Natalie Clair Rasmussen (born 1977) is a driver and trainer of Standardbred racehorses in Australia and New Zealand. She has been associated with many champions and is one of the leading trainers and drivers of harness horses in Australasia.
Rasmussen was born in Townsville, Queensland, in 1977. Her father was a harness horse trainer and her sisters, Kylie and Vicki, have also been trainers and drivers.
Rasmussen initially drove and trained harness horses in her native Australia. She was the first woman in Australia to have trained and driven an Inter Dominion winner with Blacks A Fake who she went on to win the championship with a further three times. In 2009, Rasmussen was inducted into the Inter Dominion Hall of Fame.[1]
In 2010–2011, Rasmussen briefly tried her hand at training Thoroughbreds and had a winner at the Gold Coast with Abu Dhabi Gold.[2]
Rasmussen later moved to New Zealand and formally trained in partnership with Mark Purdon from 2014. During this period they dominated the major New Zealand races such as the New Zealand Trotting Cup, Auckland Pacing Cup and the Harness Jewels.[3]
In mid-November 2020, Rasmussen and Purdon announced they would cease their training partnership as from 31 December 2020. They would lease their Rolleston stables to Hayden and Amanda Cullen and, although staying involved when required, they would not be managing the day-to-day training operation. Rasmussen and Purdon said they intended to take a break after working with horses for a combined 70 years. Their last night as a partnership was the December 2020 Auckland Pacing Cup meeting at Alexandra Park in which they managed to quinella the Auckland Cup with Amazing Dream and Spankem.
From 1 October 2021, Purdon officially returned to the formal training ranks again and joined Hayden Cullen in partnership. It was also announced that Rasmussen would then re-join him in fulltime training from 1 January 2022, replacing Cullen, who would revert to being stable foreman again.[4]
Top horses that Rasmussen has been associated with include: