One door closes, another bursts open for G1 Zev

Twenty-two-year old harness racing trainer, Zev Meredith, went to sleep last night dreaming of a fairytale result in this evening’s inaugural $100,000 G1 Queen Of Diamonds.

Tonight (or possibly the early hours of tomorrow!), he goes to sleep a Group One winning trainer.

Not bad for a kid whose had his training license for a little less than 12 months and lining up just his 19th race day starter.

‘”By the name One More Moment, and she’s created a moment i’ll never forget,” exclaimed Meredith having just watched his six-year-old mare, One More Moment (Majestic Son), and champion Australian reinsman Greg Sugars, sneak up along the Alexandra Park passing lane to G1 glory.

Meredith has received plenty of plaudits in the last 24 hours for his bravery in opening up about his tumultuous journey in recent times which saw the talented reinsman ditch the sulky in favour of finding his mojo and zest for life once more.

“I wasn’t enjoying driving. I was enjoying taking a horse to the races that I was training, but there was a bit of a mental block with my driving which was hard to explain. I realised it was a bit of an issue when I was headed down for my first drive in a Group One at Addington Raceway and I wasn’t looking forward to it like I knew I should have,” Meredith told Harnesslink yesterday.

You can read more about that journey in this morning’s article.

Meredith didn’t have huge expectations heading into tonight’s first G1 for trotting mares in the history of New Zealand harness racing. He knew his lightly tried mare would need a few favours in the running, but one thing he did have was the belief in her ‘motor’ and ability.

Meredith raised a few eyebrows when he nominated One More Moment for the Dominion, and now we can see why.

At just her 17th start, the daughter of Majestic Son has added to an already rich family legacy that includes the likes of the great Take A Moment, Oscar Bonavena, Dr Hook, and the 2nd to last trotting mare to win an Open Class G1 in New Zealand, Quite A Moment, the winner of the National Trot back in 2016 on the same track.

All the aforementioned squaregaiters stem from the 1990 4YO Trotting Mare of the Year and 2020 NZBSA Broodmare of Excellence Award winner, Nakura, whose tail lines now bear a fourth G1 winner.

One More Moment arrived in Meredith’s Pukekohe stable with a fair reputation as the winner of three races from just eleven starts for Southland trainer, Brett Gray. This morning Meredith paid a lot of credit to Gray for the grounding he had done with the lightly tried six-year-old, but in the post race aftermath, the young horseman paid his biggest dues to the mares owners. Kenny Baynes and Jo Baynes.

“This man right here,” said Meredith with his arm wrapped tightly around Mr Baynes.

“Jo, Jo where are ya! This woman right here, and that woman out there,” referring to his partner Neita (Balle) who was on the track to greet the G1 winner, “I wouldn’t be able to it without all of them,” he said.

Meredith spoke earlier about the circumstances which led to the opportunity to train for the Baynes’ and he certainly repaid their faith in the best manner imaginable.

“Neita, my partner and her father Derek have a pretty good association with the Baynes’ family going back a few years. Neita was sent Boss Kenny on a deal from Kenny and Jo Baynes and they are still on the deal for the lease with her and we are talking with them most days.

“Kenny and Jo have a fair few horses around them in the paddock so I was at Kenny for another horse and we worked out a deal that I could get One More Moment (Majestic Son) up here and she has been a nice little project,” said Meredith this morning.

Meredith was understandably lost for words and smiling like a cheshire cat while trying to explain the elation he was feeling.

“I don’t know what to say,” he beemed.

“It’s been a great experience and a turntable of events, but this is unreal, this is great.”

It’s been beautiful to watch the jubilation of two twenty something year old trainers winning their maiden G1 races in the space of a week, both coming in newly minted races on the New Zealand harness racing calendar.

For the trotting mares, it’s been a long time coming.

The last trotting mare to win an Open Glass G1 was Habibti Ivy in the 2017 Anzac Cup on the same track as tonight’s victor. To do so, she had to down a stellar field of mostly male trotters.

ONE MORE MOMENT REPLAY

There have only been two G1 winning trotting mares in the last 15 years, and just 22 going back to the start of the of the millennium.

A new era has quietly been ushered in with trotting mares now getting the respect they deserve, with very few likely to ever forget the first of hopefully many for the affable Zev Meredith.

For complete Alexandra Park results, click here.

by Brad Reid, for Harnesslink