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The following piece was written by John Tapp for John Tapp Racing.
In the days when I was getting to the trots on a regular basis, Amy Day was one of my favourite people.
The petite blonde daughter of Neil and Vicki Day was at the mercy of genetic forces from the time of her birth thirty two years ago. Her paternal grandfather, Miracle Mile winning trainer Frank Day had passed before she was born. Her father Neil was already firmly established among Sydney’s top trotting trainers, while uncles Dennis and Michael had more than made their marks in the sport. Michael had trained and driven Gundary Flyer to a Miracle Mile win in 1982. Amy was either going to follow the family trend, or completely discard the prospect of a future with standardbred horses.
She chose the former. Unlike most country kids she showed little interest in riding horses, but dreamed of the day her dad would allow her to vault into a sulky. The locals still talk of the tiny teenager sitting behind a huge pacer called Photography – the gentle giant who was Amy’s favourite horse of the day. Her affinity with horses was obvious from the first time she worked Photography alongside her father.
Neil Day tells the story about the day young Amy asked him to sign a work experience form she’d brought home from school. She wanted to spend the required time in dad’s trotting stable. He wanted her to get some real work experience in a hairdressing salon or supermarket. It was only when Amy insisted she’d get one of her uncles to sign the form, that Neil finally relented. “He gave up once he realised I was deadly serious,” said Amy. “He came to terms with the fact that I’d inherited the family genes just as he had at the same age.”
She was a young girl in a helluva hurry when the time came to qualify for her race driver’s accreditation. Neil had a large team of horses in work at the time, enabling his daughter to quickly reel off the mandatory twenty drives. Amy’s career got away to a flyer when she won on Miss Merrylands at her very first race drive. It was a three year old event at a Canberra meeting transferred to Goulburn. It’s likely her sense of achievement was heightened by the fact that uncle Michael ran second on Has The Art, while Neil was fourth on Glowing Jasper.
The teenager didn’t stop there. Two races later she landed Jackson Grant a narrow winner over Neil’s mount Saint William with uncle Michael in third place on Emkay One – a double on her first day at the races. “Miss Merrylands turned out to be an important horse in my early years,” said Amy. “I think I finished up winning eight races on the daughter of Presidential Ball.”
The aforementioned Saint William remains one of Amy’s all time favourites. The horse was owned by brothers Ron and Max Truer and trained throughout a 72 start career by Neil Day. He won 22 races with 25 placings for over $150,000. “I won four races in all on Saint William including two at Harold Park,” said Amy. “He was my first winner on the famous track which closed about a year later. I’ll never forget the feeling I got the first time I went through that underground tunnel and up onto the track in front of that amazing grandstand. They are precious memories.”
The Goulburn teenager quickly selected as a role model, the remarkable Kerryn Manning who was dominating the Australian female driving ranks at the time. The extraordinary Great Western horsewoman established a new world record figure of 2133 several years ago, and hit the 4000 career win mark in January 2021 when she scored on Glenavril King at Stawell. “She was and still is my inspiration,” says Amy. “She ticks every box as a trainer and driver, and you won’t meet a nicer person in the industry.”
Horse loving Amy has formed an attachment to several horses since her professional career began. One of them was It Ain’t Over who almost died as a foal, but survived to win 17 races. Amy drove him in 8 of those wins. “He was actually named after an expression used by the vet,” she recalls. “The first time he looked at the little colt, he declared that he’d be lucky to last the night. He checked on him again the following morning and used the expression “it ain’t over yet”. It was the perfect name for a real little fighter.”
Amy had a soft spot for Papa Camelot who won 22 races and recorded an astonishing 58 placings in two states. During the gelding’s time in the Neil Day stable, Amy drove him to an impressive 14 wins. “We took him to the Goulburn track to gallop him with another horse one day,” recalled Amy. “He flatly refused to roll into a canter and the further we went the better he paced. Dad raced him without hopples from that moment on, and he struck the best form of his career. He didn’t reach the heights of the celebrated unhoppled pacer Avonnova who won almost a million dollars, but he was a lovely horse to have in the stable.”
Amy was very fond of a Village Jasper mare called Jasperthat with whom she won ten races including three at Harold Park a year before the closure of the Harold Park track. To this point in time Amy’s many winners had been trained by her father, and she hadn’t given a great deal of thought to training horses in her own right. All of that changed when owner/breeder Ron Cooper approached her to prepare a horse called Skippers Canyon, already the winner of ten races. Amy quickly applied for her licence and took delivery of a horse who came with a reputation for indiscriminate bucking. She got on very well with the headstrong gelding, posting six wins and many placings. Skippers Canyon wasn’t the most pleasant horse in the world, but holds the distinction of being Amy’s first winner as a registered trainer.
Amy’s driving talents have long been utilised by outside stables. Steve Turnbull had no hesitation in putting her on the lovely grey pacer Im Blue Double Dee on two occasions for wins at Goulburn and Penrith. By an amazing coincidence the son of Jet Laag happened to be a half brother to Skippers Canyon. Nobody was surprised when Im Blue Double Dee achieved lofty heights in the show ring when his distinguished racing career was over – a career that yielded 27 wins and 47 placings for $250,000. Amy was one of many people saddened by the death of the much loved horse in 2020.
Amy’s siblings don’t share her passion for the standardbred horse. Sister Hayley actually began a riding apprenticeship with the late Guy Walter at Warwick Farm, but later opted for a career as a trackwork rider for Team Snowden at Randwick. She lives in Sydney and attends her full time job when trackwork duties are completed. Brother Justin is one of the few members of the Day dynasty to actually move away from the training of harness horses, but he’s developed one other innate talent. Justin is a most proficient farrier who shoes the majority of the family horses before moving on to thoroughbred stables in the region.
Amy’s affinity with harness horses goes far beyond training and driving. Tutored by her father, she quickly developed a talent for the breaking in and educating of young standardbreds. Two of her regular clients are Blake and Paul Fitzpatrick, who are quickly on the phone after the yearling sales each year. “I’m delighted to say I broke in Jay OK for Paul, and he was always going to make a nice horse,” said Amy. “He’s gone on to win 14 races and over $200,000. I also had the pleasure of breaking in and educating Captain Ravishing who later went to Emma Stewart. He’s one of the best three year olds in the country at the present time.”
With Neil Day currently getting over a full knee replacement, his dedicated daughter is frantically busy. She’s looking after fifteen of Neil’s horses and half a dozen of her own. She’s grateful for the assistance of loyal helpers like Lyn Allport and her ever supportive mother Vicki. Amy feels blessed to have the regular use of the superb 1000m Goulburn Paceway – universally regarded as one of the best regional tracks in NSW. “I’m actually the only full time female trainer to use the track,” says Amy. “Anne Walshaw travels in to work a horse from time to time, but in the main it’s up to me to keep the blokes in check. Mind you when you consider that my father’s sister Marie is married to David Hewitt, many of those blokes are my relatives.”
It’s well documented that Amy does her best to balance her Goulburn training duties and her burgeoning relationship with partner, ace Victorian harness horseman Matt Craven. “I get to Terang when possible and Matt sneaks to Goulburn when he can juggle commitments,” says Amy. “We’re currently trying to find a way to get together. Watch this space.”
Her commitment to harness horses remains steadfast to this day. Only last Friday she drove four horses at the Wagga meeting on the roomy Riverina Paceway – two for her great supporter Corey Parker and two from her own Goulburn stable. She drove Bracken Warrior a gem of a race to win the third event for Parker, while her other three drives were out of the money.
To call Amy Day a veteran at 32 is a little fanciful, but it’s heading that way. She was very active with the mini trotters at 7 and could throw the harness on dad’s pacers by age 10. She was in the jogging cart at 12 and driving fast work by mid teens. That’s near enough to a veteran for mine. To think Neil wanted her to gain work experience in a hairdressing salon or a supermarket. What was he thinking?
by John Tapp, republished from John Tapp Racing
