13 win Aussie pacer wins maiden trotting race

Winning stablemates rarely come from backgrounds as different as the double Phil Williamson trained at Addington early on Friday night.

Because juvenile winner Becky’s Girl has been with Williamson since the day she was born while the Oamaru trainer still laughs about the fact he now trains former Aussie pacer He Aint Fakin, who also won as a trotter on Friday night.

Williamson and wife Bev, who owns Becky’s Girl, started the meeting on a high as the two-year-old filly led throughout to win the $45,000 Macca Lodge Sires’ Stakes Classique in the hands of their son Brad.

The daughter of Majestic Son and the former Williamson-trained Alderbeck, made it two wins from three starts and while aided by the favourite Petite Armour galloping at the start, Becky’s Girl still trotted a 2:0.1 mile rate for the 1980m and her last 800m in 57.9 seconds so it would have taken a really good performance to beat her.

“She is a natural trotter and will be up for any of the two-year-old races she is eligible for,” says Williamsom.

“We had her dam Alderbeck who was a really good mare. She finished fifth in both a Dominion and Rowe Cup and was unlucky in both.

“So we bred this filly and have had her all the way along.”

It was the third straight year Williamson has trained the winner of the Group 3 race and he says breeding is a huge help when it comes to training young trotting winners.

“Breeding really helps and then it up to the trainer to give them every chance to be a good horse, which we hope we do.”

While Becky’s Girl is a home-bred the Williamson maiden trot winner He Aint Fakin (Art Major) couldn’t be further from it, being a former high class Australian pacer that Phil hadn’t laid eyes on until two months ago.

HE AINT FAKIN REPLAY

“Chris Frisby was training him as a pacer in Bathurst and he was a good one too, I think he paced around 1:51 as a young horse,” explains Williamson.

“I had met Chris when had a horse racing in Auckland and he was staying with Tony Herlihy like we do.

“He rang me out of the blue a couple of months ago and said after some issues they were trotting this horse and he thought he went okay.

“In Australia if a horse changes gaits they stay in the same class whereas here they drop back to maidens.

“So he was keen to send him here but wanted to trial him first to see whether it was worthwhile.

“He trialled him against the pacers and he trotted a mile in 1:57 and I told him to get him over here.

“He is a lovely horse and if he stays sound he will do a really good job over here.

“They are really excited by it and we are excited to have him.”

While Williamson and family made the early running on Friday night the star later in the programme was John Dunn who drove a late double on Confessional and It’s Tough, the latter continuing his great spring in the race of the night.

For complete race results, click here 

by Michael Guerin, for Harness Racing New Zealand