Woodville will wind back the clock when staging this year’s running of the Glenanthony Simmentals Stud Hawke’s Bay Steeplechase (4800m) and Te Whāngai Romney’s Hawke’s Bay Hurdles (3000m), with a number of retired jumping stars joining the festivities.

Among the quintet will be the John Wheeler-trained Volkswagin, who won five steeplechase races, including dead-heating the Hawke’s Bay Steeplechase of 2012 with Penstar, and winning the Ken & Roger Browne Memorial Steeplechase in the previous year.

Known in the Wheeler barn as ‘Dub’, Volkswagin was a pleasure to have in the stable, but on the odd occasion, would show just how high he could jump on the track.

“We’ve had him since he was broken in as a yearling, he was the easiest horse to train and had a great temperament,” Linda Wheeler said.

“He ran third in the Great Northern Steeplechase when he was four, but he was actually still a three-year-old at the time, which was pretty huge for a young horse. He was too slow on the flat, but he was a beautiful jumper.

“As you came into the back straight at Wanganui, they used to have a wing off the rail, and when he sighted the fence, he thought he had to jump the wing and ended up on the inside of the course. We raced him again there and he did exactly the same thing, so the stewards ended up changing the way the jump was positioned.”

Now rising 21, the son of Volksraad has never been far away from the track since retiring in mid-2014, spending many years as a clerk of the course’s horse at New Plymouth and Hawera. Alongside his clerking duties, he was a full-wire hunter for Linda and still plays an important role in their stable.

“He was a full-wire hunter, jumped big hedges and hunted anywhere in the field,” she said. “I still clerk on him, he’ll be at the New Plymouth next Saturday.

“Any staff that are learning to ride racehorses will ride him and practice their trackwork - he can be a cunning old bugger, he can be very quiet and off the bridle, then on the last lap he’ll pull really hard.

“I’ve just ridden him to move some yearlings as well, they will just follow along behind him. He’s just the coolest horse.”

One of Woodville’s own heroes, Chocolate Fish, will return to his former home for the day, nearly seven years after winning the Great Northern Steeplechase at Te Aroha. Prepared locally by Shane Brown, ‘Fish’ thrived in the jumping role, with his Northern success coming alongside a number of prestige placings.

Brown’s wife, Amy Ames-Durey, looked back on his major success with fond memories, but the day wasn’t all smooth sailing for the quirky gelding.

“I called him the peacock, he just loved to show off,” she said.

“Normally, the jumpers walk around on the end of the lead rope, but the day that he won the Great Northern, there was a table in the birdcage with the trophies and they had to remove the tablecloth because he wouldn’t walk around the parade ring with it flapping in the wind.

“He went out and won with his ears pricked, he was the most natural stayer that Shane’s ever trained. It was a pretty big deal for us given that we owned 50 percent.

“It was one of our biggest highlights in racing.”

The son of Colombia had a name to match his unorthodox nature, one that he arrived with when joining the Brown stable in 2017.

“He was incredibly slow on the flat, and that’s actually how he was named,” Ames-Durey said. “He was originally trained by Harvey Wilson, and one day a couple of people had bet a chocolate fish on who had the slowest horse in a trial, which was him.

“He ended up being retired, but then we got a random call one day from an owner-trainer, who said there was a horse causing absolute mayhem for his owner. Without a rider, Fish was jumping from the owner’s property into the neighbours on both sides, and he would do his little ‘course’ on a regular basis.

“We thought we’d give him one jumping start and see what happens, and he won his maiden steeplechase at Hastings, so that was that.”

‘Fish’ was retired sound in 2020 and went on to have a successful career in the show ring before settling into his current life as a happy farm hack.

“He went to a woman called Anna Bowen, she had him as a show horse because he’s so pretty and handsome,” Ames-Durey said. “He was quite good at it too, and he now lives on a farm in Pahiatua with one of his original owners.”

Just up the road in Central Hawke’s Bay, Kipkeino has been living an active retirement since bowing out of racing in 2021. After six victories on the flat, the son of Sunray won the 2017 edition of the Hawke’s Bay Hurdles, and placed in a Great Northern Hurdle, Wellington Hurdle and Wellington Steeplechase.

In the care of his trainer and owner Lucy de Lautour, Kipkeino has been a regular fixture in the Hawke’s Bay Hunt Club over the past couple of seasons.

Two of Kevin Myers’ former stars, Zed Em and Kick Back, will both make an appearance at the meeting, aged 14 and 16.

Zed Em had a phenomenal career, winning 17 of his 58 starts and earning just shy of $1.2 million in stakes. After winning three successive jumping races for Myers, he was transferred to the care of Patrick Payne, and over the next five seasons, he won three Von Doussa Steeplechases, two Great Easterns, a Grand Annual and a Brierly.

The diminutive Kick Back was another fan favourite, with the highlights of her career coming in 2016, when she won the Manawatu Steeplechase, Pakuranga Hunt Cup and Great Northern Steeplechase for the Trotter family.

After her Ellerslie triumphs, Kick Back retired to the broodmare paddock, where she has produced Kick On, a Group Three placegetter and winner of seven races in Myers’ care.

Woodville welcomes all racegoers to head on course and meet these wonderful horses and watch on as they lead out the jumps races through the day.