Award winning Williams

Earlier this month, Otago harness racing breeder Lex Williams was named New Zealand Standardbred Breeder of the Year and he’s stoked about it.

“I was pretty rapt. It’s a prestigious honour and to think we could get up and compete with all the other big breeders,” he said.

In the 2022 calendar year Lex raced ten horses that he’d bred. Nine of them won races. 

On the back of a successful NZB Yearling Sale, Williams is having a good run but as we all know there can be lows, and losing trotter Cracker Hill (Muscle Hill) just before the Sales was one of those.

“He died of colic five days away from returning to racing. He died on the Monday and he was to race at Invercargill on the Saturday.”

Trained by Brad Williamson, the talented squaregaiter won seven of his sixteen starts including the 2020 Group Three Hambletonian at Ashburton.

He was injured and was being prepared for a return to racing by Greg and Nina Hope.

“They were devasted. Ben (Hope) said he was feeling great in training.”

Lex was born in Lawrence but spent a bit of time at Forbury Park so that got him interested in trotting.

“My father (Tom) was a great gambler and a regular at Forbury. We used to go with him all the time. He never owned a horse, but he loved his trotting.”

And keen to impress his future wife Heather, Lex chose a night at the trots as a starting point for their relationship.

“Heather and I had our first date at Forbury. I remember telling her that one day I would own a horse.”

However before the horses came along both Lex and Heather developed a serious passion for breeding sheep with great success.

“We bred South Suffolk and Texels and won the National Lamb Competition in 1992 with three cross bred lambs from our own stud. Conformation was my thing. I did a lot of eye muscle measuring. The yield that they gave blew the others out of the water. The meat to bone ratio was way higher they anyone else. That’s what helped me when I was buying horses. I was a great one on the muscling.”

In 2002 they attended the Standardbred Yearling Sales and purchased Fleet’s Pocket (In The Pocket) which was put into training with Tim Butt. She raced four times for a best placing of fifth at Greymouth.

“We mated her as a three year old.” She’s proved to be an outstanding broodmare and of her first fifteen foals two year old and older, twelve have qualified with eleven winning races.

The following year Lex and Heather went back to the Sales and bought One Over Kenny (Sundon) under interesting circumstances.

“We wanted to buy a trotter that year. Phil Williamson sorted out One Over Kenny and $20,000 was our budget. We got to twenty and the auctioneer said he’d take a half ($500) but he took a $1,000 from the next bidder. When the Sales staff went to get the buyer’s signature, he said ‘Oh no, it was only twenty and a half.”

The auctioneer then decided to bring the yearling back into the ring three lots later.

“Heather said ‘why don’t you put in another bid.’ The other guy went to twenty and a half and I went to twenty one. He said ‘bugger you’ and pulled out and they knocked her down to me. We’ve spoken to the guy a few times since. It was his trainer that was more gutted about it.”

One Over Kenny had a brilliant career as a racehorse. She won thirty two races including seventeen Group or Listed races and over a million dollars.

In New Zealand she won nineteen races for Williamson and seven for Tony Herlihy. Fifteen of her twenty six wins were at Alexandra Park. She won the Rowe Cup twice and won six races in Australia including the Group One Australasian Trotters Championship. 

As broodmares Fleets Pocket and One Over Kenny have been the cornerstone of William’s breeding success. Between them they’ve left the winners of two hundred and one races with Fleet’s Pocket accounting for one hundred and thirty one of those. 

The couple were also in the entertainment game for sixteen years, running a movie theatre in Waimate for five years. They leased the Opera House in Oamaru for ten years before building a three cinema complex in Oamaru which they managed for another few years.

Lex said it was a big part of their life and provided them with some entertaining moments.

“We managed (to get) all the live shows that travelled through, acts like Charlie Pride and Kevin ‘Bloody’ Wilson. I got a licence when he (Wilson) was there, and I sold 800 cans of Speights. There were 400 people at the concert. Kevin liked it when they were enjoying themselves. It took us all day to clean up the next day.”

Lex says his late wife Heather (who passed away in November 2020) had a major part to play in the couple’s early foray into the racing industry.

“She studied the horse whisper, thinking that there had to be a better way of breaking young horses in than tying them up and having them climbing the walls. We got to a stage where we didn’t have to tie them up at all. She started handling them as babies on their mothers. It was all about trust. She was a gun at that and a real stock lady.”

Lex is currently breeding from seven well trotting mares One Over Kenny, One Over Da Skye, One Over Da Star, Oneamy Vici, Bev’s K One, Samanthas Moon and Majestic Rollon.

One Over Kenny is currently not in foal.

“I think next year we’ll go straight to Majestic Son to get the semen here in New Zealand. She seems to hold the best to him. He’s very fertile and she clicks pretty good with him.”

However One Over Da Skye, (Majestic Son) a daughter to One Over Kenny, has tested positive to Bold Eagle. 

Bold Eagle, a son of Ready Cash out of a Love You mare won $7,574,230 and 46 races in France, Sweden and America.

“He was the stallion I wanted a foal by out of One Over Kenny. I’ve had three or four goes and I can’t get her in foal to him. That was my dream horse. If I get a foal out of one of her daughters, it’ll be good.”

Love You mare One Over Da Star is in foal to Timoko. He’s France’s richest ever trotter having won 36 races, $8,141,454 AUD and has won the prestigious Elitloppet twice.

“I’m pretty excited about him. He’s doing a great job in Europe. He was a high stakes earner and if you got anything half as good it would be pretty damn exciting.”

Oneamy Vici (Orlando Vici) a half sister to Cracker Hill is also in foal to Timoko. 

Williams says there’s a strategy behind crossing his mares with French bred stallions.

“Our bloodlines are fairly hot and I’m just trying to calm the breed down and try to get the galloping out of some of them.”

He also has a strong relationship with Haras Des Trotteurs who sponsor The Heather Williams Memorial at Addington. 

“They sponsor the race to the tune of $5,000 and we put $5,000 in. This year the race is going to be a Group Three.”

He’s also breeding from Bev’s K One (Love You). She’s out of Petite One which won seven races and her second dam Pride Of Petite won thirty five races and $811,816.

Two recently retired trotting mares have been added to the breeding barn – Samanthas Moon (One Over Da Moon) and Majestic Rollon (Majestic Son). Samanthas Moon won four and is in foal to another French stallion En Solitaire while Majestic Rollon which won five is in foal to On A Streak. 

William’s is breeding from two pacing mares; Fleet’s Pocket whose now twenty two and one of her daughters, Flying Heathers One (Bettor’s Delight).

Lex says he still enjoys being hands on at his purpose built thirteen acre property at East Taieri where he’s currently looking after two yearlings that didn’t go to the Sales – a One Over Da Moon yearling filly out of Bev’s K One and a Sweet Lou filly out of Bettorkeepthefaith who’s dam Running On Faith won eight races including two Group Ones. 

He paid $12,000 for the Sweet Lou filly at the NZB Weanling Sales 

“I just bought her as a mate for my Bev’s K One filly.”

Another yearling filly he likes is by Classic Connection out of One Over Da Skye. 

“She’s really nice. I was talking to Laura Smith who looks after them and she said the filly floats across the ground. We’re going to keep her.”

Lex also has plenty of racing interests and one he’ll be keeping an eye on is qualified pacer Mightyflyin Supastar (Art Major) who’s trained by Regan Todd.

“I sent him back to Regan last week and he looks really strong. Regan thought he just needed a bit more time rather than race at two. So we’ve beefed him up considerably.”

In recent years Williams has been sending his yearlings to SBSR preparer Julie Baynes at Winton and with great results. 

Up until this year his best sellers have been; Let’s Fly Together ($115,000), One Over Da Line ($110,000) and a Love You – One Over Da Skye colt that sold for $100,000. 

At this year’s sale Lex offered a Love You – One Over Da Skye colt which was passed in at $100,000 and has since been syndicated, a Majestic Son – One Over Da Stars colt which sold for $80,000 and an En Solitaire – One Over Kenny colt which fetched $95,000.

Ashburton trainer Brent White bought the Majestic Son colt.

White told Williams he’d never paid that sort of money for a yearling. “He said it’s the fastest horse to syndicate that he’s had and he was turning people away. It’s good that these smaller guys can buy these horses for good money knowing that they can syndicate them.” 

Williams has been part of the Southern Bred Southern Bred (SBSR) group since 2020. 

“I think it’s a great organisation. They’re a good team and it’s a great way of promoting southern bred horses.”

Williams says he’ll continue to support the Christchurch Yearling Sales and he has two pacers and two trotters in line for 2024. 

On the administration side Lex was President of the Waimate Trotting Club for ten years and is still very involved with the Forbury Park Trotting Club which is still negotiating the sale of it’s Dunedin property with HRNZ. 

“There are a few issues which I can’t publicly talk about. We are working through them and making slow progress. We’ve sold a portion of the land to the Education Department.”

If the sale goes ahead Williams hopes a foundation will be set up to invest and manage the funds.

“The profit from that foundation could be allocated to harness applicants south of the Waitaki which is pretty exciting for Southern Harness if we get a good price for the land. It (profit) could be $500,000 a year.”

Williams says he’s keen to explore the Central Otago market as he thinks it’s untapped and he hopes to get racing dates for the Forbury Club to race at Cromwell. He’d also like to attract new owners in the Central Otago area.

“I’d like to get a couple of syndicates going where you have three horses. I’m going to work with HRNZ Marketing and I’ll front the push.”

“The time for talk is over. It’s time for action,” he said referring to the sale of Forbury Park.

by Bruce Stewart, for Harnesslink