Ruth enjoying life to the “max”

For southern NSW harness racing trainer Ruth Arthur, life is all about balance – and she seems to have got it just about right with consistent gelding Maxy Wants to Play (Shadow Play).

The four-year-old was the catalyst for Arthur to return to “training a racehorse or two” at the start of the 2023 season, and he recorded his second win for her at Cobram on Monday (Sept 18).

Arthur, who is based at the Murray River town of Barham, said “Maxy” had undoubtedly put the fun back into the sport for her.

“I’d always had about four broodmares and trained a few horses, but I gradually just stopped breeding and gave my mares away because no one in my family was really interested in the sport,” she said.

“But when Jeff Cakebread sold his place just out of Barham and brought his horses over to my place, we decided to give pre-training a go.  We had a team of up to 11 at times, but Maxy Wants to Play was the first horse we had together – he was sent to us by (Shepparton trainer) Damian Wilson.”

Arthur said when Maxy Wants To Play was sent home to Wilson, he won at his first start, but then “the wheels fell off”.

“He went for a spell, and we got him back to pre-train again, then the owner Keith Andrews asked us if we would like to lease him.”

Arthur and Cakebread didn’t hesitate and Maxy Wants to Play has rewarded them with two wins and seven seconds in his 18 starts.

“I’m down as the trainer, but it’s definitely a team effort.  Jeff does most of the driving and nowadays I mainly just drive the pacemaker horse.  It’s a shared thing and he deserves at least as much credit as me for the way the horse is going.”

Cakebread has also been enjoying success with three-year-old filly Over The Line (Betting Line), raced with his wife Lee, who has won two in her first season of racing.

“They’ve also got a lovely little Vincent two-year-old they bred called Leonard – he’s a robust little blighter but he’s most beautiful pacer I’ve ever seen so young.  He is just back in now, working with the pace horse, so I am back in the cart again for the time!” Arthur said.

Horses have been a constant in Ruth Arthur’s life for the best part of 50 years after growing up at Moulamein and then “hooking up” with her husband, the late Neil Arthur, who died in a light plane crash in 2001.

“I had a pony as a child that I rode everywhere bareback because we couldn’t afford a saddle.  Neil’s family had horses – his grandfather (trainer and breeder) Bill McKenzie lived next door to my parents,” she said.

“When we got together, we were living in Melbourne, and we would drive up each weekend for Neil to drive fastwork for his grandfather! Then once Neil finished his carpentry apprenticeship that was it – we had our own horses from there,” she said.

“That was in 1974 and I started driving fastwork in 1976 and I’ve basically had horses ever since.

“Now, we’re just really enjoying the pace of things – the pre-training was fun, but it was pretty full on.  Being back at the races and just having one or two is great and gives us time to do all the other things we’re involved with.”

Arthur, a keen traveler who has logged up visits to more than 30 countries on her adventures, including trekking the Himalayas and making a pre-COVID lockdown dash home from India, is also involved in her local community through Lions and her local church.

“I love my little farm here – they’ll cart me out of here in a box!” she laughed.

“It’s 38 acres tucked right in the edge of Barham. I can look across my garden all the way to the creek and it’s a five-minute walk into the club. I have the best spot in the whole world, and I’m not kidding!

“But you’ve got to have something to get out of bed in the mornings for, and for me that’s to get up and feed a horse or work a horse or look at a horse – that’ll never change.”

by Terry Gange, for Harnesslink