12yo keeps the dream alive with win number 57

Retirement plans are on hold for evergreen 12-year-old harness racing pacer Celestial Daybreak (Dawn Ofa New Day), with his 57^th career victory showing there’s plenty of cheek left in the old boy yet!

Celestial Daybreak was having just his third start back in Victoria for the Charlton-based stable of Tori Hutchins and scored a comfortable four metre victory (Dec 2) at his new home track, driven by Ben Xiriha.

And perhaps not unexpectedly, connections have temporarily shelved plans for Celestial Daybreak’s post-racing rehoming.

They had planned to send Celestial Daybreak back to where it all started nearly 10 years ago, to former Victorian trainer Jenni Lewis.

“Last time I spoke to one of the owners he said if Jai can get one more win, he’ll retire.  But he went so well for Tori I think they’ve reconsidered and thought why not? He enjoys his racing, he’s going well, and he looks terrific,” Lewis said.

Most of Celestial Daybreak’s long and successful career has been in South Australia, the home state of owners Michael and Steven Byrne, but he was sent to Hutchins with the goal of “one-more win” before transferring to Lewis to oversee his rehoming.

Lewis, now the HRV Workforce Development Manager, was formerly head of the Gippsland-based Harness Racing Training School, which was where she formed the connection with Celestial Daybreak and a number of other horses owned by the Byrnes.

“I think he was either a yearling or just two when I went and picked him up to become a school horse for the young students to learn training, horse management and driving skills,” she said.

“I drove up to a stud near Shepparton to pick him up and I just fell in love with him straight away. He is just the most magnificent looking animal – he took my breath away!

“We sent him off to be broken in and when he came back to the school it was testament to his temperament that he managed so well with the students when he was just learning the ropes himself.

“He was also the poster boy for all the school flyers and ads at the time – everyone loved him.

“He won a race when he was four, going 2:06 so he got his owners their VicBred bonus. But he wasn’t running much time, and I thought he might have had his birthday here, so I eventually said to the owners his racing future might be in South Australia.”

Lewis was right! Celestial Daybreak went on to win another 55 races in the ensuing seven years for trainer Shane Loone, including a best winning mile rate of 1:53.1 in 2019, before returning to Victoria last month.

Now, the durable gelding, known around the stables as “Jai”, has a career record of an astounding 429 starts for 57 wins, 55 seconds and 43 thirds.

“The deal was always that he would come back to me when his racing career was over.  I want to make sure he has a good home and that he gets a really good grounding under saddle so that no matter where he goes in life he will be loved and valued,” Lewis said.

“We had a few of Michael and Steven’s horses – Celestial Gossip and Celestial Trekker – that were also ‘school horses’ and we won quite a few races with them.

“Celestial Gossip is currently being re-trained by Dakota Wilden who is a former student of the school and now runs her own business Gippsland Horse Training and Sales so that’s another example of the training school story.  She’s also a part owner of champion trotter Just Believe.

“’Trekker’ has had a very similar story.  He was retrained to saddle and sold to a lovely mature lady rider who wanted a horse she could just ride when she can.  People know what they get with a standy, and she just loves him.

“Pretty much every year a student would fall in love with a particular horse and put their hand up to take them when they retire, so that’s happened with quite a few of the ex-school horses too.

“All the horses I had at the school, with the blessing of the owners, all come back to me, just to make sure they are ready for a really productive and good life after retirement.”

by Terry Gange, for Harnesslink