Nelson treble has father and son partnership off to a flyer

Brent and Tim White have gotten off to a flyer in the 2023 harness racing season, having picked up six winners from just fifteen starters halfway through the first month of the calendar.

The father and son training partnership took a nice team away to the two-day Nelson meeting over the weekend, picking up three winners from three different runners.

“I text Dad on his way home last night saying they can stop the season now, we are running second,” laughed Tim White.

“I was at home having had my trip away to Cromwell, so Dad got the gig heading to Nelson, given it’s his favourite trip away, but it was great to get some rewards up there,” he said.

The meeting was heavily dominated by the Robert and Jenna Dunn stable who accumulated a whopping nine wins across the two-day programme, with White joking it was nice of the Woodend Beach stable to leave some crumbs for the rest of the touring party.

The first win for Team White came from the lightly tried son of Peak in Randel Huston P.

Having just his third race day start, it’s been clear given the modicum of support that this is a trotter with a fair bit of ability. When you look closely at his pedigree it’s not hard to see why, being out of a one-win Sundon mare in Rocket, who is out of the unraced Britewell mare in Priceless Gem.

She in turn is out of the 2009 NZ Broodmare of the Year, Janetta’s Pride making Rocket one of the few traces of the great Grice breed to slip outside of the brothers Bevan and the late Keith’s grasp.

“Dad purchased him out of the yearling sales and he was always a bit of a project,” said White.

“He didn’t even look at the book and bought him solely on type and it’s always nice to get those ones from the yearling sales up and winning races. Denise Ottley broke him in and said jeepers he is a handful. He has just taken a lot of time being a big boy, but attitude wise he is a pretty happy horse now compared to how he was early on in the piece,” he said.

Despite being drawn wide on the second row, Randel Huston P began like he was fired out of a cannon and after 400m with the aid of mistakes being made in behind found himself out in front by a considerable margin.

It allowed driver Gerard O’Reilly to get the big fella into a beautiful rhythm before backing off the speed with a lap to go. From there, he rated the four-year-old gelding beautifully and kept his mind on the job for an all the way win.

“When he got away on the right foot and when he made a flyer like that you couldn’t have enough on him really. I thought it was a false start watching it on tv given how much he cleared out by” he laughed.

“Just that typical Peak side of him possibly, but he has progressed a lot in the last eight months or so and hopefully that will continue on. As time goes on, I would like to think he will be better, it’s just getting him through that first 400m really and once he finds his rhythm, then he’s away.  As you saw on the second day, Gerard had to hold on to him when the other horses moved around him and that was just enough to put him off.

“He has been a big job just to get to the races, and it’s probably a credit to Dad and Kim to be fair, they have spent a lot of time and done a lot of miles with him and got him right for that day,” he said.

RANDEL HUSTON P REPLAY

Team White scored their second winner for the carnival on Day One in the form of Lone Wolf, with the son of Sweet Lou going back-to-back on race day in impressive fashion.

Having cleared maidens at his most recent attempt, Lone Wolf showed he may have turned a corner and realised his true ability having given his race day rivals a fair start from the unruly position off the mobile, only to win with a touch of class.

The countries leading junior, Sarah O’Reilly, lit the son of Sweet Lou up down the back, looping the field with a searching three wide run to sit outside the favoured Franco Cornel with 800m left to travel. From there he proved too tough and was able to sustain his challenge to claim victory with a neck and half a head away back to second and third.

“It was a massive run to win on the first day, Sarah got him away well and just took her time and never panicked with him. When she went, he really had to stick to his guns under a lot of pressure which at times has been his achilles heel. In the past when he has been put under pressure, he has faltered but he is 100 times happier than what he was as a young horse and gelding him has helped immensely.

“He came off the unruly and into the draw on the second day and never did a thing wrong and it was probably just as good of a run as the first day having to come five wide round the bends with them all pushing out. It’s great to see him doing everything right and Sarah is getting on with him well.

“He will come back to Canterbury now and we will look for some suitable programmes for him to target over the next couple of months,” said White.

LONE WOLF REPLAY

Rounding out the weekend treble for Team White was the impressive day two win of Aeronaut.

The four-year-old son of Sir Lincoln was another whose career is in its infancy, having raced sparingly across each of the last three seasons with only four starts prior to clearing maidens.

Aeronaut was a tidy 4th on day one having made up stacks of ground from the rear of the field to miss by a place bearing dividend by a nose.

With an upgrade in barrier draws on the second day of the carnival, O’Reilly sent her charge forward from barrier two over the mile and the pair were never headed, rating 1:57.2 over the sprint distance which suggests there is more to come for four-year-old pacer.

“We were really happy with him, and he stuck to his guns bloody well winning over the mile on the second day.

“He is not the biggest horse in the world so the two day back up and the long trip, I won’t say it was a concern, but you just never really know how they are going to cop it.

“Leading up like that was probably not how I envisioned it, but Sarah just rated him beautifully and he got away nicely at the end.

“He is going to pick up more races definitely and he might be suited being placed in some races down south like we like to do at different times. I definitely think there is more there for him and as you have seen on the first day, he can peel that last 100m pretty nice,” he said.

AERONAUT REPLAY

Rounding out a great weekend was the bittersweet success of former stable star, Cranbourne, who was an impressive first up winner of the G2 $75,000 Shepparton Cup.

The son of Sir Lincoln was far from the finished product and chatting with White upon his departure it was clear there was some unfinished business the Ashburton training partnership would have dearly loved to pursue. Nevertheless, White still enjoyed seeing the best horse he has been associated with in his young career doing the business on the big stage for his new owners.

“It’s a tricky one when you have a nice horse leave, but it was nice to see him do it and he was rated perfectly in front. He got away with that first half of the race perfectly and you could see at the 800m he was really up on the job and was always going to be hard to get past.

“It’s hard for us to get a line on how good the Aussie horses are going given the lack of kiwi horses racing against them at the moment, but it was a great win first up and bodes well for their future with him going forward,” he said.

For complete Nelson results, click here.

by Brad Reid, for Harnesslink