NZ HARNESS NEWS
Katie Cox made a start to realising her ambitions towards being a trainer when she produced Mad Lu Li for a really nice win in the $11,100 maiden race for fillies and mares at the Geraldine meeting on Saturday.
With the $1500 bonus for first-time winners, the four-year-old Vintage Master mare picked up a healthy $8330 for owners Kirk Dew and Wendy Jones.
Cox fashioned a tidy record as a junior driver in recent seasons, winning 57 races including the Darren DeFilippi Memorial with King Of The Roses last year, and the Dunedin 4&5Y0 Championship with Woodlea Legend at long odds.
But she knew the opportunities would dry up once out of those ranks this year so for a while she’s had a plan in place to have a crack at training.
“My mum Wendy and I bought a property at Leeston so we had a place to start,” said Cox.
“It was (the late) Peter Cowan’s but having been leased out for a few years it was pretty run down. But we’ve tidied it up and I began breaking in there soon after the yearling sales.
“Breaking in is very much the initial focus and I’m very grateful to the trainers who have given horses to me, but I’ve also been lucky enough to have a few owners who have given me horses to train and race.”
Cox has started four horses since getting her licence and Mad Lu Li brought up the milestone at her 15th attempt.
She did have an unofficial success back in 2012 when Cardinal Huff won races at Forbury Park and Addington.
Cox had Cardinal Huff on lease before exercising a right of purchase and was training him although he was under the name of her employee at the time in Jamie Gameson.
Cox comes from a show jumping background and had a stint in America in that respect before returning home to do a Bachelor of Commerce course in property valuation and management.
“I thought I’d better get something to fall back on but I was also working the mornings for Colin and Julie DeFilippi at the same time.”
Cox then had a stint with Dean Taylor and drove many winners for him, including five with Simon Sivad, before joining Ken Barron a couple of years ago.
Cox won her last race for the stable with Mighty American in February, and around the same time she teamed up with the Debbie Flint-trained Hidden Desire to win four races including three penalty-free junior driver races.
As might have been expected, there haven’t been many outside drives this season and Mad Lu Li was her first in that respect as an open driver.
“I joined the Barron stable for the experience of how a big stable operates,” said Cox.
“Then I got quite a few yearlings to break in after the yearling sales and I decided it was time to go for it.”
The current racing team of 5-6 older horses probably aren’t going to take Cox very far but she does have a young one looking more than useful.
Cullens Desire is a two-year-old filly by Stunin Cullen who qualified in winning a trial at Ashburton a few weeks ago and she won another juvenile trial there last week.
Cox actually bred Cullens Desire and she will race in the ownership of her mother and another good supporter in Tom Twidle.
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