Free legged and having fun

Victorian harness racing trainer Michael Cole doesn’t seem to mind at all that his free-legged pacer Hawaiianbeach is turning a few heads at the races.

“He has had a bit of a canter around in his warm-up laps on occasions which does draw some attention,” Cole laughs.

“And I suppose he does stand out anyway because he’s so big and casual.”

Cole, based at Bannockburn, near Geelong, decided to throw away the hopples during the current campaign with the seven-year-old bay gelding.

“When I first of all bought him from New South Wales, I raced him in hopples. I won on him at Geelong at his second start and then Chris (Alford) got the money at Hamilton,” he said.

“The horse whacked his knees really bad at one of his next starts, so he had time off. Then when I got him back in, while he was on the mend, I worked him at home with no hopples and he seemed a lot happier and was pacing along quite nicely.”

As well as trying the pacer freeleg, Cole adopted another unorthodox measure, putting trotting boots on his back legs because he was worried the pacer might hit behind.

“So we’ve probably had seven or eight starts without hopples-but with the back boots on in case he makes a mistake!”

And after a few close-up fourths, Cole’s endeavour was recently rewarded with a win at Ballarat’s Bray Raceway.

The victory by champion reinsman Alford was his 600th on that particular country track.

“While I enjoy the driving part, we’ve decided that when the professionals are available, we’ll put them on. We were able to get Chris so it all turned out well,” he said.

Although he was around horses from an early age, Cole had no real involvement in harness racing until later in life.

“When I was a kid, my grandfather always had a few. And he had a mate nearby in Jack Powles who stood stallions, did a lot of breakers and trained a few now and again, and I was always up at Jack’s place as much as I could.”

But Cole has now been training for six years, and he and his partner Laura have been busy since Christmas, setting up a new property.

“I’m a builder by trade and run a company with about nine workers. Laura does the horses each day with the help of Paul Warnock, who we call our stable manager,” he said.

“I try to be there first thing each morning and I help out on hopple-up days. We couldn’t be happier and hopefully we’ll have a nice place when it’s finished.

“All up we have 45 acres. We’ve got a 1100m track as well as an 800m straight track and we plan to put in a pool. There’s 14 day yards and six bigger paddocks. We have 12 in work, but there’s only three racing at the moment.

“Laura is very good with the horses. She worked at the old Melbourne Showgrounds years ago with (respected trainer) Les Turner.

“We’ve spent time with some of the best to try and get as much experience as we can. We had 12 months with Geoff Webster and also had stints with Mark Purdon and Kerryn Manning.”

Although Cole has been in experimental mode, he was thankful that Hawaiianbeach (Somebeachsomewhere – Lisa Don (Chandon) wasn’t wearing hopples in a race recently when he was driving.

“I got my legs taken and he went down on his knees, but then somehow flipped himself back up. Had he been racing in hopples, he would have been restricted and there would have been carnage. “He came out of it with some bruising, but I was so lucky.”

By Terry Gange for Harnesslink