Debutante 2yo takes her A-game to town

Victoria’s Whittle family is still coming down to earth after celebrating their biggest win in harness racing and their first Listed Classic success.

Prohibited Grace (Volstead) produced a faultless display on race debut to take out the Haras des Trotteurs Nutrien Equine Classic 2yo Trotting Fillies Final at Melton last Saturday night (April 20).

Driven by Matthew Whittle and trained by his father Graeme, based at Coimadai, 60km west of Melbourne, the filly was impressive sitting outside the leader to take out the $75,000 feature.

“That was certainly a special race to win – it was not only my biggest win by far, but the biggest race I’ve ever been involved in,” an elated Matthew said.

“We were all pretty proud of her. We’d taken her to the Bacchus Marsh trials a few times and dad did some tweaking on her feet a while ago with the help of our farrier Mick McCormack, but she’s just done most of her work at home,” he said.

Matthew admitted the race didn’t really pan out to plan.

“It was pretty clear that I wasn’t all that happy sitting in the death-seat, and I was thinking ‘can someone come around please’!” he said.

“I was thinking that the others had race fitness under their belts, and I didn’t, but when she strode up to the leader with 400 metres to go, I did get some confidence because I was still hanging on and the others seemed to be hard at it.

“I’ve been battling away all my life helping dad and the win will take a bit to sink in but it’s awesome to sit behind a reasonably nice one.”

The filly’s win was Matthew’s 16^th as a driver, but he said she’d always shown the attributes to be a nice two-year-old.

“She’s very intelligent and picked up things very easy, starting off with the breaking-in,” he said.

“I don’t mind trotters because they are more of a laidback style. It’s all about getting your horse around and keeping the rhythm, and for me, that’s right up my alley.

“Dad still likes to drive, so we share it around a bit, and he had a good trot last year, winning six races with Amunet.”

Matthew said Prohibited Grace was passed in at the Nutrien Melbourne sale after being offered by the Poole family of Rhiannon Park at Congupna.

“It was probably about three months later that we gave them a call and decided to purchase the horse,” he said.

“I’m a bit restricted with my work, but I usually go out and help dad once a fortnight or whenever possible. My brother Ash is there as well so it’s a real family affair. We only have three in training at one time, which works out nicely.

“The win was just so exciting because mum (Carol) and dad are in it as a hobby, and they’ve worked hard at it over 40 or 50 years.

“They had a couple of very good pacers years ago in Tweedsmuir (Tarport King) and Joueur (Dale Spring). Since then, they’ve had a few nice trotters, but they are rapt with Prohibited Grace.”

by Terry Gange, for Harnesslink