Royal Kenny makes bold debut

The Central Otago Trotting Club meeting at Omakau just after New Year has always attracted plenty of handy horses from Canterbury down to Southland and yesterday was no exception.

The very smart two year old trotter from last year in Gunners Coin with Dexter Dunn in the bike was backed as though he was unbeatable in the maiden trot but a first starter from the powerful Phil Williamson barn in Royal Kenny had other ideas.

The four year old daughter of leading sire Majestic Son went straight to the front from barrier two for inform reinsman Brad Williamson and sent up a hot tempo right from the start of the 2000 metres race.

Royal Kenny and Brad had a lot of them off the bit with a lap to go and there was no let up as they went clear by four or five lengths down the back straight the last time.

As they turned for home, Brad had a quick look and saw he had the race in safe keeping and let Royal Kenny work down to the finish with Brad sitting quietly in the bike.

Gunners Coin got home super for second after having an interrupted run in the last lap in front of Denn Nee Nose Best who had trailed from the start but they were both still over three lengths in arrears at the finishing line.

What made the run of Royal Kenny even more meritorious was the brilliant time of 2:29.8, a mile rate of 2:00.5 with closing sectionals of 59.2 and 29.7

The time broke the previous track record for a trotter for 2000 metres at Omakau by 2.6 seconds

Brad was suitably impressed with the debut effort

" We knew that she was way better than a maiden but had the odd doubt with Gunners Coin being in the field."

"She won that very easily, I didn't even pull the plugs."

" She has really improved in the last six months and shows no sign of stopping yet."

" It is a breed that is really tough and has plenty of stamina and thats why I drove her like that."

" She only had a couple of  trials prior to her debut so there should be plenty of improvement left in her yet," Brad said.

A half sister to the smart trotter Queen Kenny (7 wins), the dam of Royal Kenny is a race winning full sister to the millionaire One Over Kenny 1:57 ($1,098,007), One Under Kenny (11 wins) and a half sister to One Kenny (19 wins) and it is a family that continues to produce star trotters generation after generation.

Going by her win at Omakau, Royal Kenny looks to have inherited all the family ability

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