Kiss The Aviator brings a smile to Amelia Hanrahan’s face

If not for young Amelia Hanrahan, long-time maiden harness racing pacer Kiss The Aviator (Mr Aviator) would have likely ran his last race a while ago.

Amelia is the eight-year-old daughter of Redcliffe trainer Martin Hanrahan.

The Hanrahans picked up the veteran gelding late last year when he was nearing 70 starts without yet greeting the judge first.

There are not many standardbreds – or thoroughbreds for that matter – that race on past 70 starts without breaking their maiden status.

So when fellow Sunshine State trainer Jonah Hutchinson moved him on, there would have been some questions around if another stable was going to take him on.

The Hanrahan clan did so happily and while he is there to win races as his first job, he quickly become part of the family.

“They love him, he is a pet,” Martin’s sister Nicole – who also trains a team of horses – said.

“The horse is a family horse.”

The bay gelding finally delivered on Wednesday of last week around ‘The Triangle’ circuit, nabbing a maiden victory at start 83.

Amelia and Martin were at home half asleep when the victory occurred, with Martin’s partner and owner Meredith Krieger on hand to enjoy the spoils.

Martin was trying to get Amelia to go to sleep around 9pm when the race was happening and once the news filtered through of the result, she was too excited and couldn’t sleep at all

“The reason we have stuck with him is because he is such a nice natured horse,” Martin said when asked why they have kept racing him for so long without reward.

“My daughter rides him.

“I would have been happy to move him on at some point but my partner and daughter love him so much, it makes it that little bit more difficult.

“I wanted to see him win a race for my daughter, partner and for the horse himself as he is such a lovely horse.

“He is such a nice horse to have around and he is pretty to look at.”

Leading reinsman Nathan Dawson took a trail behind the leader in the seat of Kiss The Aviator last Wednesday before getting the best of short-favourite Art Of Rock by a head in the concluding stages.

Krieger was overjoyed.

“They were stoked, Martin couldn’t believe it,” Nicole said.

“Martin’s partner was crying and everything.”

The nine-year-old pacer went through a number of stables before arriving with the Hanrahans on the Peninsula.

According to Martin, the gelding has always shown enough to stay up in work but he believes Kiss The Aviator just lacks the high speed to consistently threaten to win races more often.

“His track work has always suggested that he might get there as when he works against horses that have won races, he works with them and can work as well as anything,” the trainer said.

“I think he just lacks that bit of high speed, which I think is why he has not won one before.

“He does not have the speed but fortunately this race panned out perfectly for him.

“They ran a moderate lead time and the first quarter was solid, which took a bit out of the others as well probably.

“And, they got home in sort of moderate time as well, which suited him on the day. He had the right draw, the right field on the right day for him.”

Kiss The Aviator had placed on 14 occasions before winning for the first time last week.

by Jordan Gerrans, for Racing Queensland