by Greg Mansfield for the Examiner
Talented mare Itz Gemmas Delight, who resumes from a spell at Mowbray on Sunday night, will soon be part of owner-trainer Melissa Maine’s new breeding venture.
Maine and partner Gareth Rattray have expanded their training property at Latrobe to incorporate breeding facilities and will trade as Faithful Park Stud.
“We thought we’d branch out because there are not a lot of options (for breeders) in Tasmania,” Maine said.
“We’ve been doing our own breeding for a couple of years, so we knew a bit about it, but that was only with small numbers.”
Maine and Rattray have both recently completed courses at the Goulburn Valley Equine Clinic, probably Australia’s leading facility.
“We both did the two-day AI course and I stayed for the week-long course that takes in everything,” she said.
“With kids, we see it as a more family-friendly option – we can do this and have less racehorses.”
Itz Gemmas Delight will be one of the first mares to go to stud at Faithful Park.
“Our plan is to get her in foal in the next couple of months,” Maine said.
“She will have a few runs in the meantime and can continue racing for a little while in foal.”
Itz Gemmas Delight returns from a four-month break in Sunday night’s C2/C3 Pace.
She’s actually a C4-class horse but is eligible for the lower grade with her mares’ concession.
“She has trialled pretty well but she’ll probably take a couple of runs,” Maine said.
The stable also has last-start winner Tisu Spirit in the 2YO Pace and recent addition Miss Ruthless in the C1 Pace, with Rattray to drive all three horses.
“We’ve been waiting a month for Tisu Spirit’s race and just had to hope it stood up,” Maine said.
“It’s a good, little field but he should run well – he’s just starting to put it together.
“We’d only had Miss Ruthless for 10 days before she ran second (at Mowbray a fortnight ago) and I was rapt with her run.
“We’ll play around with her for a couple of months then probably move her on.”
Gareth Rattray will continue his quest for an 11th drivers’ premiership on Sunday night but faces a big task to overhaul his brother Todd.
Going into the final meeting of the season, Todd has driven 86 winners to Gareth’s 83.
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