Cole and Fenton still winning races after 55 years
Garrick Knight - Raceform • June 27th, 2025 10:00 AM • 5 min read
There was nearly 55 years of history behind the upset win of Clouding Over at Alexandra Park last Friday night.
It was only the second win in 55 career starts for the bonny daughter of Sky Major, but for her trainer and part-owner, Jim Cole, it represented so much more.
Cole and wife Dianne lease Clouding Over from his lifelong friend, Trevor Casey, along with long-time racing partners Dr Graeme Fenton MNZM and his wife Joan.
“I drove my first winner in 1970, and it was owned by Graeme,” Cole told RaceForm. “And he’s been with me ever since.”
Cole, who drove Clouding Over on race night as recently as last month, is New Zealand’s second-longest active driver after Canterbury’s Kevin Townley, though Townley has not driven for two years after a race accident and hip surgery.
That first winner was Beau Frost, on the grass at Te Awamutu for Cole’s late father, George, who he eventually joined in partnership in 1978.
“Graeme had just qualified as a doctor in about 1966 and was down in Tamahere at the time and looking for an interest. That’s how it all started.”
Cole was one of the most respected junior drivers of the early 70s and drove 16 winners in one year when it was virtually impossible to penetrate the driving ranks.
“The competition was fierce back then and it wasn’t like today, where juniors get a lot of opportunities handed to them.
“The racing was a lot harder back then – you can’t push out any more. Back then, they’d have you out around the first corner.”
The Coles forged a strong partnership for 16 years, based at Huapai in West Auckland until Jim and Dianne moved to the South Island in the mid-1990s.
Their best horse was Te Puke Expects, who made open class when that was virtually impossible and ran fourth in an Auckland Cup and fifth in a New Zealand Cup.
They also had Hochenheim (eight wins) and the wonderful mare Elite Dream (eight wins) for Fenton, who by that stage had moved to Northland and set up his own practise in Moerewa.
Another Huapai local was Casey, who ran a local takeaway bar but dabbled in stable work and even qualified one for the Coles at the Kumeu trials one day.
“Trevor’s father lived up the road and he used to help us out in the mornings. He’s been one of my closest friends ever since.”
When Cole moved south to drive horse trucks for Neil Pilcher, Casey eventually joined him, selling his business and buying in with Pilcher to form Inter Island Horse Transport.
Cole drove the odd horse at the races in Canterbury – usually for another longtime friend in Peter Jones – but a race smash at Ashburton slowed him right down.
He did train a winner at Addington in 2000 though, with Jones’ son Mark driving, but eventually he and Dianne returned north and settled at Puni, near Pukekohe.
For the last two decades he has pottered around with a couple of horses while Dianne ran the local Garrard’s shop at the Pukekohe track.
“Most of my owners got older. They think they can retire and still race horses, but unless you’re working, it’s not really possible.”
Fenton, who retired only a couple of years ago at 81, has stuck with him, and Casey has always been willing to send him a horse.
“He actually had a lovely Sky Major colt that I leased him a few years ago,” said Casey. “But it died tragically, and I know Jim was devastated by it, so I sent him up Clouding Over as a replacement.”
While she’s been a regular at Alexandra Park for the past couple of years, Clouding Over had been unable to add to her maiden win recorded in the South Island. Not that Cole was complaining too much.
“She’s a lovely little mare and while she hadn’t won before the other night, I was happy to keep going to Auckland with her. She’s won $50,000 for us, and could she have done that at Cambridge? I doubt it.
“There was a second in the Breeders’ Stakes, a third in the Golden Gait and plenty of other placings too.”
But nothing beats that winning feeling and there wasn’t a more popular winner on the night. Cole was humbled and surprised by the extent of his congratulations.
“Peter Jones rung me straight after the race and the first text I got was from Barry Purdon in England. It was a wonderful feeling.”
He was equally as thrilled to have another old buddy, Maurice McKendry, do the driving. McKendry, like Fenton, is also a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit.
“They’re both wonderful men and in the case of Graeme, he probably deserves to be knighted for everything he’s given to the community.”
Cole says the key to Clouding Over is to work her harder than most horses because she’s such a good ‘doer’.
“She’s beautifully mannered and very willing, but you really have to pile the work in to her. I work her harder than some of the horses I trained for Cup preparations back in the early years.”
And while age is wearying Cole, he still has a firm goal in mind that will ensure he will keep training and driving for a few more years yet.
“I’d like to win one in a couple of years’ time, because that will be 90 years since Dad drove his first winner at Alexandra Park. My Uncle, Alf – father of IRT’s David Cole – trained it and my Aunty owned it. It would mean a lot to me to mark that milestone with a win of my own.”
Whether it’s Clouding Over that does it remains to be seen. Perhaps Casey has another one waiting in the wings to add another chapter to this very long story.
