All roads lead to Mildura for carnival

Melbourne harness racing trainer Vince Vallelonga says he can’t remember when he hasn’t put a circle on his calendar highlighting the annual Mildura Pacing Cup carnival dates.

“I think there would be plenty of others in the sport who do likewise. There are so many ‘regulars’ who have been going up there for years,” Vallelonga, based at Bolinda, said.

“For me it’s home, but it’s also been a pretty good carnival to me over the years. During one of the carnivals, we won five races in a week. We absolutely cleaned up!

“But overall, the carnival week is just good fun and I look forward to getting back up each year. It’s not just the racing – there’s also the social activities where you catch up with old mates again.”

Mildura is Victoria’s only three-day Pacing Cup Carnival – Pacing Cup qualifying heats of $10,000, will be run on Tuesday week, April 19, with the Group Two $60,000 Cup final four nights later. The Mildura Trotters Cup is the feature of the Friday night fixture of the three-night carnival.

Spearheading the Vallelonga team will be Art of Sheng Li (Art Major – Sheng Li (D M Dillinger), a recent winner at the Mildura track, who will compete in another of the carnival’s features, the Tenderprint Australia series.

Art of Sheng Li is raced and was bred by Vallelonga’s partner and first-time owner Elizabeth Ferrinda.

“Before Elizabeth and I got together she was into riding hacks, and we met when she called into my place one day to see if we had anything she could ride. I put her on Shot From The Hip (winner of 10 races)- he played up a bit but he didn’t buck her off, thankfully!”

Vallelonga said Elizabeth had paid $3000 for the dam Sheng Li at a Soho clearing sale and Art of Sheng Li has turned into a handy horse, despite a rough start to life.

“Sheng Li wasn’t in foal, so we took her to Art Major and she foaled down there. But four weeks before the foal was due to be weaned, they found the mare dead in the paddock, probably from a snake bite.

“They found a substitute mare, and for the first day it was all okay but on day two the foal got kicked in the hock and ended up with a bone infection – and a $3000 operation. He didn’t race as a two-year-old because he was just too big, but he’s turned into a handy horse and he’s won seven for us so far.”

For Vallelonga, the Mildura carnival is a home-coming, as he was born and raised in the Sunraysia region where his parents, Joe and Anne grew grapes.

“Dad died a while ago, but mum still lives on the property. Mum has brothers who are well-known in the sport in Neil and Frank Cavallaro,” Vallelonga said.

“I reckon the first time I sat in a jogcart and drove a horse was up at Rochester. I was about 13 years old, and it was behind a horse Neil had called Egyptian Byrd. Frank was up there as well at the time.”
After leaving school Vallelonga landed his first job at the Mildura abattoirs. But getting involved with horses always burned, and it wasn’t long before he obtained his first from Robert Nolan, who lived at nearby Cardross.

“Rob is racing a horse again at the moment. The one I got off him was by Lord Setay, and I would jog it around the headlands of dad’s vineyard. Otherwise, I’d go up to Howard O’Neill’s place to work on his track. There was also a bit of a jog track around the nearby Red Cliffs golf course.”

Working horses was initially a hobby that Vallelonga continued, even as he moved on his career, running a busy pizza restaurant in Mildura, then later driving Holidaymaker and Greyhound coaches.

“I remember one of the horses I had, Don’t Bug Me, I sent down to Vinnie Knight at Kilmore. Vinnie rang me one day and said to get together as much money as possible, don’t be scared, and get to Maryborough where he was racing the horse,” Vallelonga said.

“So, we did. I went down with a mate. But everything didn’t go quite to plan – turning for home Vinnie nearly got tipped out. He ended up winning, though, and I can’t remember how much we won, but we spent four days living it up in Bendigo!”

After getting married and having a family, Vallelonga took up horses full time, becoming the private trainer for businessman and prominent owners Eric and Heather Anderson.

“Eric had set up a property at Euston, near Robinvale. I was there and later moved to Mildura where he bought a property and set up complex not far from the Murray River.”
Vallelonga later set up stables at Hattah and Yaapeet, in the Mallee, before moving on to work as stable foreman for Clayton Tonkin’s dad Peter at Ballarat. A two-year stint there was followed by nearly four years in a similar role with Lance Justice, then Sam Godino at Riddells Creek.

“They taught me a lot. It was great being with Lance at that time because he had a stable of superstars, with Sokyola and co,” he said.

“Then we moved out to Bolinda, where I still am, and built the property from scratch. We could accommodate 40 horses and at one time we did get up to 30.”

While Vallelonga admits he’s enjoyed a good journey in the sport, he’s longing for the day he gets another grand circuit horse.

“Major Crocker (30 wins) is without doubt the best horse I’ve ever had. He won the 3yo Breeders Crown and an InterDominion Consolation in WA. He was also runner-up in a Mildura Pacing Cup. He’s still racing and winning over in the US,” he said.

“Some of the others that we did okay with were Stunning Grin (16 wins), Manuka Man (13 wins) and Chilled Desire (12 wins), who went on to race in America. The sport has taken me to a lot of places, to all the city tracks and to three Inters in three years.

“There’s nothing like having a grand circuit horse and you never really stop looking for that next one, do you?” he laughed.

by Terry Gange, for Harnesslink