Fortune favours the brave

Some achievements are braver than others in harness racing and rehabilitating a pacer who’s lost an eye is no small challenge – but winning at only the horse’s second start back is something else.

Hard working Bendigo region trainer Kate Hargreaves could not have been more thrilled with the first up third for comeback pacer Gauci (Betterthancheddar-Magic In Flight (Fake Left).

But both Hargreaves and connections were over the moon with the pacer’s follow up – a victory at Shepparton on Tuesday night at longshot odds of $31.

“I bought him last July from Tasmania and two months later he got an infection in his offside eye,” part-owner Garry Collinson, of Beveridge, said.

“The infection basically kept pushing his eye out and, in the end, he had to have it removed.  I actually thought he was a lost cause to continue a racing career, and was looking at retirement for him.

“But Kate wouldn’t give up and kept persevering. He went sour and was moody for a bit, but Kate entered him for a Melton trial and we decided if he could keep up we’d press on—he come out and won!”

Collinson said the owner group of his wife Kim, along with Kim’s parents Frank and Sue Harris, were ecstatic when the five-year-old gelding ran an encouraging third at Hamilton ten days ago at his first race start for them.

“We were so proud of him just to have made it to the races. We actually regarded that as a win. We all buy them to race and win, but you do fall in love with them as well,” he said.

“Then to get the win at Shepparton was an outstanding effort by Kate and her staff. And of course a credit to the horse. He’s so resilient. We didn’t get there to watch him because work commitments made making the first race impossible, but he’s going around next Tuesday again at Shepparton and hopefully this time he’s in a later race!”

In fact, Hargreaves hit punters for six in the space of two hours at Shepparton. Gauci (Ellen Tormey) started the ball rolling, then six-year-old gelding Tex Goes Bang (Bettors Delight-Eastern Lookout (Life Sign) did exactly as his name suggests taking out the Barastoc Pace at 150/1.

“I was more than a bit surprised at the odds because both horses had reasonable form going into their races,” Hargreaves, based at Shelbourne, said.

“It was certainly my longest priced winner that I’ve ever had. But he’s been super consistent in the maiden grade and the drive by Nathan Jack was the key to winning the race—it was just brilliant,” she said.

“I’ve been training him for a while. John Hallam was on the sick list and suggested to owner Mitchell Sidebottom that I take two of his horses for a bit. John is a big supporter, and he was at the meeting to see the win which was great.”

Collinson said he first noticed Gauci when he was advertised for sale two years ago by his NSW trainer David Thorn.

“The Yoles in Tasmania beat me to it but I did keep tabs on him—and made a few approaches which were unsuccessful.

“When I sold Cuzin Lyndal over to there, part of the deal was that they’d throw in Gauci for me and I ended up not paying a lot for him.

“We love having other owners in with us. There’s nothing like sharing the enjoyment. My wife and I just love harness racing people; we love every second of it and we’ll go everywhere to watch our horses. Just the other day we turned up at the Bendigo trials.

“I first owned a horse more than 20 years ago and I also had a go at the gallops a long time ago. The stake money in the gallops is a lot higher, but harness racing seems more accessible, and the people are great.”

Hargreaves, who is working a team of 20 horses, has two of her big guns close to resuming.

“Both Well Defined (16w) and Lost Four Words (6w) are not far off so that’s exciting. We decided to tip out Don’t Care as he wasn’t 100 percent for the Tontine so he’s having a good spell in a paddock,” she said.

“Jack MacKinnon has been a massive help since joining the stable. We actually have room for some more horses at the moment as a few others have been moved on.”

Hargreaves has trained 271 winners during her career, recording 100 last year.

by Terry Gange, for Harnesslink