28 February 2023 | Ashleigh Paikos
With the Albany season wrapping up for the 2022/2023 season, there was plenty to celebrate with the last meeting dedicated to the Denmark locals. The annual Denmark Cup highlighted the meeting, with the cup heading to Busselton with Sadhita NZ leading all the way for Barry Howlett and Trent Wheeler.
Howlett was confident the lightly raced seven-year-old could take out the $11,000 feature, and although gaiting issues have been a problem in the past for Sadhita NZ, the stable was confident they had the best horse in the race.
“I couldn’t see him getting beat, unless State Of Heaven NZ could have got a run, that was the only one that could have troubled him, but he couldn’t get out.” Howlett said
With the season ending, the club celebrated their awards after the last race, where Coolup based trainer Hayden Reeves took out Trainer of the Year for the third consecutive year, as well as narrowly missing out on Leading Club Pacer, with Tubbs Farquhar equalling the lead on points, after running second in the Denmark Cup for the second time in a row, by a small margin. Reeves ended the season on 122 points, with 17 wins and 36 placings.
“It’s always wonderful to come back to the place you grew up and be able to compete. The committee does a super job and hopefully Albany will be there for a long time to come.” Reeves said.
Country track specialist Trent Wheeler took out the Reinsperson of the Year, as well as celebrating a double in the cart on the night, including steering home Sadhita NZ for the win in the Denmark Cup in race 5. Although Wheeler missed a few meetings due to suspension earlier in the year, he ended up finishing the season on 79 points, with 12 wins and 18 placings.
“It was a great season down there again this year, I’m very lucky to gain the support from a lot of trainers and owners after missing the first part of the season. It’s a great track with a good atmosphere and I love getting down there each year. I just have to thank all the trainers that gave me the opportunities.” Wheeler said.
Darrell Panizza Wesfarmers Insurance sponsored both Trainer of the Year and Reinsperson of the Year, with both winners walking away with a $500 cash prize.
Although unlucky on the night, Leading Club Pacer went the way of the consistent and well performed Fleur Du Maquis for Bianca Ashcroft, ending the season on 6 wins, and 2 placings, for a total of 16 points.
“I just want to thank the club for putting on great meetings, Spurrs Stud for sponsoring the award and thanks to Emily Johnson and Shane Butterworth for driving her, I couldn’t have done it without them,”
“And a big thanks to the owners for giving me the opportunity to train her, we absolutely love country racing.”
Spurrs Stud have generously donated a service fee to one of their stallions; Shoobees Place and Bonavista Bay, with Ashcroft looking to send Shattering Roxey (the dam of Fleur Du Maquis) to Shoobees Place.
“It’s probably been the best season for many years in terms of horse numbers, nominations, and competitive racing. We’ve spent a great deal of time and effort to refurbish the track which has been very successful,”
“We need to thank RWWA for allowing us to increase the number of races we were scheduled, for applying the emergency rules for races with so many nominations and for the grants we received to promote the racing schedule,”
“Huge thanks to all the volunteers and committee people for their work and congratulations to all the trophy winners.” – Club President, Ken Davies.
Albany will be back in December 2023 for their next season.
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