‘Glitzy’ sparkles at 150 to 1!

Affable country Victorian harness racing trainer Danny Weinert wasn’t totally surprised when he bobbed up with a $150/1 winner at his Mildura home track on Tuesday (Feb. 14).

Weinert recently decided that four-year-old mare Glitzy All Over (Modern Art) would benefit from an increased workload on the training track.

“Early last month she ran a couple of close-up fourths. Then at her next start she just dropped out and went pretty ordinary. We know she can be a bit weak, but she can go better than that and I was probably to blame because I went a little easy on her,” he said.

“So we started working her along harder and changed her fastwork to involve two heats. After a bit I noticed a big improvement, so I knew we were on the right track.”

Glitzy All Over was driven to perfection by Dwayne Locke, of Merbein South, who iced the cake on the occasion by posting his 100th career victory.

After starting two out from the inside of the back row, Locke weaved through to settle three back the pegs, which was the pre-race plan. He was able to get into the clear rounding the home corner and Glitzy All Over sprouted wings up the straight to snatch an narrow thrilling win.

Glitzy All Over defeated Storm Stride by a head, with the short-priced favorite Avoca Blues, a neck away in third placing.

“It was definitely a 10/10 drive by Dwayne. He does a pretty good job and he also won on the horse at her previous win back in November,” Weinert said.

“I race Glitzy All Over with a good mate Darryl Laird. I told him probably 10 days before the race that she had improved out of sight. Then her next fastwork session was super again and I still thought she could be a chance.

“Darryl laughed and told me that if I was talking about another horse, he might have believed me! But I think he and a couple of other stable supporters might have had a couple of dollars on because they were pretty excited.

“I’ve never trained a winner over 100/1 before and I’ve been involved for a long time.”

Weinert, who now has 61 winners to his name, scored his first training and driving victory at the old Nyah circuit back in 1982 with pacer Captain Midnight.

“It was my seventh attempt, and I went on to win three races in four days—after the first one on the Tuesday, I won at the Mildura Show trots on the Thursday and Friday nights,” he said.

“I probably got involved in the sport through uncle Perc Weinert, who trained out in the Millewa (a farming district, west of Mildura). He had some really nice horses, particularly Right Angle. I reckon she won three or four in town.

“Darryl helps me out every day. He just loves the horses and the industry. I’ve got an 18-acre property with a half mile track and we’re doing seven or eight at the moment, including a few two-year-olds that haven’t done much, but are showing some promise.

“You have got to keep trying because you never know when that good one will come along.  I’ve still got my driver’s license, which is still handy for the trials, but we were really excited for Dwayne to get the win on Glitzy All Over. He’s driven some ordinary horses for us, and I told him I owed him a good one to get on!”

For complete race results, click here.

by Terry Gange, for Harnesslink