31 July 2023 | Ashleigh Paikos
A troublesome past saw five-year-old mare Allzfairnluvnwar only have just the two starts before Saturday nights run at Narrogin, but she held it together on the night to break through for her maiden win for Mal Hancock.
Hancock, who’s had 20 years between wins took up training again recently after just dabbling in it on and off for the past two decades, with family commitments and work life taking precedence.
The double westbred daughter of Alta Christiano NZ arrived as a foal at foot with her dam Funzova, when Hancock was given the opportunity to breed from some quality mares when he purchased his stallion Advance Attack NZ from Mark Congerton some years ago.
“Advance had a few nice foals in the first crop, Gary Hall and a some of his owners were looking to breed a few, so they were very, very good to me and gave me some good quality mares and one of them was Funzova and she had a little filly at foot, and that’s now Allzfairnluvnwar,
“At the time they tried Alta Cinderella who is the full sister, and she wasn’t very advanced as a two-year-old and then she came out and matured into a really nice mare and has won a lot of race, so I was lucky to get the mare really, before she produced Alta Cinderella.
After having her broken in, she was leased by Gary Hall Snr, but after developing some quarter cracks in her hooves, she was sent home in late December 2021 and spent some time in the paddock before heading to Peter Treford.
With Treford out of action with a knee operation, Allzfairnluvnwar made her way back to Hancocks farm six months ago and after a little let up in the paddock, Hancock thought ‘stuff it, I’ll get back into it’ as he always had a bit of time for the mare.
“I hadn’t trained for a little while and I thought it would be nice to get back to the races.”
After giving up a well-paid government job in the late 1990’s, Hancock’s love of the industry saw him take up the manager’s position at the Bunbury Trotting Club from 1999 to 2002, which saw him oversee the track upgrade at Bunbury, taking the existing 800m track and making it the 960m track we race on today.
“I gave up a $100,000 job for a $30,000 job because I was very passionate about the harness racing industry.”
Hancock was an influential part of the Merriden Harness Racing Club in the 1980s, coming up with exciting initiates such as Kersley Vs the best of the rest, and Kersley’s Vs the Warwicks with Hancock confirming that the club doubled its turnover in a season.
With his introduction to harness racing the conventional way with family involvement, Hancock had his first drive at the age of 16, making his debut a winner.
Taking a step back from breeding now, Hancock has since sold Advance Attack NZ and is enjoying his time dabbling in training once again as well as running his real estate business in Bunbury.
Approved By Dean Baring www.harnessbred.com
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