17 August 2018 | TERRY NEIL
THIS time last year Amy Rees, newly moved from the Gold Coast, was experiencing her first Bathurst winter, and doing it pretty tough.
In fact, when her own horse Wee Jimmy was successful there last July, she enlisted her partner John O’Shea as his driver so she could stay warm by watching the race at home on Sky!
Twelve months on, the chilly nights don’t bother her any more, and she’s well and truly established on the racing scene, and in the wider Bathurst community.
At Wednesday night’s Gold Crown Paceway meeting, she drove a perfect race behind favourite Sams Express, which she trains, to take out the C2/C3 Menangle Country Series heat, demonstrating the skills that are increasingly earning her drives for other stables.
Drawn on the inside, she was awkwardly placed three back on the markers in the early stages, and then relegated one spot further back when leader Cherry Sweet Peach handed up to Blackwhiteandblue mid-race.
Approaching the turn, she looked to be in an impossible position, but after navigating her way around a tiring Recipe For Dreaming NZ, she switched back to the sprint lane to chase after Blackwhiteandblue and Cherry Sweet Peach, collaring the pair right on the line.
Unsurprisingly, she gained racecaller Craig Easey’s Drive of the Night award for her unruffled performance.
Coming up trumps in a busy finish seems appropriate for a young woman who manages a very busy life of her own. She’s in the first year of a Communications degree at the local Charles Sturt University, works part-time in hospitality and management at a busy hotel/motel, and shares the training and driving of a team of nine or ten horses with her partner.
And she even manages to participate enthusiastically in supporting worthy causes, such as her cupcake baking/selling efforts for the recent Cobram fundraiser initiated by Sissy Wilson. A pair of kindred spirits, those two.
The earlier C0/C1 Club Menangle heat was taken out by Cyclone Charlie NZ ( Mat Rue for Phil Thurston), first up in seven months. The Rock N Roll Heaven mare appeared set for an easy win until her condition gave out in the straight, but she raised another effort to just hold off Courageous Beau and Our Little Digger, which both ran on strongly from the rear of the field.
Field Officer NZ ( Chris Geary for Tim Butt ) took the quickest way home via the sprint lane, in the fast-class, at just his second run back from a three-year lay- off, a great training effort and a vindication of the owners’ decision to try the Cullen nine-year-old, a $200,000 winner, one more time.
Nifty Studleigh scored his second win from 12 starts – with a further five placings demonstrating his consistency – in the first 2YO event, sitting in the one-one and sprinting just a touch too well for Writes Good and Kyle Shannon.
Jake Davis, his driver, can also be described as “busy”, having started his day at the ungodly hour of three-thirty – a.m. that is – on the family dairy farm outside Blayney, before going to work on the team of 20 horses that have just come back in from their winter spell.
And all this at the same time his dad has headed off for a six-week spell of his own. Nice one, Leigh!
Hot Flush NZ gave The Kerryann Turner/ Robbie Morris stable their customary Bathurst winner, the Bettors filly death-seating in the 3YO first event, home in 57.7s to complete the sprint trip in a 1:57.6 mile rate.
There was plenty to like about the tidy win, but post-race everyone was talking about the effort of the Tim Butt-trained second starter Colby, which suffered severe interference just after release, losing a conservative 60 metres, before chasing hard to run on strongly in the middle of the pack.
The win of Field Officer later in the evening might have been some little compensation for the stable, if not the punters who had declared the horse a good thing. The glorious uncertainty of racing strikes one more time!
Colby, as the name suggests, is another of the progeny of Betterthancheddar. That sire should probably have book-ended the meeting, with Lady Swiss (Mat Rue, completing a driving double ) scoring in the final event, a second 2YO sprint.
A large and enthusiastic group of owners and family celebrated on track, not just for the filly’s maiden win, but because it brought up a century of training wins this season for Bernie Hewitt, who joined in after returning on the unplaced Fantasy Blaster.
Bernie’s back to Victoria this weekend, for Saturday’s Breeders Crown semi with College Chapel, but it was fitting that his first-ever “ton” should be completed at his home track, and that cricketing tragic Mat Rue should do the steering.
Almost “a tale of two cheeses”, but at least we can say that Lady Swiss “got the bickies”.
Approved By Dean Baring www.harnessbred.com
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