Matty cracks the 500 wins at last

One of New Zealands most promising harness racing reinsman Matthew Williamson has been on edge for several weeks now.

Cemented onto 499 lifetime wins, the North Otago reinsman has run second after second in his quest to crack the 500 mark.

The longer it took the more good humoured banter he has taken from his fellow reinsman and people within the industry.

Speaking to him mid-week Matthew wasn't over confident that he could turn it around with this weeks book of drives.

His best undoubtedly was Springbank Eden at Addington Raceway but Matthew felt that Springbank Eden's luck was about as good as his and that they would probably run second again.

With a lap to go tonight that looked very likely as Springbank Eden was parked outside a tearaway leader in Lisa Marie P with Dexter Dunn in the bike.

However passing the 800 metres mark Matthew was able to slip Springbank Eden down onto Lisa Marie P's back and from there Springbank Eden was always a big winning chance.

These two drew away from the field on the corner and Springbank Eden took the whole length of the Addington straight to nail Lisa Marie P and help bring up Matty's 500th win as a reinsman.

Matty was all smiles as he returned to scale and was quick to deflect all the accolades heading his way.

" It is good to get the monkey off the back."

"Half way up the straight I thought I was going to run second again but to his credit Springbank Eden has dug in and got the job done."

" With natural improvement, he should be a nice drive in the next twelve months," Matty said.

Since his first drive Matty has always looked someone headed to the top and he was quick to thank those who have helped him along the way.

" Dad (Phil) has been a big help all the way through and it was great to crack the 500 wins on one he trained."

"Geoff and Jude Knight have been super as well and without their support I wouldn't be where I am today so I can't thank them enough," Matty said.

As someone who has regular contact with Matty in relation to his upcoming drives, I can attest to the fact that he is always open and honest and a pleasure to deal with which is not always the way with leading reinsman.

The way Matty is driving and the success he is having it won't be that long before we are celebrating the 1000 win mark for this talented reinsman.

Harnesslink Media