Emotional success with Brian Christopher as Streets top 500 harness wins and 892 in all

Lincoln Farms’ John and Lynne Street have just topped 500 winners as harness racing owners, earning millions of dollars in prize money, but few carried as much satisfaction as winning a maiden race at a tin pot meeting at Palmerston North last night.

When Brian Christopher scored a front-running win in the third race in the hands of Zachary Butcher he earned a paltry $4950 but the phone call John Street received after the race was priceless.

It was from his sister Bev Glass, to whom Street gave a quarter share in the horse, renaming the animal after her late son who in 2010 lost his battle with spina bifida at the age of 45.

“My sister got a great thrill out of it,” Street said. “She was very emotional when she rang up after the race.

Zachary Butcher brings Brian Christopher back after notching a driving hat-trick. PHOTO: Royden Williams.“Her daughters also watched the race, Bronwyn in Melbourne and Susan in Manurewa.”

Street said his late nephew “loved his horses” and had a few big wins with 2003 Winter Cup winner Tuscany Warrior.

Street says he’s told them the three-year-old is no superstar - “Zac says he’s very one-paced” - but it mattered little.

Street, who also gifted a quarter share in the $140,000 yearling to his brother Kevin and wife Glenis, is hoping that being by Bettor’s Delight he could strengthen and be a staying horse.

The timing of the win couldn’t have been more appropriate - Brian Christopher’s full sister Lancewood Lizzie won 13 races including the Group I Franklin Cup, the 2020 edition of which Lincoln Farms sponsors tonight at Alexandra Park.

It was only last Friday night at the Park that the Streets notched their 500th harness winner when Tommy Lincoln upset hot favourite Copy That in the Summer Cup. In recent seasons Lincoln Farms’ trainer Ray Green has also prepared another 44 winners for outside clients.

Among their 502 wins - the first of which was on July 17, 1987 with Agent Orange - the Streets have enjoyed success at the highest level, Sir Lincoln winning an Auckland Cup, Galleons Sunset an Interdominion Trotting Grand Final, King Of Swing a Breeders’ Crown and Badlands Bute a couple of derbies.

The Streets have also won 390 races with their thoroughbreds in the last 27 years - 359 here and in Australia and another 31 in Singapore - bringing the total number of winners in both codes to 892, an unrivalled cross code achievement by a New Zealand owner.