Former Kiwi is up and away

A bold move by talented young New Zealand harness racing identity Josh Dickie to cross the Tasman and set up a new base has been kick-started with a Melton victory.

“It was so good to get off the mark and land a winner. One of the reasons for our shift was to allow me to concentrate more on freelance driving,” he said.

Dickie and his partner Sammy Kilgour recently moved to a property at Toolern Vale, virtually on the doorstep of Melton.

“When we were back in NZ tossing up with what to do, it probably came down to Sammy owning the place. We just decided ‘why not.we’ve got nothing to lose’!” he said.

“We’ve always liked Melbourne. We thoroughly enjoyed the city when we came over to race horses. It’s got a great vibe and there’s so much sport, like cricket, that I enjoy.”

Dickie showed fine touch with a nice drive to land Three Bros (Dejarmbro-Right Yankee (Yankee Paco) in the $8000 Allied Express Trot at Melton last Friday night. After finding an early lead, he elected to hand up to Rogue Gentleman (Kate Gath).

On the home corner it appeared a race in two with Three Bros having enjoyed a cosy trip behind Rogue Gentleman. Dickie elected to pull out rather than take the sprint lane and his horse zipped away to score impressively.

“He felt like a lovely horse and trotted very well. His trainer Peter (Hall) got in touch with me, and it was terrific to get the win for him,” Dickie said.

“The great thing is that there are opportunities over here to drive every day and while my main focus will be on that, Sammy and I will have a little team of our own ticking along. We’re training seven at the moment and with both of us chipping away, we could comfortably get this up to around a dozen.

“Sammy drove in races years ago and landed probably four or five winners. I think her last one was in 2013, but she has no aspirations to go back to driving.”

Dickie and Kilgour have a formal training partnership and are hoping to pick up some Kiwi horses along the journey.

The decision by the pair to move to Australia came as a huge shock to the industry back in New Zealand. Regarded as an enormously accomplished reinsman, Dickie impressed in his first season last year when he branched out from a training partnership with his dad John, to training in his own right.

Even though John was still around the stables to lend a hand, Josh was set to establish himself as one of the stars of the future.

“It certainly was a big decision to come to Australia, because we had been ticking over really well. Honestly, we were a bit confused as to what to do. We did leave behind some nice horses, but dad has them now though,” he said.

“We had to look at another option when the South Auckland property we were training out of was going to be placed on the market by the owner Marilyn Hoggard.

“Marilyn’s late husband Kerry, who was a former president of the Auckland Trotting Club, set it up before he passed away in 2015. We trained four or five horses for Marilyn, and she was brilliant to us but we knew the property would be sold up one day.

“When we couldn’t find anything suitable, it just came down to maybe the time was right to shift across to Australia. Both of us wrote down every option and we wanted to stay in Auckland. The idea of Australia was down near the bottom, but in the end we both agreed it was a great chance to have a bit of a crack. So here we are!”

The 30-year-old also has a personal milestone within his sights with 500 driving winners not all that far away.

“I know I’ve driven around 450 in New Zealand and have probably had 10 over here over the years so I’ll be pushing hard,” he said.

Among Dickie’s winners are nine Group One victories (four in Australia), several courtesy of champion square-gaiter Speeding Spur (Pegasus Spur-Della’s Speed (Chiola Hanover). They claimed the Crown 3yo, Trot Derby and the Southern Star Final. Speeding Spur finished his career with 26 wins and 19 placings, narrowly missing the $1M mark by just $1191. His outstanding stablemate, also a trotter in Kratos (Majestic Son-Hanover The Gold (Evander’s Gold) won the Crown 3yo Final.

“I don’t really have a preference sitting behind a good trotter or pacer. I suppose with the trotters there’s more of an art to it-you have to nurse some of them along in their gait,” he said.

Dickie said he had the harness racing bug at an early age.

“I left school when I was 15, but I had a job lined up,” he said.

“Dad was adamant that I got a proper apprenticeship in the sport-so it was pretty exciting to work for one of New Zealand’s best in Tony Herlihy.

“I had always idolized him. I stayed with Tony for seven years. It was awesome.”

Herlihy, known as “The Iceman”, trained his 1000th winner early last year and become just the second New Zealander to have 1000 winners as both a driver and trainer-joining brother-in-law Mark Purdon.

Meanwhile Dickie will travel to Geelong tonight with five-year-old trotting gelding Isaac H, a starter in the Yabby Dam Farms Trotters Handicap at 8.30pm. Click here to view fields.

“He’s probably going to take a while to recapture his best, but he’s going along okay, and we’ll keep working on him,” Dickie said.

By Terry Gange for Harnesslink