By Matt Markham
It took Tim Williams a couple of days to realise it, but an error in judgement almost cost him a number of opportunities – and most importantly almost cost him an Auckland Cup.
But in the wash up from his victory last night on board superstar pacer Have Faith In Me in New Zealand’s second greatest pacing event, the young horseman was pretty keen to put a tough couple of weeks behind him and focus on the now as opposed to what had happened in the past.
But before he completely put it all to bed he did put a lot of emphasis on the efforts of Rob Lawson who helped him with the appeal of a suspension handed down to him following the Summer Cup back on December 11.
The suspension would have seen Williams sitting in the stand last night as opposed to sitting in the sulky behind New Zealand’s most exciting pacer.
“Rob did a power of work to help me with the case, I am really grateful for everything he did.
“It was one of those situations where I probably didn’t really think about the bigger picture at the time and just took it on the chin without thinking about things further down the line.
“I’m pretty pleased I did appeal, because I wasn’t going too, but I did talk to Mark (Purdon) about it a lot, he was great to talk it all through with too.’’
With the suspension reduced and Williams allowed to drive in the Cup – there was only one other major issue to take care of from there and that was to get the highly excitable pacer to step away from the stand start for the first time in his career.
And for that little piece of magic, Williams was pretty quick to give a bit of praise to All Stars employee, Duane Marfisi.
“He’s spent a bit of time standing with the tape in his hand and practicing to get him to step away.
“We had a bit of a discussion about it all and decided to take the rearing strap and the hopple shortners off him because he was stepping away fine without them at home.
“It was never a case of him not wanting to do it, he was always going to get there eventually and although I can’t say he won’t do it again, he got it right on the right night.’’
For a young man the realisation he had just won one of New Zealand’s marquee races hadn’t sunk in for Williams in the immediate aftermath of the race and he was predicting it might take a couple of days.
“It’s all a bit surreal to be honest. I’m pretty excited though.
“And I am very thankful to Mark and Natalie and the Dunfords who stuck with me and let me get back on him.’’
The Chariots of Fire in Sydney will be the next target for the exciting pacer but a trip to Victoria for the Victoria Cup has been ruled out.
“I don’t want to push him too much this season,’’ Mark Purdon said.
“He can go over for the Chariots and then we can focus on races like the Taylor Mile and New Zealand Messenger before the Jewels back here.’’
While beaten last night neither Hughie Green or Smolda lost any admirers with their efforts to finish in behind Have Faith In Me.
The former led the field throughout and went down fighting while Smolda was consigned to yet again having to settle for a minor placing in a major pacing race this season.
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