Black drives first winner in years but Don’t Tell Arty!

Branxholme trainer driver Alister Black drove his first winner in over nine years when he reined home Donttellarty (Love You) to win on debut at Winton today.

Black who still holds a graduation license is rarely seen in the cart on race days, preferring to concentrate on training.

After beginning well, Donttellarty trailed favourite Majestic Challen for most of the race. When that horse broke he took over the pacemaker role and held on to win by three quarters of a length from My Bonnie Lass.

DONTTELLARTY REPLAY

“I think I might give him a couple of weeks off and just stick to those rating 35 to 45 trots and educate him a bit. He wants to gawk around a bit and even though he had earplugs in I was still talking to him down the back and he just kept trotting, which is a positive. One day at the workouts he ducked inside the pylons wanting to go home. So he’s working that part out, which is a positive,” Black said. 

Donttellarty was bought by Arty Shirley for $41,000 at the Christchurch Sales after he was initially passed in.

Shirley retained a share in the gelding with other clients of Black owning the remainder. The Kiwi Connection Syndicate who owns Macandrew Aviator and Chris Alcock who part owns Always Dreaming, are also in the ownership group.

“A standing joke when we had Wai Key Wee (trotter) and he was going pretty good was that I used to tell Paul McEntyre (co-owner) ‘don’t tell Arty’. When we bought this horse at the sales we didn’t like its name so I suggested we name him Donttellarty. That’s how that came about. It’s a bit of a laugh really,” Black told me prior to today’s debut.

Black’s last winner as a driver was with Abraham Jones at Winton in March 2016.

Later in the day the stable made it a day to remember when Rightazz (Always B Miki) won the last race in the hands of Brad Williamson.

For complete race results, click here.

by Bruce Stewart, for Harnesslink