Kimberly Butt stars with Group-winning double at Addington
Michael Guerin • February 14th, 2026 12:34 PM • 4 min read
There is one thing better than winning the biggest races on an Addington card capped by a Group 1.
And that is winning them for two of your biggest supporters.
So says Kimberly Butt, who should know, because that is exactly what she did at Addington in a magical 35 minutes on Friday.
Butt drove Debbie Lincoln to Group 1 glory in the $100,000 Fahey Fence Hire NZ Breeders Stakes, giving part-time trainer Josh Davine one of the most remarkable introductions to training.
Davine is massively invested in harness racing, a fresh new voice, and bought Debbie Lincoln for what many people were muttering was way too much just two months ago.
Turns out he was right.
He now has a Group 1-winning mare with so much racing in front of her and the scalp of dual Oaks winner Arafura with Davine as a hobby trainer, helped out by the Dalgetys at Kentuckiana Lodge.
Butt did her part brilliantly on Friday as she led easily but took the gamble to hand that lead away to Arafura at the 1300m mark. Had she not been able to peg her back she would have been potted for giving the race away.
But, like Davine, she believed in Debbie Lincoln and was proved right.
“I was quite happy to stay in front but when Blair came looking on Arafura my mare started to get fired up and I hoped if I gave her a helmet to follow she would relax,” says Butt.
“And while Blair did the Blair Glare at the 300m to show he was going well I thought we were too.”
It was Butt’s second Group 1 in three months and means a lot to do it for Davine as he has been a huge supporter of Butt and fiance Jonny Cox.
“I am so stoked to pull this off, it is really special.
“If everybody in the game was as passionate as Josh we would be so much better off.”
Debbie Lincoln is booked on the same plane to Sydney as Pinseeker, trained by Cox, early next week and has a myriad on options with her gate speed set to hold her in good stead in Australia.
The first half of the feature-race double came a race earlier when Eurostyle bounced back to her best form in the $40,000 Lamb And Hayward Trotters Classic.
The enormously-talented mare overcame a 20m handicap to remind us just how good she is as the Group 1s loom.
She is trained by Derek and Adele Jones, who have also been huge supporters of Butt even when Eurostyle hasn’t always held up her end of the bargain.
“She hasn’t been an easy horse to drive at times but they have stuck with me so to pay them back at this level is really cool,” says Butt.
“She will go to the Group 1 next start I presume and she still has improvement left in her.”
The night’s other main pace saw Franco Sinatra prove too slippery for Pinseeker with a 55-second closing last 800m, the final 400m in a near-record 25.4 seconds to once again show his love of Addington.
