Team effort gets Isolation back in the winner’s circle

Success might rarely come in isolation — but for Victorian hobby harness racing trainer Patrick Tomkinson, it’s taken a horse by that very name, and a village of support, to get there.

Tomkinson has surrounded himself with a dedicated and knowledgeable ownership group for his latest stable acquisition, Isolation (Bettors Delight) and together they’re turning their “project horse” into a rewarding success story.

“I can only train two horses at a time, and when we sold Hey Goyougoodthing to Adelaide last year, I had pretty much asked everyone I knew to keep an eye out for a nice horse to replace him,” Tomkinson said.

“A friend sent me a text message about Isolation 12 months ago, saying he would be a nice horse for me and that’s where it started.”

But it wasn’t until March this year that Tomkinson finally secured the eight-year-old gelding, who had won 18 races campaigning for various stables in Victoria, Queensland and Tasmania.

Tomkinson’s wife Kat Mullan has a share in the horse, and Tomkinson, who followed his dad into the sport, also approached a friend of his father, Greg Walker, to come on board.

“Greg’s like my ‘uncle’, just not in blood, and he’d been in a few horses with dad. He was so good to me growing up I really just wanted to have some fun times with him in a horse.  I’m hoping Isolation could be the one,” Tomkinson said.

“Then our bodyworker Naomi Maynard and her partner Brad Anderson, who is a farrier, also came in on him – thank goodness, because they’ve both been amazing.  I think Naomi has probably worked on ‘Solo’, as we call him, no less than 10 times in the 10 weeks we’ve had him.  Everyone around us has just been terrific,” he said.

“The horse ended up briefly with Connor Crook and Jordy Chibnall and when they weren’t able to take him on, Jordy sent me a message that he might be available.

“They started him on the right track gut health wise, and I thank them for that, because that really progressed him for me.”

Tomkinson also had plenty of input too from late reinsman Greg Sugars.

“We had a bit of a disastrous trial at Melton when I drove the horse, and Greg was driving another one,” he said.

“I gave Greg a call after and talked to him for probably half an hour getting his ideas and feedback. Greg was an infinite help.  He was the one I was really looking forward to giving a big hug because of all his advice.”

Tragically, that couldn’t be the case, but the team effort saw Isolation score his first win in over 12 months at Cranbourne on May 11, driven by Sugars’ good friend James Herbertson.

“The horse went very well in Queensland and his time at Cranbourne was just point four of a second outside his best winning mile rate at Albion Park,” Tomkinson said.

“I think he will respond well to the small stable environment where we just have one or two and all we care about is getting the horse right.

“We’ve got time to spend noticing everything in their habits and behavior – we’ll give him all the care we can and hopefully we can get him close to his best again.

“I’m really looking forward to seeing how he can come back after we give him a spell and bring him back up again.”

From Terry Gange for Harnesslink