First win ticks off two boxes

The cream rose to the top when country Victorian dairy farmer Nicholas O’Connor landed his first harness racing winner as both a trainer and driver last week.

Twenty-three-year-old O’Connor, a third-generation horseman, drove a well-judged race to land the money with Fouroutoffive (Muscle Mass) in the 3yo Maiden Trot at Ballarat (August 18).

“I didn’t have time to enjoy a few celebration drinks. I got home at 1am and then had football in the afternoon so I finally got to have a couple of drinks that night after footy,” he laughed.

O’Connor, who bred and races the square-gaiter with his father Anthony and brother Xavier, combines training a team of four horses with working on the family farm and milking about 250 cows.

“It all works in pretty well. We have to be up at 6am to get the cows in and then they get milked again at about 4.30pm so there’s time in between to do the horses,” he said.

“I’m working two trotters and two pacers, while Xavier has three in work and dad is doing two. We’ve got a 550-acre farm so there’s plenty of space for horses and cows.

“We bought the mother of Fouroutoffive, Aldebaran Kiri, as a yearling. She turned out to be a nice racehorse winning six races and over $55K.

“She raced in two Group One’s and one of those was at Melton when she finished runner-up to Pantzup, which was trained and driven by the late Gavin Lang.”

Records show the event was the $50,000 Lyn McPherson Memorial Breed For Speed Gold Series Final on March 9, 2019. Pantzup won the 1720m feature in 1.56-7 by 2.3m over Aldebaran Kiri, driven by Xavier.

“We ended up retiring her because injury was starting to slow her up. Fouroutoffive was her first foal. She’s had another (Orlando Vici) and is in foal again (Muscle Hill),” O’Connor said.

“I’ve broken in three horses, and one was Fouroutoffive, who was a good horse to deal with. He was a little bit lazy, but after he was broken in, he was easy to get going. I remember his mum was pretty fiery.

“He had a bit of bad luck at his first race start, but still worked home nicely. In his next start at Geelong, he was held up early and then got to the line pretty well for third.

“I had planned to give him a start at Melton this week, but now we’re going to aim for the VicBred heats. I don’t mind the trotters because once you get them sorted they’re okay. I‘ve also learnt how to shoe them myself if I have to.”

The family is based at Scotts Creek, south of Camperdown, with Terang the closest track 40 minutes away and Ballarat 150 kilometres away.

While O’Connor obtained his trainers licence two years ago, he has only been race driving for 12 months and his victory came up at his 12th attempt.

“Dad and Xavier still drive. I’m quite enjoying it and your fate is in your own hands. I’ve only ever driven our own horses because with the cows it’s too hard to get away and drive for other trainers,” he said.

O’Connor’s attention might also be elsewhere in coming weeks, as footy finals with the Cobden Bombers are just around the corner.

“Both the Senior and Reserve teams are looking for a chance at this stage,” he said.

by Terry Gange, for Harnesslink