Debbie Lincoln’s sizzling win has namesake Debbie Green excited about the future

“Addington here we come!”

Co-owner Debbie Green’s excited declaration after Debbie Lincoln’s sizzling win on Friday night uncorked her excitement over the prospect she might have found yet another outstanding pacer.

Green admitted to being hyped at seeing the horse named after her, and trained by her husband Ray and partner Nathan Delany, “thrash” hot pot Joyride in a time seldom run by a filly.

“Ray and I are getting on and I’ve been wondering if we’re going to get another really good horse before we come to the end of it.

“I’ve been praying for another one like Hard Copy and Copy That, who both went on to be stallions.

“We’ve seen glimpses of what she could be and now that she’s come to it, it’s a bit of a shock.”

Green, who bought the Lather Up filly for just $3500 as a weanling, before taking Lincoln Farms owners John and Lynne Street in as partners, is now packing her bags for Christchurch.

Debbie Lincoln is assured of a spot in the $200,000 Nevele R Fillies’ Final (1980m) at Addington on cup day, November 11, and also has the toughness to be competitive in the $225,000 New Zealand Pacing Oaks (2600m) 10 days later.

“She’s so strong and she’s got a real attitude. When we went down for the photos her front feet were flailing at us like a colt.”

Green said whereas driver Maurice McKendry reported the filly didn’t feel quite right earlier in her prep, when she was troubled by tying-up, after last week’s ripping closing sectionals that changed to “I think she’s back.”

And last night McKendry upgraded it to: “She’s back!”

You needed only a quick look at the clock to realise why. Debbie Lincoln clocked 1:59.9 for the mobile 1700 metres, which equates to a mile rate of 1:53.5.

Check out the record books and the enormity of the performance becomes more clear. Lincoln Farms’ star pacer Sir Lincoln was six when he paced the fastest 1700 metres in New Zealand history, 2:00.5, beating Gold Ace and clocking a mile rate of 1:54.

Debbie Green … bought Debbie Lincoln for $3500. Her earnings stand at $55,336.Cup class pacer Republican Party clocked the exact same time, 1:59.9, when he set a new national three-year-old colts and geldings’ mark for 1700 metres in 2022, and that was at the much faster Ashburton track.

Debbie’s 1:59.9 is also faster than the NZ fillies’ record of 2:00.4 which Ideal Belle set at Auckland in 2013, and that stood for three years until Better B Amazed clocked a new mark of 1:59.9.

Incredibly, Debbie Lincoln’s 1:53.5 overshadows the same time Scuse Me paced at Auckland in 1998 for the shorter 1609 metres, a national mark which stood for 11 years.

While those marks have since been superseded, it still puts Debbie Lincoln into rarified air, and steels Green into wanting to fend off the offers which will inevitably flow.

“I’d like to keep her. We’re in it for the buzz of racing not the money. She owes us nothing and, besides, she’s named after me!”

(Unknown to Green, John Street named the filly as a mark of respect for her uncanny ability to select bargain bin winners, like champion Copy That, who cost $7000 and won $2 million, and Hard Copy, who was a $4000 buy and banked A$1.27 million.)