By Jonny Turner
Former All Black Liam Squire brought up his first win in harness racing in incredible style when See It Thru bolted in at Ascot Park yesterday.
In just his second start for Oamaru trainer Darryn Simpson and a new group of owners which includes the former Highlanders star, See It Thru left his opposition in his dust.
Squire’s first victory as a harness racing owner came with his first horse and in just his second start for the retired rugby star.
Simpson got Squire a share See It Thru after acquiring him from Canterbury.
The six-year-old ran a very narrow second in his debut for his new stable at Winton last week.
See It Thru then went one better when leading all of the way in race 1 yesterday for driver Matthew Williamson.
“I said to Liam, you’ll think this game is easy but I can tell you it’s not,” Simpson quipped.
“He was pretty happy afterwards.”
Squire races See It Thru with his breeder Janice Hadfield, Simpson’s daughter, Ella, and the trainer’s mother, Maureen.
The ownership group looks to be in for a fruitful ride with their new trotter.
See It Thru may not have beaten a field of stars, but he could not have been much more impressive in doing so, streeting his rivals by eight and a half lengths.
“He has got a lot of speed, he has been a bit of a work in progress but he seems to be getting better and better.”
“He went 3.09 (for 2400m) at Winton but in that next grade up they sprinted up but they only went 3.15.”
“So you would think he would he will handle the step up.”
“We didn’t know what we were getting when we got him, his form didn’t look that great but he has kept improving.”
“Even Matty drove him in work a couple of times and he said this horse has got a fair bit of speed.”
Williamson was in outstanding form at Ascot Park on Friday, driving a winning double that raised $1200 for prostate cancer research through harness racing’s Blue September campaign.
The Oamaru horseman bookended the six-race card, producing another front-running drive to score in race 6 with Mogul.
Williamson trained Boarding Call to win race 4 with Kerryn Tomlinson doing the steering.
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