Team effort behind maiden win

There’s a saying that it takes a village to raise a child – but in the case of the southwest Victoria’s Lenehan family, it’s taken a village to raise their first-start harness racing winner.

Still rangy and raw, four-year-old gelding Royal Division (Lincoln Royal) led all the way for driver Glen Craven, and, despite stargazing up the straight, held on to win at his maiden racetrack appearance at Hamilton on Sunday (Jan 15).

It was a sweet relief for owners Nick, Damien and Thomas Lenehan and their families, who have done the hard yards with the big fellow.

“He’s been a slow maturing type, an imposing horse with a silver tail. He’d be all of 17 hands two, a big lump and a bit of a problem child all along the way,” Nick Lenehan said.

“As a youngster he tried to take on the yards and split his chest open, then when he got gelded, he hopped up halfway through the surgery,” he said.

“He’s very strong willed with a bit arrogance about him.  And definitely a problem child.  That’s how he got his name at the time when Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s engagement was in the media everywhere – being by Royal Lincoln and our own ‘problem child’.  But the name Royal Division is pretty topical again now!”

The Lenehan’s breed just every year or two with Nick’s dad Damian usually doing the breaking.

“We get the horses to the stage of being sent off to a trainer, but we thought ‘Harry’ was going to be a bit much of a handful, so we got Laurie O’Keefe to break him in.”

That was just the beginning.  After the pacer was sent to the Lee stables at Terang, they felt he had natural ability, but would benefit from a quieter environment for a time.

“We sent him to Nathan Cahir’s – Marg felt Nathan would be a good choice for a horse that needs a quieter natured person to get them through to the next stage.  Harry had quite a bit of time there, then he came back to Paddy Lee, who had been keen on him all along.”

Paddy undertook a number of preparations, finally getting the horse to the trailing stage before the connections decided to again try a new tack.

“The brakes and steering never worked really well on the horse, and Glen Craven came back after driving him at the education trials and said he’d been a bit of a passenger. He thought if we could get the brakes and steering sorted, he could win a few races,” Nick said.

“So, we sent him off to Seb Corboy who does trackwork for gallops trainers down here, and also used to break in thoroughbreds.  Seb rode him for three weeks, working on softening his mouth and working on his steering.  I think that was a turning point for the horse, doing something completely different.”

After returning to the Lee stables, Royal Division was plenty of work at home with Paddy and another three trials.

“We finally decided to head to the races and leading probably wasn’t really ideal on Sunday, but that was the way it worked out, not all horses go on, but it is nice to see them win first up, and they are still doing a bit wrong,” Lenehan said.

“We will give him a couple more starts then he will head to the paddock.  If we can teach him the ropes now, hopefully with maturity he will be a lot better horse in 12 months’ time.”

Lenehan has previously been a trainer and driver himself and now has a busy farrier run in southwest Victoria, largely for thoroughbred stables, but a number of harness racing stables as well.

“My dad has been involved in the sport for a very long time. He used to work for Neville Clarke in Terang.  My grandfather Bob Grayland was involved with the trotting club at Terang as well,” he said.

“Dad and I are happy just to breed them now and get them to the stage of being ready to hand over to a trainer. The Craven-Lee camp has fantastic facilities and can get that bit extra out of the horses by working them in a team and taking them to the next level.”

by Terry Gange, for Harnesslink