Patience looks set to pay off

Victorian harness racing trainer Des Hilton can joke a bit now about his rather long and frustrating journey with last start winner Mywaterlou (Sweet Lou)—but it’s certainly had its moments!

Now a five-year-old, the gelding has been to the races on only three occasions – once last season and twice this year.

“For a while there it was just one thing after another and he can still be a handful,” the Western District horseman said.

“When he’s not being a cranky bugger, he can run along okay. Before his two starts this time in, I trialed him against some better class horses and he was right there with them,” Hilton said.

Mywaterlou caught the eye when he finished third at Hamilton (May 1) at his first run for 11 months and then followed up the performance a week later with a strong victory at Horsham (May 8) in the VHRC Mazzetti Painting Maiden Pace at 3/1.

After being caught wide early, leading freelance reinsman Michael Bellman elected to work forward and sit parked outside another fancied runner in Angel Of Heaven (Alex Ashwood). The two had a ding dong battle up the final straight with Mywaterlou digging deep to win by a metre.

Hilton said the aptly named pacer had been one of his more challenging projects of recent years.

“I’ve just had little niggling problems with him all along. When he was younger, he’d just pull up on the track and wouldn’t turn around,” Hilton said.

“We got him out of that habit and then he kept getting abscesses in his feet. I had him stabled to treat them, but he didn’t enjoy that and kicked the panels to bits, so now he’s worked out of a paddock.

“He’s also not too good in the float and I took him to Stawell to the trials one day and he took all the bark off his fetlocks—which later became infected.

“I train him just nearby at Barry Beasley’s place, but I’ve been floating him into the Terang track a fair bit in the hope of improving his travelling manners.”

Hilton also raced the dam of Mywaterlou, Sokin Wet (Sokys Atom), who won four races with 13 placings from 22 starts – but she also had a few tricks at the races.

“She would gallop and probably spent half her career out of the draw in mobile starts, or otherwise I’d be back doing two satisfactory trials so I could race again,” he said.

“But in the breeding barn she provided us with a great horse in Itmademyday (Live Or Die), a half-brother to Mywaterlou.  He won 16 races and finished second in a metro race—the closest I’ve come to winning one of those.

“Itmademyday was so consistent, but the best I’ve had ability-wise over the years was a horse named Not All There (Meadow Looney). He was a big strong horse who won three races as a 2yo and then six as a 3yo. He got an infection in a hock which looked like a football and that really ended him.  He only had 21 starts.”

Hilton spent many years at Swan Hill in northwest Victoria before shifting to Kolora, near Terang, three-and-a-half years ago.  He bred and races Mywaterlou with a mate Arthur Graham, the longtime president of the Swan Hill Harness Racing Club.

“I plan to keep the horse going around here and get some more racing experience. Then I’ll pop back up to Swan Hill so that Arthur can watch him go around – hopefully his float manners improve!”

Hilton said he and his wife Dawn were thoroughly enjoying life in the Western District.

“We shifted down to be closer to our children and grandchildren. There are two houses on our daughter’s property, and we only live about 500 metres away from them,” he said.

“It’s hilly country down here and can also get very wet—quite different to Swan Hill. There are five or six tracks all within one-and-a-half hours from us so I can pick and choose a bit.

“I’ve been in the game for a long time, so I tend to enjoy sticking to the day meetings these days,” he laughed.

by Terry Gange, for Harnesslink