Monday 22nd June 2015
The first victory in any driver’s career is memorable and two young participants experienced their first winners in consecutive races at Tamworth on Sunday. 16-year old Maddie Bond drove The Know It All to victory in race one while 25-year old Luke Muirhead opened up his winning account in race two when Putting For Eagle scored a comfortable victory.
Maddie Bond is a student at Maitland Grossmann High School and is currently in Year 11. What made Sunday’s victory even more special was The Know It All is owned by her mother Kristy and trained by her father Jamie.
“It was a great thrill to finally get my first winner, I’ve always had a soft spot for the horse and he has probably been my favourite since he was born,” Maddie said.
“Dad has been a great influence on my career and is always trying to teach me and help me to improve, the win meant a lot to my family.”
Maddie is hoping to study childcare but is adamant there will always be room for horses in her life.
“Mum and Dad would like me to get a qualification so I have something to fall back on but the horses mean so much to me, I’ve helped Dad out since I can remember and I have spent plenty of weekends at Michael Formosa’s property giving him a hand too.”
“I have been involved in the mini trots since I was five and got the chance to go to New Zealand in 2013 to compete in the Lizzie Of Rosslands competition which was the highlight of my time in the minis.”
Luke Muirhead drove his first winner at his first race drive and was full of praise for Putting For Eagle’s trainer Ken Smith.
“Kenny has been a great help to me, he has taught me a lot and I’ve been helping him out for three or four years now so it was nice to win a race for him,” Muirhead said.
“When I hit the line and had won the race I looked around and wondered where the rest of the horses were and I wasn’t sure whether something had happened behind me, it was a great feeling to win it.”
Muirhead had been enjoying some success with Putting For Eagle at the trials recently.
“I won a trial on him a week ago at Maitland and the week before that I won on him at the Cessnock trials, so he has been going well and it was a good reward for the horse because he was one of the horses that we had to evacuate after the floods.”
“Ken’s track was nearly seven metres underwater at the flood’s peak and the horses had to be taken to the Maitland Showground for a couple of weeks, it has been a really tough time for all of us who were hit by the floods and we are still recovering from it.”
Harness Racing NSW (HRNSW) is the controlling body for harness racing in New South Wales with responsibility for commercial and regulatory management of the industry including 31 racing clubs across the State. HRNSW is headed by an industry-appointed Board of Directors and is independent of Government.