Horsnell and his grey mare hoping for glory on Friday

It won’t be hard to spot Silver Mystique (Western Terror) at Melton on Friday night (Dec 15) when the grey lines up in the Nevele R Stud Mares pace for Matthew Horsnell.

The sight of a grey horse is increasingly rare in harness racing, with Silver Mystique carrying his unique coat from his dam’s sire Lombo Pocket Watch, winner of the 2006 Australian Harness Horse of the Year.

“It’s a breed that’s slowly getting less and less,” Horsnell said.

The five-year old is coming off a last start fourth at Melton on Saturday and Horsnell noted she’d been “racing well”.

“She went around really well last season in the Vicbred and the Breeders Crown,” he said. “She just needs a couple of runs back in town. I don’t work her super hard at home, so she is probably going to take a couple of runs.

“I expect her to get back to her best this run. She has just gotten better every run.”

Lochie Cook has been in the sulky for the daughter of Western Terror in her previous three starts and will again take the reins.

Horsnell said the sprint distance of 1720m around Melton Entertainment Park posed the biggest challenge for the pacer, who will start from gate three after the David Murphy-trained Nakula was scratched.

“It’s a bit of a tricky draw. She is not known for running the gate and working forward. She is more known for working into the sprint lane and working into the race late,” Horsnell said.

“I’ll leave it in Lochie’s hands, probably going to have to work towards the front and try and hold the spot. Hopefully she can be somewhere around the mark.”

At just 27 years-old the Terang horseman has trained 31 winners and amassed more than $212,000 in prize money.

“When I was at school I worked a couple of days a week at Alan Tubbs and they were very good to me. They gave me my first taste of the stable life and how that sort of works,” he said.

“That was a bit of an eye opener and from there I went to Maree and John Caldow’s and I was there for probably three years or so.

“I enjoy the sport and you have got to love the animal. You have got to love the sport too. The best thing is you can turn to someone and ask for advice. People are very giving with their time.”

Horsnell is hoping Silver Mystique can break his metropolitan maiden status on Saturday night.

“I’ve never trained a metro winner yet. Every winner is great. It doesn’t matter if it’s a $4500 race, if you can give someone joy with a horse it’s fantastic,” he said.

Silver Mystique will go around in the third race on the card at 8:33pm.

For complete race entries, click here.

by Lachlan Mitchell, for Harness Racing Victoria