What a journey! Eight-year-old wins on debut

 It’s not often eight-year-old debutante trotters get everything right – but Amigos (Bacardi Lindy) did that at Cobram last week (Jan 18) and his 20-metre victory repaid the blood, sweat and the “many, many tears” of harness racing trainer Lisa Pitt.

The strongly built Amigos was tried as a two-year-old colt by his breeder Steve O’Donoghue, but was big, gangly and immature.

“Steve had him gelded then put him out in the paddock and never really got back to him,” Pitt explained.

“A couple of years ago Steve had the mob up from the back paddock and I saw him in there.  I said to Steve how about I grab one of those trotters to have a go with, and we race it in partnership?” she said.

“He gave me a list of three I could pick from – Amigos was the oldest and the prettiest, so I picked him!”

But the challenges were only just beginning for Pitt and her brilliant reinsman husband Mark, who train a team of 16, as well as a couple of breakers, at their Shepparton property.

“We brought him up and trialled him, then he broke down in a front leg,” she said.

“So we turned him out and when he was ready, brought him back again. He’d been jogging for six weeks, and he did the other leg. It was pretty devastating, so we did a ‘Steve’ and just put him in the paddock and forgot about him for a while.

“Mark kept telling me I was mad for persisting with him but I told him it won’t be a waste of time if I can get him sound. And you know what they say – happy wife, happy life!”

Pitt said when Amigos, known around the stables as “Hank”, came back into work for his current preparation, it was slow and steady.

“We got him to the trials again about 10 days before his Cobram race.  And that was 525 days since his last trial!” she said.

Amigos led throughout in his trial, trotting faultlessly despite his lack of experience, then duplicated the performance at Cobram.

See the Cobram results and replays, click here.

“At home he is such a good going trotter – so big and strong it doesn’t matter how fast or slow you want to go, he will just keep going,” Pitt said.

“But he’s got a lot to learn. The last time Mark worked him he came back and said for eight years old he is just so green and dumb!  He was petrified of the saddlecloth number when we put it on his back at the races!

“But he is the most beautiful horse – you couldn’t ask for a better horse to deal with around the stable and that’s probably one of the reasons we’ve persisted with him.  And we do have a big opinion of him, as long as he can stay sound.”

Pitt said all going well Amigos would next race at Shepparton in an up to four wins class trot on February 1.

“Once you win one or two it’s a very big step up to the next level.  But he did look very good in his win, and touch wood, his legs look as good as they ever have – straight lines that’s what we want to see, and we’ll just take it one day at a time!”

by Terry Gange, for Harnesslink