Love You filly impresses with first win

Blithe (Love You) went some way to living up to her harness racing breeding when breaking maidens at Ashburton on Sunday.

From the maternal family of champion sire Sundon, the filly is certainly bred to trot.

After threatening to win in her recent outings, the three-year-old got the job done in race 1 with a professional display for trainer Jamie Gameson and driver Sarah O’Reilly.

“Some of her sectionals on the Stridemaster in her last four or five starts have been pretty good,” Gameson said.

“But you just can’t afford to give them too much ground.”

“Three starts ago she ran her last mile in 2.02 over the 2600m and she had all the best sectionals on Stridemaster except the last one when she got a bit tired.”

“But that can happen when you’re chasing the whole way.”

“I thought the win might have come a few runs before today but she ran a lot of fourths and fifths and thirds, just there abouts.”

“But today we got the right draw and we got the right trip and it worked out good.”

BLITHE REPLAY

Gameson purchased Blithe following the National Yearling Sales and syndicated her among a group of his stable owners.

“They are a great bunch, they are really loyal and they have had a few horses with us.”

“It was good today because some of them hadn’t actually been on course when the horses had won and they have had a couple of horses that have won four or five races.”

“But that is the way it always works out, so it was really good today that a few of them were able to be there.”

“It makes it all worthwhile.”

When heading to the sales Gameson was initially looking for a pacer, but he eventually found Blithe and she took his eye.

“She was a buyback at the sales …  we were keen on a pacer but we got blown out of the water on three or four.”

“We ended up going around having a look at a few after the sales and I really liked her.”

“I think it was the first lockdown when we broke her in and she took to it like an absolute pro, but then she just went wayward.”

“She has been a bit of a tart, she is a beautiful chestnut wee filly but she has got a beautiful attitude sometimes.”

“There were a few months there just counting to ten and getting done what we can get done.”

“But she is becoming a wee pro on race day.”

“She can still be a tart at home but on race day she has come to it.”

Gameson credited Sarah O’Reilly for helping develop his sometimes cantankerous three-year-old into a winner.

“Sarah gets on great with her and she knows her.”

“She has learnt to go with her a wee bit.”

“Sarah has stuck with her and she is a good kid.”

“I asked her if she would like to drive her all the time and she obliged and said yes.”

“Good on her because you can get some better drives sometimes, but we wanted someone that would stick with her and be a bit nice to her.”

O’Reilly notched a winning double later on the Ashburton card when also winning race 6 with Changearound (Changeover).

For complete race results, click here.

by Jonny Turner, for Harness Racing New Zealand