By David Gilbert
EARLIER this week, Limestone Coast Thoroughbred Racing president Justin Kain released the names of the two winners for the local Horse of the Year awards for the 2020/21 season.
The announcements were originally to be made on Sunday, August 15 at the annual presentation day for LCTR at Glenburnie which ended up being cancelled due to ongoing COVID restrictions.
As expected, the promising four-year-old gelding Royal Mile, trained by Lee Creek, won the HOY award for performances anywhere, clearly ahead of Farooq and Territory Titan.
It was a much tougher decision for the judges regarding the winner for performances on local tracks which went to Cuban Toonite from the Sue and Jason Jaensch stable, narrowly ahead of Dr Dee Dee and Pewter.
Meanwhile, Sally Matheson took over the role of secretary for LCTR at the start of this month.
Her experience as a committee person with the Naracoorte Racing Club will hold her in good stead for the position which was held for the previous five years by Christobel Pretlove.
PHILLIPS RETURNED AS PRESIDENT
AT the recent AGM for the Mount Gambier Harness Racing Club, Simon Phillips was returned as president for a second term.
In what are challenging times for harness racing in this state, Phillips has led the club with an air of positivity and is confident regarding the new season starting on Friday, November 5.
“Financially, we are in good shape, about the same as last year and we are looking forward to having more Friday night meetings next season,” Phillips told The Border Watch this week.
“Eight Friday night and eight Tuesday night meetings have been allocated to us and our gold cup meeting will be a stand-alone Saturday night meeting in March and not a co-share meeting with Port Pirie.
“It will be good to have extra Friday night meetings to give the public a better opportunity to come out to the trots.”
Only about a dozen people attended the AGM, the lowest number in living memory.
Long serving secretary Maxine Milich continues in that role with Mick Lamond again the vice-president.
Although our local harness season is in recess, trials have been organised at the Greenwald Paceway for this Sunday morning.
PLENTY OF FIGHT LEFT YET
FOR more than 30 years, Mount Gambier’s Michael O’Leary absolutely dominated the training ranks here in the South East, winning a record 21 premierships along the way.
The past seven years has seen a changing of the guard with the Naracoorte pair of Sue Murphy and Sue Jaensch battling it out for the position of premier trainer.
O’Leary has shown in recent times there is still plenty of fight left in the old dog and he started off the new season with a double at Naracoorte last Sunday.
It was the first meeting of the new local racing season after the Bordertown meeting on August 8 was abandoned.
O’Leary was the only person to enjoy multiple success at Naracoorte, while Mount Gambier jockey Kate Walters won the jockey’s challenge ($15) despite not riding a winner (two seconds and two thirds).
“At the stable’s peak, I had up to 35 horses in work one year and won 70 races in that season,” O’Leary told The Border Watch this week prior to heading back to Darwin for another short break.
“As I have got older I have scaled back my operations and currently have seven horses in work, with four unraced ones ready to come through.”
The win by Action In Cairns ($4) in the 1000-metre BM 68 handicap was a welcome tonic for long-time stable client Charlie Gibbs who is recovering from a broken shoulder.
Normally, the owners of Action In Cairns are in that tropical city at this time of year on holiday but COVID put an end to those plans this year.
The pattern of racing at Naracoorte in the winter months has been that the early races are won by horses leading or racing near the lead and the swoopers have not been successful until later in the day.
That was again the case on Sunday and Action In Cairns was the first horse from back in the field to salute.
O’Leary’s double was achieved in the space of 35 minutes when Scenic Host ($5) was ridden by Dominc Tourneur in a ride-of-the-day performance in the 1200-metre BM 58 handicap.
“Both horses will probably go to town (Adelaide) for their next start in restricted company, as there are no races for them at either Penola at Casterton in the next few weeks,” O’Leary stated.
Local trainer Vanessa Hutchinson looks to have a winner or two on her hands in the near future.
Both of her runners at Naracoorte, Dale’s Rocket (second) and Halo’s Quest (fourth), rocketed home late and are horses to follow.
A hurdle and a steeplechase were originally programmed for the Naracoorte meeting but it was never really going to get off the ground.
Most of the jockeys and horses would have had to have come from Victoria and, with that border currently closed, the jumping races were deleted and replaced by a 2350 BM 56 handicap.
EVERY CLOUD HAS A SILVER LINING
SOMETIMES as a punter you cannot believe the more-than-generous odds given about a horse in a particular race on fixed odds.
Mind you, it only happens once in a blue moon and it is even more satisfying when the horse duly wins.
For yours truly, the stars were aligned almost a fortnight ago when the local stayer Muntham Missile was entered for a 2500-metre BM 78 race in Adelaide.
I was heading to Darwin and could not get to the nearest pubTAB (Tailem Bend) quick enough on race eve to grab a slice of the $15 on offer about the Belinda O’Loughlin trained mare.
The price assessors had obviously forgotten that Muntham Missile had won the Hamilton Cup (open company) over 2200 metres last October on a wet track when she stormed home from last at the top of the straight.
The vast majority of her 11 rivals at Morphettville had never raced in anything like country cup fields and had to be suspect at the journey, and I believed the mare was an each-way bet to nothing.
I cheekily told a couple of customers in the Tailem Bend pub to back her each way with extreme confidence as Muntham Missile should have been, in my opinion, a $5 chance.
I lobbed in Darwin a couple of hours before the race was due to be run and cheered loudly as Dominic Tourneur rode Muntham Missile perfectly to win with a leg in the air on the rain affected track.
Meanwhile, anyone who had a place bet on race four, number two (Dick Grayson) at the local greyhounds last Sunday had an absolute windfall.
Dick Grayson ran second in the small field as a 33/1 chance and paid the remarkable place dividend of $396.
It brought back memories of some of the weird dividends we sometimes saw on the tote at non-tab meetings at county races and trots meetings many years ago.
LOCALS PEEVED
ONE of the hot topics amongst the locals while I was in Darwin was the NT government tipping in around $12 million towards the cost of the new grandstand/function and gaming centre (known as Silks) at the Fannie Bay racecourse.
Many Darwinians were miffed with the government’s generosity and made their opinions known on talkback radio and via social outlets.
It must be a magnificent structure, but I was denied the opportunity to check it out as the day I had set aside for an afternoon at Silks coincided with the sudden Darwin COVID lockdown.
Believe me, there is no better place to be in a lockdown than Darwin as the weather is superb with clear, hot days, no flies, no mosquitoes and warm, calm nights.
