Rank outsider wins for Cross

Shades Of Robyn (Sir Lincoln) caused a massive boil over in the Captain Crunch @ Alabar Mobile Pace at Addington yesterday.

Trained at Dunsandel by Trevor Cross the five year old was 10/10 in the betting and paid $86.60 and $18.40.

“I was quite shocked at the price. He’d been working well and he’d got over a respiratory infection which he had when he raced at Oamaru. We went to Methven but it was wet and it didn’t suit him,” Cross said.

Driver Kim Butt was posted wide early before settling into the one one. Coming out of the last turn she peeled the gelding out to make his run and he got up to beat Tuppence by a head.

SHADES OF ROBYN REPLAY

“I spoke to Kim after the race and she said he wasn’t fully extended. He’s very, very green. We’ve had steering issues with him.”

The Harness 5000 is now firmly on Shades Of Robyn’s radar.

“I haven’t worked out a programme for him yet but it’ll possibly be Oamaru or Timaru or maybe another Wednesday meeting at Addington.”

It was Cross’s first winner since The Wrath Of Robyn won the Group Three Forbury Park Four and Five Year Old Championship in April 2015 beating Mossdale Conner and Isaiah. That win provided Craig Ferguson with his first ever Group success.

Cross has held a trainer’s licence since 1996 and prior to yesterdays win The Wrath Of Robyn, which won eight races, was his only winner.

He began his working life as a mechanic in the late 1960s.

“I thought ‘this is too hard working on dirty old cars,’ so I got into the sales side of it and started selling cars in 1974. I had a lot of harness racing clients. Henry Skinner bought cars off me.”

Trevor and his wife Denise sold what was Trevor Cross Motors in Gore in 2000 and the business was renamed Millennium Motors.

“They asked me to stay on a bit and I stayed on for twenty one years. It was good because I could do the horses in the morning and go to work a bit later.”

Trevor and Denise moved to Dunsandel in 2021.

“The family had moved away from down south. Our daughter was up here on ten acres at Dunsandel. She’s a lawyer and decided to move into town, so we decided we’d buy it.”

Another former Southlander Bill McDonald lives just down the road and former southern horseman Jonny Cox lives close by.

“We’ve only got grass track and we’ve had to do fencing and build stables. Bill’s about a km away and he’s got a track and Jonny’s about three ks away so I do a bit of work at his place. Jonny’s very accommodating. If you ring him up he says he’ll have a horse to work with.”

Despite living in Canterbury, Trevor remains on the Gore HRC Committee.

“I’ve been on the Committee for twenty odd years. I did one term as President and I’m actually a life member.”

Cross got into breeding from the ‘Robyn’ breed through Graeme Edgar.

“Graeme was a client of mine. He asked me one day if I wanted a horse and I did.”

He learned training fundamentals from the late Percy Esplin.

“Percy was a good old mate of mine. He was the partner of Denise’s mother. In the late 70s we started going up to the Cup meeting together. Percy got to the stage when he was getting a bit past getting in the cart so I hopped in the cart one day and that’s how I got started.”

For complete race results, click here.

by Bruce Stewart, for Harnesslink