Betterthandiva secures 1st training success a decade in the making

With the late afternoon sun casting long shadows over the Ashburton Trotting Club, Orari harness racing trainer, Lionel Dobbs scored an emotional first training success at start number 170.

The dual coded horseman who has trained 22 winners in the Thoroughbred code since 2011 has waited almost a decade to secure his first victory with a standardbred.

That moment came when John Dunn combined with six-year-old mare, Betterthandiva (Betterthancheddar) to win the final heat of the Canty Plains Challenge series with a half-length victory.

The margin wasn’t important when you have waited this long and in the Ashburton birdcage, Dobbs struck a figure of exuberant joy mixed with a heavy dose of relief as his charge returned to scale victorious.

“I’ve had a few slow ones,” he quipped to Nigel Armstrong of Harness Racing Unhinged.

Armstrong pointed out that behind every horse there is usually a good story, and that there was with Dobbs recalling the details behind how the now three win mare came into his care.

“Gavin Smith had her and the owner rang me up just before Christmas,” said Dobbs.

“I had seen her win her first race with Bob Butt at Addington and I was quite impressed with her. She broke up and was right out of the race and the commentator said she had no hope and ended up coming around the field and won. I knew then that she had a bit of a motor and so when the owner asked me to have a go with her, I was only too happy to.

“We gave her a week off before I started working her. The first day I wasn’t happy with her at all. Second day I went out and jogged her again and I thought there is something not right with this horse so I rang up the owner and told them I wanted to take a few bloods. I sent them down to Peter Gillespie and she was in a bad way. She had a virus and an infection.

“We treated her and got her going, and got her back on the track and working really well. I thought she would win her first start back at Oamaru when I drove her myself. I came off the gate and went to the front, but I was a bit disappointed in her, she just stopped and I couldn’t believe why when she was working so well at home.

“Four days later on the bush float to the track, she shot out a piece of electrical tape which was in her stomach and must have been in there for a while,” he said.

Gillespie waited a further month before next presenting Betterthandiva at the races and slowly but surely, Betterthandiva began to respond with encouraging runs resulting in a string of fourth placings before an unlucky and close-up 6^th at her last start with John Dunn in the sulky.

Dunn was in the bike again yesterday afternoon and after allowing Tim Williams and the Wendy Stenvenson trained Not Over (Changeover) to find the front early, he urged the Dobbs trained mare to assume the lead before handing up to Hope For Love (Terror To Love) and Kerryn Tomlinson with a lap and a quarter left to run.

The pair remained on the back of the leader for the majority of the 2400m journey and took the short route home, sprinting best up the passing lane to secure victory and a place in next week’s $30,000 final of the Canty Plains Challenge series for R35-39 pacers.

“Lionel is a bloody good galloping trainer, and he’s done a good job with this fella,” said Dunn after the race.

“She showed gate speed and got the right run. It’s a great incentive too, going into a $30k final next week. Lower-rated horses that front up and go around each week have a bit of a bonus to race for is great.

“If you actually go back and have a look at all the races to qualify for this final, they have been great spectacles. Last week at Rangiora they went that hard they came home in 32 seconds. Credit to the trainers, they back them up the next week and they front up,” he said.

BETTERTHANDIVA REPLAY

Prior to yesterday’s victory, Dobbs’ best finish with a Standardbred was a third placing with another of the Betterthancheddar progeny when Pocket Call was third at Forbury Park.

In his 317 starts as a galloping trainer, Dobbs has 54 placings to go with his 22 career victories and has lined 11 starters up at Group & Listed level for a 3^rd and 4^th.

Dobbs’ grandfather Lionel Pratt trained about “800 winners” in the thoroughbred code.

While we may never see him vying for the trainers premiership, his talent as a horseman is undeniable and the same came be said for his passion about the equine codes.

“I always had the gallopers, but my wife had shares in a trotter called Lyalldale Invasion (Armbro Invasion). Phil Williamson trained him and when he was turned out he came back to our place and I started jogging him. I ended up getting my license and Phil ended up driving him for my first start.

“It’s gone from there with a few hand me downs and the like. It will be good for the owners, they have been really good to me, It is good to train a horse for great people.

“I love coming to you the races and it’s great to be rubbing shoulders with these people, they are just lovely people and really professional,” he said.

The final standings for the Canterbury Plains Challenge Series can be found here.

For complete Ashburton results, click here.

by Brad Reid, for Harnesslink