Mistaken “cleaner” adds twist to Inter Dominion protest

Viewers of our television coverage of the TAB Inter Dominion Championships on Saturday may recall a lady opening the door to the Stewards Room and then making a swift exit during the tense protest hearing following the Pacing Grand Final.

It seemed to be a hit with the punters out there. Social media blew up. But just to be clear – no, that wasn’t the cleaner – as many have speculated. That was Annie Knox who is one of the Regulatory Veterinarians at Harness Racing New South Wales

And eight hours later, she had a baby.

“I just feel really lucky with how everything worked out but I just feel so bad for walking in during that hearing. How embarrassing,” Annie said.

Thing is, she had no idea about the drama that was unfolding at the time. But that protest hearing would ultimately trigger a chain of events for Annie and her family in the hours to come.

She had been in the stables taking blood samples throughout the program and with the Inter Dominion races wrapped up, Annie was following due process. There’s a storage fridge in the Stewards Room and she was headed in to drop them off.

“I thought I’d just inconspicuously slide in there, put them in the fridge and I’d be off again but obviously there was a bit going on and I certainly had no idea there were live television cameras on me at the time!”

Annie was there with her husband Brett who was enjoying a rare night at the track. Now, they live on the Central Coast and she was the night’s designated driver. So with the last race delayed and a two-hour trip home ahead of them, our chief Regulatory Veterinarian Martin Wainscott told Annie she could head home.

And if her night seemed strange up until then, well, things were about to go up a notch.

“I was driving home and I just started to feel a bit strange, nothing bad but just not quite right, so we called into Gosford Hospital on the way to make sure everything was okay,” she said.

“They said everything was fine and not much was happening as far as the baby was concerned so they sent me home and told me to come back in the morning.”

“So I did what I was told and were back there at 6am. And I remember the midwife was checking me out and she said oh I’ll just be back in a minute I just need to go to the toilet. Well things started to happen and she went oh there’s no time for that!”

Little Clover was born at 6:25am. A sister for five-year-old Kurt and 11-month old Trent.

“They told me when the time comes it will happen quickly this time around. Trent only took about two hours to deliver so they were pretty confident this one would be fast as well. But we certainly didn’t expect it to be this fast.”

Clover was due to arrive on the 21^st of December but decided to enter the world a fortnight early.

“The plan was to get through Inter Dominion and then be ready for the baby. I didn’t want to miss out on it and with everything that has gone on with lockdowns this year it meant a lot to me to be part of it,” Annie said.

“Nothing was indicating things were close or that it would happen like it did. I guess it was just one of those nights where unexpected things seemed to occur!”

And further proof that there are no certainties in racing!

Harness Racing New South Wales