Green gets his reward for patience

Trainer Paul Green liked his maiden harness racing pacer Margherita (American Ideal) so much he refused to work her for a year.

That patience paid off when the five-year-old got her first win at just her second start at Cambridge on Thursday, although that win came 21 months after her first start.

“I am a persistent bugger,” laughed Green after only his second winner in the last eight years of training.

Green wasn’t even the original trainer of Margherita as she went to the races way back in October 2021 from the Arna Donnelly stable.

“We own her but I sent her to Arna to get going when my daughter Danielle worked for Arna,” explains Green.

“She had one start but had soreness issues in a knee so we brought her home for a spell and the jogged her up again to go back to Arna’s but she had the same knee soreness.

“The vet said if we gave her a year in the paddock she would be fine so that is what we did.

“She had the whole year off and we decided to train her here ourselves and Danielle has been a huge help.”

Danielle shares in the ownership which includes her father and Green says the win is a huge thrill after so much hard work and patience.

“We never gave up on her because we knew she had ability,” said Green, who is a painter by trade. He and his brother have nine staff at the business they run together.

“We are absolutely flat out,” he says of the painting game.

MARGHERITA REPLAY

That means the horses are a hobby and with only one other winner in eight years before Margherita’s victory, albeit from very few starters, Green was loving the moment.

“Any win is a big deal for us and we think she can keep improving because that was her first start in such a long time.”

Margherita is a sister to an eight-race winner here in Classie American while plenty of others in the family have shown good ability so ultimately the Greens are likely to breed from her.

While it was Green’s first training success in a while young driver Crystal Hackett kept her up great recent Cambridge form with a double, reining home Jasinova for Luk Chin and Claude for Andrew and Lyn Neal, the latter a beautiful drive.

Two of the runs of the night came from Bettor Heist in race four, who will be winning again judging by his performance while local Whooska was impressive in the main pace.

For complete race results, click here.

by Michael Guerin, for Harness Racing New Zealand