Ford/Tomlinson team settle in well at sunny Nelson carnival

South Island harness racing heads to the sunshine capital of New Zealand with the first of the traditional two-day Nelson meeting kicking off tomorrow (13 Jan.) with a cracking 11-race programme.

For many of the participants in the Canterbury region, the race meeting at the top of the South Island is a working holiday, and for Amanda Tomlinson and her family, it’s hard to work out who’s enjoying the trip more.

The humans, or the horses?

“This is a holiday for us,” said Tomlinson.

“We’re under the gazebo now and well set up with friends and family around us. We’re watching everyone turn up now and going through the rigmarole of setting up, we’re glad we did that yesterday,” she laughed.

“We’ve just come back from working a few on the beach and the whole team has settled in well, the weather is great, and Krissy Hill (Nelson Club President) has done a great job once again making us all feel at home.”

Tomlinson and her father Ken Ford took a team of four away on the float ride north, mostly with a view to the experience being educational. It doesn’t mean the runners aren’t without their chance, starting with the well named maiden, Oh No Nana (Auckland Reactor) in the first on the card.

“Mum brought him from a dispersal sale where Alabar had a couple left over from either the yearling or weanling sale. They put an advert somewhere, and she just went ahead and bought him,” she said.

“She kept telling the girls it was a Bettor’s Delight, but when it got home, and we had a closer look, we realised it was by Auckland Reactor and out of a Bettor’s Delight mare.

“Both Sheree and Kerryn, at different times when they found out exclaimed, ‘oh no nana, you didn’t’! So, after hearing that we thought that’s what we would call him,” she laughed.

Oh No Nana has two placings to his name from thirteen starts, with the gelding luckless in his most recent race day appearance where he was checked early and never really got into the race. He has shown as evidenced by his second-place finish five starts ago at Timaru that he is capable with the right run on the day.

“It’s all in the luck of the running. He can sit in and follow speed all day, but he only has that furlong sprint in him and if I’m honest, I wouldn’t have thought the draw would suit him myself. He’s got a few tricks at home, but he came up here a week ago and he hasn’t left a crumb and has driven perfect, so hopefully the trip away is helping his education,” she said.

The second race on the card sees the Ford/Tomlinson team lining up a well related maiden by the name of Brian Beatt. The three-year-old son of Majestic Son only qualified a fortnight ago but looks to have inherited some of the family ability with the first three foals from his dam Honey Beatt being the winners of 12 races between them.

“We think he has a bit of the family ability, and we weren’t thinking about taking him because he was running out of time to get his ticket. Fortunately, John Dunn organised a few trials before the races at Rangiora on New Year’s Day. It’s something they should do more often; the staff are all there and we are very thankful for that. There are two more who got their ticket that day here at Nelson making their debuts, so it just shows it was well worthwhile,” she said.

There isn’t a lot of exposed form among the maiden trotters with only three of the eight to have started on race day boasting just a placing each in the race book making it hard to get a line on them. As is often the case with the maiden trotters, those that bring their manners will go a long way to securing some stake money.

“Brian is a lovely trotter, but it’s all educational for him. He was just touching, so we’ve changed a few things round, but we are hoping the trip away will be a great learning curve for him. If he gets round in one piece, it will be a bonus. He is a nice horse and has a lot of speed, but he is still a baby and very green at this stage,” she said.

Race five see’s the progressive type in What’s Wanted (Creatine) making his first appearance as a three-year-old. He drops back from the elite juvenile grades where he has been taking on the likes of High Energy and Confessional at his last two starts, with the latest in Group One company.

WHATS WANTED REPLAY

As the half-brother of Dominion winner Marcoola showed at Kaikoura when putting pay to a talented maiden field, this is a trotter with a bright future, and few would be surprised to see him greet the judge at some stage over the carnival.

“We like the Creatines and have a couple of them actually. Sheree jogged him and led him round this morning, and she hopped off him and said, it’s as if he’s an old man and he’s been here before. He’s like old Midnight Invasion reincarnated. He’s just so relaxed and so chilled out, and although he went to Kaikoura, this is his first trip away. He’s eating and drinking which is important,” she said.

Unlike the maiden trot, What’s Wanted meets a field of 13 with many arriving on the back of some great recent form, so he will have to be on his game albeit, he is drawn well in barrier two to give the race a real shake.

Rounding out the Ford/Tomlinson quartet is the bonny mare, Zsa Zoe. The now eight-year-old daughter of Majestic Son has been racing in great form through the spring and measuring up against some of the best of her sex and gait on a regular basis.

The eleven-race winner boasts great course and distance stats with a win and placing in her only two previous visits to Richmond Park. She sneaks in as one of only two runners off the 10m barrier and has a 20m head start on the back marker Sioux Princess whom she was beaten by only a narrow margin two starts ago at Addington.

Despite racing in great form and showing plenty of desire to be there, Zsa Zoe does enter to tomorrow afternoons assignment having missed a bit of work due to a foot injury.

“She got a quarter crack ten days ago, so we put her in the paddock, and I sent Bruce Negus a picture. Kerry Estridge and a few others got involved and recommended we swim her. She has been at Regan Todd’s place since her last start swimming twice a day for five days before being picked up and shod. She has been to the beach today and had never been there before, and we are hoping that was good for her foot. She hasn’t been fast worked since her last start so we are a little unsure as to how she will go but she seems bright and happy.

“Clint (Ford) wanted to put her in foal last year, but she will tell us when she’s ready. If she breeds, she won’t breed until next season, and we are probably leaning towards sending her to Marcoola.

“I know he was a homebred and ours, but that doesn’t matter. We have some lovely yearlings and foals by them, and I’ve been really impressed by them. They have lovely strong shoulders and chests on them. I went and saw him a few months ago and you forget what an impressive animal he was and how strong he was in the chest. The foals we have on the ground born this year look amazing, so hopefully there is a big heart there,” she said.

For complete Nelson fields, click here.

by Brad Reid, for Harnesslink