Smiley’s love of the game is infectious

You’d be hard-pressed to find anyone in Victorian harness racing who enjoys a win more than trainer Katrina “Smiley” Fitzpatrick – two in a week and it had to be more than a little rowdy!

And they weren’t just any wins!  The excitement was running high when Fitzpatrick recorded her first victory at Victoria’s headquarters Melton last Wednesday (Oct.Ma 26). She then followed up at the Maryborough Harness Racing Club’s all-trotting Redwood Day on Sunday – an event the trainer and Victorian Square Trotters Association committee member admits is probably her favorite meeting of the year.

Check out Katrina’s excitement below:

From screams of delight to a yodel of a triumph – this is how to do winning!
Soak up the thrills of victory with trainer Katrina Fitzpatrick as Chris Alford steers Kyvalley Surfrider to victory in the Alf Simons Memorial Trot to cap a magic Redwood day at Maryborough. pic.twitter.com/p0uLP5fcN2

— The Trots (@TheTrotsComAu) October 31, 2022

Both wins were with the only horse Fitzpatrick has racing at the moment – handsome trotter Kyvalley Surfrider (Love You) a five-year-old who joined her stable just seven weeks ago.

“The only one we’ve raced in the last few years has been Dream Over (Andover Hall). We’ve raced him since he was two.  He was a bit sick earlier this year and I was starting to think I needed another trotter,” Fitzpatrick said.

“Kyvalley Surfrider was advertised online and I love chestnuts, so that counted in his favor from the start.  We checked his form, and he looked okay and when I went and drove him I couldn’t get him quick enough, he worked fantastic,” she said.

“I spoke to Chris (driver Chris Alford), who’d driven him before and Chris told us he thought we’d have some fun with him. He was right!”

Kyvalley Surfrider, who had six wins prior to joining the Fitzpatrick stable, is a full brother to topline New Zealand trotter Highgrove, who earlier this year smashed a national record in the Group One $100,000 Breckon Farms Northern Trotting Derby (2700m).

“Wilson (Kyvalley Surfrider) has been a nice pick up with what he’s done, and he’s a fantastic horse to do anything with,” Fitzpatrick said.

“He is just lovely.  Les (Dream Over) is still my number one, but he was a bit put out when Wilson arrived.  He’s over it now though and back in work and happy again and coming up nicely too,” she said.

Although Fitzpatrick has had a relatively quiet time of it this season with only 20 starters, her two wins are backed up by five placings. Based at Ross Creek, she is from a harness racing background, and has held a trainer’s licence since the early 1980s.  Her mum Nola Antonio and grandfather Mick Antonio instilled in her the love of trotters and Fitzpatrick later spent time working for renowned trainer the late John Dewhirst, during which time they won a Redwood Day feature with Irish Rhapsody (Black Irish).

Fitzpatrick is known far and wide for her passion for the sport – and to a lesser degree for the presentation and “bling” her team brings to the track!

“I like to make them a bit special, to do them all up and put their bows on them,” she laughed. “People give me a hard time, but I don’t mind. I just love the sport and the social side of it and the people. It’s a great sport to be in.”

Fitzpatrick said the popular and social Redwood Carnival was an annual get-together for her husband Darren and a few of his mates from different areas of Victoria.

“They normally catch the Redwood Rattler from Melbourne to Maryborough and unfortunately that got cancelled, but they decided they were still going to have their annual get-together,” Fitzpatrick said.

“It was a pretty fun trip home – four of them and me in the Kluger, things did get just a bit rowdy!” she laughed.

by Terry Gange, for Harnesslink