NZ HARNESS NEWS
Late trainer Keith Chittenden was firmly in the memory of many central districts racing participants yesterday when his final winner recorded her first victory from new quarters.
Above The Rest, a 12-year-old trotting mare, took out the first race on the card in the hands of Scott Phelan for Taranaki trainer and co-owner, Willie Fleming.
Chittenden bred, trained and raced the daughter of Sundon until he passed away after a long cancer battle in August.
Soon after, Chittenden’s family opted not to persevere with his bloodstock interests and decided to disperse what they could.
“Basically, the family were disposing of all his horses and I went around for a look to see if any of them took my interest,” said Fleming.
A 12-year-old trotting mare is probably not most people’s idea of a racing investment, and it wasn’t really for Fleming either, but he is glad he made the decision now.
“I had seen her going last year and thought she was potentially worth breeding from.
“I hummed and harred about getting her in foal this season but we decided to give her a go and race her through to have a bit of fun.
“Even though she’s 12, I think she had an injury early on and Keith didn’t do too much with her.
“He was patient, that’s for sure, because she didn’t qualify until she was 10.”
Relocating a 12-year-old that had been at the same property all her life was perhaps a risky proposition, but Fleming said she took to it well.
“She settled in reasonably good and probably the biggest change for her has been a different feeding regime from what she had been used to with Keith.”
Yesterday’s win was her third from 46 starts and, while this probably won’t be a huge success story that sees her win races in a row, Fleming and his fellow owners believe they will have a good time with her over the summer.
“We’ll potter around the ‘CD’ with her; she seems to handle the grass well.
“I drove her the first few starts and learnt a bit about her each time.
“I was pretty happy last time and said to Scotty that now I had her going good, he can jump on and get the win.”
The main story out of Tuesday’s meeting was the continued dominance of Michael House and Blair Orange, who combined to win half of the eight-race card.
The pair have now won 11 races together in Palmerston North since the October 31 meeting.
Their winners yesterday were Onhightogether, Bettor Ask Me, Shillelagh and Born Again Delight.
- NZ Harness News
Approved By Dean Baring www.harnessbred.com
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