Trots fostering a connection between father and son

It wasn’t so much the words Allan McDonough spoke after Blitzern’s upset Lather Up Victoria Derby heat success, but the emotion with which he delivered them that showed just how much the result meant.

For all his successes as a trainer – and there’s been nearly 300 of them – few, if any, would have been as special as the one at Lord’s Raceway last Saturday night.

McDonough had only casual phone contact with son Bailey throughout the latter’s childhood and early adult life, but just months after finally reuniting, the two combined to qualify a horse for one of the country’s oldest classics.

“Words can’t say enough to be honest,” a teary Allan told TrotsVision post-race.

A talented reinsman with almost 200 winners in Western Australia, Bailey packed his bags in July and headed to Victoria to work for the state’s most powerful training operation, Tonkin Stewart Racing.

That would see him toil side by side with his dad and the pair are fostering that connection on and off the racetrack.

“Probably go back six months ago, he contacted me and asked if he could come over,” Allan said. “I was meeting him for the first time also from when he was a baby, so it’s pretty special.”

And on Saturday night they have a live hope in a prized race.

Blitzern, trained by Allan from Emma Stewart and Clayton Tonkin’s Cardigan property, is an outsider for the $200,000 Derby despite his heat success and a picket fence next to his name.

Bailey will again drive the son of Western Terror, who will take on four Stewart-trained horses he’d be familiar with from morning trackwork, including favourite Act Now and well-fancied Major Moth.

The 23-year-old driver’s impact since swapping states has been profound and his talents in the cart have not been missed by his bosses, who have booked him to partner Out To Play in the headliner, the Pryde’s EasiFeed Victoria Cup.

To view fields for Bendigo on Saturday night click here.

By Tim O’Connor for HRV