Change of scenery is a win-win!

Victorian hobby trainer Ian Caruana has been in the harness racing game a long time – but he’s never kicked off a season in better fashion, with two starters for two wins.

Caruana prepared Merry Dancer (Changeover) to win the Barwon Facilities Pace at Geelong at his first outing for 2023 (Jan 4), then followed up with Exclusive Maria (Always Be Miki) at Ballarat two days later – his best start to a season in 40 years in the sport.

“I was beside myself, actually,” Caruana said.

“I thought I was a good chance with each of them, but often enough you think you’re a good chance and things don’t quite work out! It’s nice to see things just fall into place sometimes,” he said.

Caruana appears to be reaping dividends from a change of scenery and training routine, as well as the extra attention he’s able to devote to his small team in retirement.

“I followed my older brother Tony (Anthony) Caruana into the sport.  He was the patriarch of harness racing in the family and the one that got me into it,” he said.

“I remember doing fastwork with him back in the day and absolutely being caught up in it. Then once you get involved, you get to know people and you get talking to anybody and everybody and it just becomes part of you.

“He certainly got me started – although the Maltese in me probably came through too, because we are very much orientated to horses, of course.”

Ian was originally based at Rockbank, but made the shift to a new property during 2022.

“I knew I was going to have to move because the developers were coming in, and I thought I had better start looking to see what was around before I was pushed out onto the street!” he said.

“I found a beautiful property at Bullengarook which used to be owned by (owner and trainer) Bill Polidano.  I absolutely love it, and I think the horses do, too.

“It’s a very mountainous sort of area and on 118 acres – when I turn the horses out into the paddocks I need to use binoculars to keep an eye on them!

“I built a new track about eight months ago and the run home is uphill and I think that seems to be paying dividends. I do interval training, and I’m very close to the Bacchus Marsh track where I can give them their fastwork and I think that lets you know where you are at with the times you run.”

Caruana said after retiring from his engineering business 12 months ago, he’s enjoying the routine and focus provided by his team of four.

“I like to breed and work my own horses and my partner Bev Lechmere is an ex galloping trainer.  She loves it here and now she loves the harness racing as well. She trained gallopers for a long time at Flemington, and she doesn’t get out on the track but she is very hands on behind the scenes.

“Bev had Exclusive Maria (out of the 24-win mare Saved A Corka) given to her and she’s proving to be a very consistent girl with two wins and three placings from her seven starts.  Merry Dancer is one I bred, a half-sister to Chrissie Divinyl (Jet Laag) who won 11 races for me.  She has taken a while to get into her gear, but she won really nicely at Geelong, and I hope there is more to come from her.

“I really enjoy working with horses that are a little bit hard to get into line.  I get a kick out of putting some polish on them and taking them to the races and seeing them being consistent and doing well.

“I probably should have retired before I did, but I am thoroughly enjoying what I am doing now.”

by Terry Gange, for Harnesslink