Expressive Love wins for Wardie

When she won at Addington today Expressive Love (Terror To Love) provided Ashburton harness racing horseman Graeme Ward with his first training and driving win in over two years.

Ward settled Expressive Love in the second half of the field early. The mare was five wide turning in, six lengths from the leader. Under the urgings of her driver, she got up in the middle of the track to nail pacemaker Bunny Reign (Mach Three) by half a neck with Flo Motion (Betterthancheddar) a half a neck back in third.

EXPRESSIVE LOVE REPLAY

Expressive Love was initially trained by Graham Court who won a race with her.

Graeme and his wife Jan bought her from Gavelhouse for $6,000 and she’s started thirteen times for a win, two seconds and two thirds.

“She’s been racing pretty solid this time in. She’s only had the one start that she dropped out, but I drove her a bit harder that night. At her last start she should have got money, but we probably freshened her up a bit too much to be honest. She came back and was blowing a fair bit (laugher),” Graeme said. “We’ve had all sorts of trouble with her tying up. This prep she hasn’t been too bad. She’s paddock trained which is a bit tough at this time of year. We’ve tried all sorts with her and we’ve just gone back to basics,” he added.

Fifty four year old Graeme works on the beef chain at ANZCO in Ashburton.

“At the works we’re doing overtime at the moment so some days we’re not getting to the stables until 4:30 at night. It makes it pretty tough at this time of year.”

It was Ward’s first win since June 2021 when Dreamsinthemist (Angus Hall) won at Timaru.

He’s held a training license since 1993 and has trained thirty eight winners. His first was Wai Ever Not (My Striking Force) at Forbury Park in April 1993.

As a driver Ward won forty one races as a junior driver with his first win being Eddie Ray (Peppy Fulla) at the Canterbury Park meeting in 1998 for his boss Dick Prendergast. In total he’s driven one hundred and five winners.

Ward’s best winners have been Galleon’s Best (Game Pride) 3 wins, Kipp Ross (Fake Left) 3, Daytom Gold (Evander’s Gold) 4 and Lady Rashad (Rashad) 4 wins.

Expressive Love’s pedigree goes back to ten win mare This Time Franco (Holmes Hanover) and includes Motu Crusader (Courage Under Fire) which won twenty seven races.

Being by the New Zealand based stallion Terror To Love, the breeder of Expressive Love, the De Novo Syndicate receive a 10% bonus of the winning stake ($550.00). This Breeders bonus was introduced by HRNZ at the beginning of August.

For complete race results, click here.

by Bruce Stewart, for Harnesslink