Jones trotter plays with them

The ease with which the Mark Jones trained Wanna Play A Game (Tactical Landing) won at the Ashburton harness racing meeting yesterday would suggest the winning won’t finish there.

Driver Sam Ottley stepped Wanna Play A Game and led from start to finish before clearing out to win by four and a quarter lengths with the removable deafeners still firmly in place.

WANNA PLAY A GAME REPLAY

The win was the mare’s second in just two starts. Her other win was on the grass at Geraldine in early December.

The four year old is owned by Trevor Casey and Kate Marriott. Casey says there have been plenty of challenges on the way to getting Wanna Play A Game to the races, which made yesterday’s win even more special.

“As a yearling she went through a fence and the wire basically stripped the skin off her back leg. It was a major. Luckily it didn’t damage any tendons. To get that horse to where we are now has been a mission and a half. You could have sacked her at any time and given up,” he said.

During her three months of rehabilitation Casey and Marriott looked after Wanna Play A Game.

“Lindsay Colwell was a big part of getting her back too and patching her. She told us the mare would be alright.”

Once she was fully recovered she had a stint at the All Stars Stable before Casey decided to send her to Mark Jones.

“We took her to have a quiet workout. She led all the way and bolted in. I thought ‘we’ve got a good one here’ but bugger me she pulled up and started roaring. Kate convinced me to do the throat operation. I’ve had them done before and none of them had been successful. A guy came over from Australia and did three (operations). One of the other one’s he did the operation on was The Present Maker which bolted in at Addington the other day.”

After recovering from the throat operation Wanna Play A Game was put back into serious work.

“We waited for a maiden. There was a decent stake at Orari so we took her there and she won. I thought we’d better look after her so we gave her a month off.”

Once back to full race fitness, Casey and Jones decided to bypass Addington with the trotter and race at Ashburton where she duly won in a good time of 3-04.0, trotting her last 800 metres in 58 seconds.

“It’s looking exciting going forward. Everything seems to have worked out since that throat operation and she’s made no noises.”

Wanna Play A Game, bred by Casey, is out of Majestic Son mare Wanna Play which won five including a Sires’ Stakes Trotting Championship.

“I’ve been in the game for a long time and you get so much pleasure when you breed and race them. You get a great thrill when they come out and win like that, even though it was only a one win trot.”

Casey has owned some well performed pacers and trotters including Lazarus, Sky Major, One Change, Stent, Escapee and Pocaro.

“I’ve won a fortune, but spent a fortune (laughter). I’ve been very privileged to have raced horses like Lazarus and Stent. I’ve had a bit of a dry spell for a while, but I’ve got a couple that look good. This one, and one out of Pocaro called Lexicon. Bob Butt got her and we’re quite excited about her, she’s only a three year old. She’s been to two workouts and won both of them.”

Casey bred from just three mares last season, a far cry from the heady days when he was sending twenty to the stud.

“I’ve cut right back. It was a hobby that got out of control (laughter). I’ve got five or six well-bred mares I can choose to breed from so I just breed from a couple every year now.”

Wanna Play A Game is one of five winners by her sire Tactical Landing.

“We were put on to him when Mark Purdon went to America. Jimmy Takter told him to breed to Tactical Landing because he was one of the best trotters he’d ever trained. He wasn’t cheap at $15,000 but you breed the best to the best and hope for the best.”

Casey who races his horses in the Lone Star colours, runs four Lone Star restaurants in Christchurch and one at Alexandra Park in Auckland.

“It been a bit of a hard time with hospitality for the last eighteen months.”

He owns land at Prebbleton and Kate has a property at West Melton where the horses spend their down time.”

“They’re Kate’s babies (Wanna Play A Game and Lexicon) and she wouldn’t swap them for anything. Wanna Play A Game owns me a fortune and I don’t know whether I’ll ever get square but it’s great to get a win like we did yesterday. It was fantastic.”

He says the plan now, is to target some of the mares races coming up at Addington.

“One is the Heather Williams (G3 Heather Williams Memorial at Addington on 2nd of May). I was talking to Lex (Williams) at the airport the other day and told him I had a mare that was getting ready for your race. I’d love to win that. I knew Heather, she was a lovely lady who put a lot into trotting.”

For complete race results, click here.

by Bruce Stewart, for Harnesslink