Tanabi repays the faith

Robert Trickey is glad he recently granted Tanabi Falcon (Falcon Seelster) a reprieve from being banished to the harness racing retirement paddock. 

After all it had been more than three and a half years since his last win at Cranbourne in April 2020 and there was little cause for optimism that the 10-year-old would halt the lengthy drought in the immediate future. 

“I was all ready to sack him about four starts ago,” Trickey said. 

“He was gone at the 600 metre mark in a race at Cranbourne and he was making me look a bit silly,” he said. 

All is forgiven in the Trickey household comprising Robert and his wife Shirlene after Tanabi Falcon sustained a long sprint to take out the Janine Stewart Memorial Pace at Cranbourne on Sunday. 

“In the end Craig Demmler told me to keep him going and I’m glad he did,” he said. 

The win also provided young former New Zealand reinswoman Sophie Jeffries with her fourth career win. 

“The horse runs for Sophie, either he loves her or she loves him and I think it’s a bit of both,” he said. 

Trickey rues the effect the  stop start preparations have had on the racing career of the son of Falcon Seelster. 

“I’ve had him since he was a yearling but he didn’t begin racing until he was a six year old,” he said. 

Trickey himself was responsible for Tanabi Falcon’s delayed debut on the race track.” 

“I was working him as a three-year-old when I fell off the back of a ute at home and ended up losing a kidney and then I had him ready and I got hurt again- he stepped on my foot and crushed it,” he said. 

Trickey subsequently entrusted the horse with his mate Robert Evans. 

“I told Robbie to grab the horse and he finally made it to the races at the age of six ,” he said. 

“If it wasn’t for all the interruptions I think he could have been a good horse. 

One day at Warragul he ran a 26 quarter followed by a 28 quarter.” 

The 66-year-old Trickey obtained his trainers licence as a 19-year-old after attending a Warragul meeting a couple of years earlier. 

“I went to the trots with my boss at Warragul on a cold wet rotten night and in one of the races horses and drivers went everywhere and I thought ‘how long has this been going on’?” he said. 

Among Trickey’s winners Smooth Alto and Backhander he also stood the stallion Jeffs Emperor at his Yarragon property in West Gippsland. 

“I reckon Jeffs Emperor left about 100 winners when I had him,” he said. 

Sunday’s visit to the winner’s stall was Trickey’s first since Walkabout Syd scored at Warragul in 2006. 

“I had a break from harness racing after that for 17 years but decided to get back into it last year,” he said. 

“I have enjoyed the social side and the people I’ve met over the years as much as the horses.” 

For complete race results, click here.

by John Dunne, for Harnesslink