When Tongala horsewoman Sue Hunter has enjoyed multiple success on the harness racing track in recent years there has always a common denominator.
And that is the six-year-old mare Lethal Lover (Pet Rock) which completed back to back wins at Wangaratta on Sunday.
Sent out a $1.50 favorite in the VHRC/Alabar Bloodstock Pace, Lethal Lover couldn’t muster enough speed from the pole to hold the lead however James Herbertson was quick to wrest back the front running after the death seat horse Malava Miss galloped on the first turn.
Lethal Lover was subsequently untroubled to score from Our Christiano and her stable mate Jong Ang.
Hunter explained why the mare is a stable favorite.
“I get a double about once a year and she has been part of the past three doubles I’ve trained,” Hunter said.
Prior to the race Hunter was concerned where Lethal Lover would settle from her inside draw.
“If you use her up early she doesn’t finish off so you have to go back on her at the start and it was lucky that the other horse galloped and James was able to get off and grab back the lead,” she said.
“I knew that she would be hard to get past because she likes to roll along, she has had issues with her feet but we’ve got then right and at the moment she is in the zone.”
Earlier in the day recent stable addition Twilight Beach was unable to hold out Strawberry Bling and James Herbertson was forced to bide his time at one of the few tracks in the state without a sprint lane.
Herbertson managed to weave some magic around the final bend and someway managed to extricate Twilight Beach into the clear and the $1.80 favorite did the rest scoring by two metres from Strawberry Bling.
“I’ve watched the replay a few times and I still don’t know how James was able to get off around the turn,” she said.
Hunter had a sense of dejavu when Strawberry Bling worked to the early lead.
“Strawberry Bling crossed us at Swan Hill last start and I thought we’d blown our chances without a sprint lane,” she said.
Hunter secured the mare after the well-bred daughter of Somebeachsomewhere spelled at her property.
“She had a six-month spell and Rob Auber offered her to us on lease,” she said.
It was Twilight Beach’s first win in 17 attempts.
“She’s a small framed mare but she’s well-bred and we changed a few things around and now she’s won a race,” she said.
The New Zealand born Hunter first visited Australian shores when she brought the outstanding Grant Searle trained galloper Our Maizcay across The Tasman for a tilt at the 1995 Spring Carnival.
“I used to ride him in track work,” she said.
Our Maizcay blazed a successful trail through the Spring winning three feature races at Randwick before taking out the Caulfield Guineas along with the Coolmore Stud and the Sir Rupert Clarke Stakes.
Hunter opted to stay in Australia and was working at the Warwick Farm Vet Clinic when she asked a harness racing trainer for a drive in trackwork.
“It was at Bankstown in the early 2000s and after I had a drive of one I became hooked,” she said.
Hunter secured her licence in 2007 and quickly found her niche training for Sloys Racing where the Group 1 winners flowed freely in both NSW and Victoria.
“Kept For Pleasure gave me my first Group One winner,” she said.
Among the subsequent Group One winners was the dual Derby winner Captain Joy along with Louvre who took out the Two and Three-Year-Old NSW Breeders Challenge and Two-Year-Old APG Finals.
Hunter took a sabbatical from the sport after leaving Sloy Racing however the lure of harness racing enticed her back in recent years.
“I got a horse called Monash and he ended up winning six races for us,” she said.
Meanwhile Hunter and her partner Shane Gloury are about to embark on establishing a complex at Tongala.
“Shane and I have a property at Tongala where we hope to start putting in our own track in the next couple of months,” she said.
“At the moment I have five in work operating out of Steve Lindberg’s place in Echuca.”
For complete race results, click here.
by John Dunne, for Harnesslink