Debut success for Hannah

IF omens played a role into the outcome of a race then 20-year-old Hannah Parish should have taken the reins in her race track harness racing debut at Maryborough with a degree of confidence. 

Parish was driving the Clayton Tonkin trained three-year-old Miki To Success (Always B Miki), who despite having to contend with a second row draw, was sent out a $1.45 favorite in the Benstud Standardbreds Pace. 

Parish wasted little time in setting off around the field to sit parked outside the leader before forging to the front approaching the home turn. 

Miki To Success turned for home pursued by several challengers however the son of Always B Miki clicked into another gear in the home straight to score by 10 metres in a mile rate of 1:54.6 over the 1690 metre sprint trip. 

Parish gave the winner a flick with the whip with 400 metres to travel. 

“He can be a bit lazy so I had to ask him to go and he got going again in the home straight,” Parish said. 

Parish is the daughter of trainers David and Desleigh Parish who work a small team at their Coghills Creek property on the outskirts of Ballarat. 

The Parish family enjoyed plenty of success with the pacer Metro Mike who won 28 races including 18 victories at Melton. 

Parish said a career in the sulky wasn’t on the radar as a teenager. 

“Originally, I wasn’t going to do the horses but I got a job working at Clayton and Emma’s part time,” she said. 

Parish subsequently spent two years at university studying Agribusiness however left a couple of months ago to work full time at Tonkin’s Ballarat stables. 

“I couldn’t stay away from the horses,” she said. 

Parish only received her B Grade Drivers Licence last Friday. 

“Clayton wanted me to drive the horse so I didn’t have to wait long for my first win,” she said. 

It didn’t take Parish long to experience the vagaries of racing. 

At her second drive in the following race her horse Yankee Gambler, which finished sixth past the post, was declared a Non Runner after receiving interference in the score up. 

For complete race results, click here.

by John Dunne, for Harnesslink