stop there — but that’ll keep for an audiobook.
Suffice to say Bob Higgins and his family syndicate were looking to downsize their breeding numbers after a lifetime of loving the game but seemingly didn’t have the right product to interest many others.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder — and researcher — as it turns out.
Scroll back a few pages and this standardbred story traces to a fast filly born almost a lifetime ago, like 1977, called Patsy Marie.
Sires’ Stakes fact‑checkers remembered her as having a lot of natural ability and being talked and written up a fair bit back in the day. So when the search showed 30‑plus starts for just three wins and less than $10,000 earned, we thought we're remembering the wrong horse.
But no.
A deeper dive— and WhatsApp to Bob — the picture sharpens.
“Another Bob, Negus, was my mentor of sorts back then. He used to guide me and drive Patsy. Early on he thought she could be another Armalight such was her natural talent. Turns out she wasn’t, I mean who was, but she didn’t reach the level she could have either because she got sick as a late two‑year‑old and never bounced back,” recalls Bob Higgins.
One of Patsy’s three wins was the Group 2 Roydon Lodge Two‑Year‑Old Fillies Stakes when they used to hold such events at Timaru and where the ‘also‑rans’ included champion filly of the year Times Up and later open‑class pacer Up Tempo.
There were the second placings at Group level in Auckland and at Hutt Park, and names like Lock Rae, Fouroux and other greatest hits on the track at the turn of that decade.
Patsy won a year later at Victoria Park — yes, Greymouth — went close continuously on the coast circuit, but Bob knows that ferry trip to Wellington got her.
“She came home with a virus and while she still ran the odd good race she never got back to her best.”
Back to recently and it hadn’t been plain sailing for Francent either — but polar opposite to Patsy Marie.
After getting her started, Bob sent her to Mark Jones, who wasn’t fussed she’d be anything much for a while, so the recommended “change of scenery” was to another Bob — Butt — at the beach.
“He was of the same mindset as Mark and thought she’d do something eventually but not early, so I brought her home, had a minor throat procedure done on her which had also been recommended, and started over a few months later with some hands on from another mentor Steve Little.”
Legend has it Bob called Mark and said he might need to take Francent back for another campaign because “she might have improved a bit much for me” — and boom!
New Zealand Pacing Mare of the Year.
1.48 winner at the weekend.
Favourite for a big dance in Canada.
“Now the Americans are on the phone to me for Matty after Ashburton but I’ve said no. Fancy my day at Addington on Cup Day now instead,” says Bob, who talked himself out of going to Ashburton to watch.
"I was looking at the odds during the week and thought she must have no chance so stayed home and watched instead of backing my own gut" reckons Bob who might need to get something to do and stay outta reach now the phones always ringing.
He doesn’t do whitebaiting because it “takes too much time and patience” (lol), so he’ll keep working on these two more qualified close relatives of his favourite fillies meantime.
Can talk Nevele R Finals and world mile records with the half‑dozen or so harness trainers still getting up for the horses at Patterson Park, Westport, South Island, New Zealand…
And if you want to buy something, there are a couple of commericial broodmares in the paddock — if you can reach him.
