By Matt Markham
Eight years is a long time in between drinks, just ask Graeme Ward.
But the Ashburton horseman can now put a lengthy wait behind him after he broke an almost decade long drought from the winners’ circle when he produced Oliver Queen to win at the Hororata meeting at Methven.
In the wet and clearly relishing the conditions, Ward and Oliver Queen emerged from mid pack and stormed home over the top of their rivals in the third race of the day.
“It still feels good to win a race,” Ward said.
“With this horse it’s always been a case of getting the right run in the right conditions, and we got them today.”
Ward’s last winner as a trainer came back in 2009 when Evander Daytom was victorious at Ashburton with Leo O’Reilly in the bike but you have to go back even further to find his last driving win which came when Sleep Over won at Timaru in 2007.
There’s a gap of five years where he wasn’t training which accounts for most of the drought and the other years have come with limited opportunities.
“It’s always been about having the right horse to take to the races.
“Although we weren’t about at the races, we have always been pottering around with a couple and sold a few as well.”
Sold from the stable have been Anita Patron and also Vatuvei who both did good jobs.
“We are always breeding a few too, there’s three at home that we have bred that things are starting to get a bit more serious with, it’s just enough to keep us busy really.”
Ward was uncertain of what would come next for Oliver Queen, but he was keen of sticking to the grass tracks as much as he can.
“The grass seems to be our go so we will keep looking for the right races on that sort of track.”
As well as Oliver Queen there’s also the maiden trotter Hot N Fast who looks to have enough ability to win a race as well.
So all going well, the gap in between the next win won’t be quite as long as the last.
Colin DeFilippi moved to within striking distance of a major milestone with his driving double at the meeting after claiming a double.
The master horseman produced an inch perfect drive on his own horse, Galleon’s Royale to win a lower grade trot before chiming in at the right time with Missandei to win later in the day for Bruce Negus.
DeFilippi is now just nine wins short of reaching 2,000 New Zealand driving wins.
Approved By Dean Baring www.harnessbred.com
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