‘Gift horse’ Glady a rare blessing

It has to be said, as wedding gifts go, a retired harness racing standardbred is a somewhat unorthodox offering.

But for first-time racehorse owners Susan and Louis Grech, their adored mare “Glady” has given them more happiness than any bakeware or bathrobes could!

And on Sunday, their quirky seven-year-old mare Gotta Go Gladys (Gotta Go Cullect – Lamri (Golden Greek) shrugged off her retiree tag and thrilled her proud owners with her first career win at Cranbourne.

“We’re still buzzing – we’re just absolutely over the moon.  It took three years to get here, but she’s made good for me on that lingering ‘little girl dream’ of owning a racehorse,” Susan said.

“I’ve always loved horses and my family on my mum’s side was involved in harness racing, but I’d never owned a racehorse before.  We couldn’t be prouder or happier,” she said.

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Glady was gifted to the Grechs by friends Kieran and Sue Prendergast, who run Hepburn Lagoon Trail Rides, where Susan rides regularly, and where the couple were married.

“I already had a retired standardbred Arnie (Inthedeadofnight) for riding but after Kieran and Sue gave Glady to us, we began our journey trail riding in the Wombat State Forest at Hepburn, and later on trying some dressage and arena work,” Susan said.

“We did all sorts of other things for three years, and at everything I asked Glady to do, she excelled and wanted to learn.  It was funny, though, that the dream of racing her kept growing inside me.  I kept thinking ‘you were bred to race’ and wondering if she could do that again.

“Then, at the feed store one day I ran into (trainer) Jeremy Quinlan who I knew through my cousin Richie Caruana.  Because of the COVID restrictions, I had my horse registration papers in my hand, and I asked Jeremy if there was a chance we could bring Glady back to racing again.

“He looked into her background and said she was well bred and she might be worth a try.  So that’s where it started.”

Susan contacted Glady’s owners, and they were more than happy to formally transfer the horse into the couple’s names.

“Glady was bred by some Mildura owners (Terry Cook and Barry Bottams) who had raced her in South Australia, but they’d retired her to trail riding,” Susan said.

“Richie’s stables were full at the time, but Jeremy was able to take her in February and has done an amazing job to get her back to racing after her three years of resting.  It was a wonderful training effort and a great drive (by Michael Bellman) to win.”

Susan said both she and Louis were animal lovers, but while Louis had an interest in horses, he had little involvement with them before the couple met.

“Our first date was actually spent cleaning manure out of horse paddocks!” she said.

“I kept putting Louis off when he was asking me for a date, telling him every week I was busy with my horse at the weekend.  So in the end my cousin told me to ‘bring the poor guy out to the stables’. My other horse Arnie, liked him, so it was all good!”

Susan said the couple was enjoying the hands-on experience of harness racing ownership.

“Jeremy has been fantastic and Richie has also been great in advising and teaching us, and encouraging us along the way.  Both Louis and I now have our stablehand licences, so we can help,” she said.

“I’m not sure about training ourselves. For the moment, we’re just enjoying owning a race horse.  Glady will race a little bit more, and then we would love to see her become a mum, but we’ll just wait and see.”

By Terry Gange for Harnesslink