By Michael Guerin
The biggest night of Jo Steven’s young training career was almost twice as good.
But she wasn’t letting that keep the smile from her face after she trained her first winner at Alexandra Park on Friday with The Scruff.
Driven by Stevens’s partner Dylan Ferguson, The Scruff stunned punters at $24.60 with his return to form in the opening race and then Stevens and Ferguson almost did it again in the very next race.
Her only other racehorse, On The Razzle, looked to have held on to win the handicap pace but was actually grabbed on the line by Vibhuti, going down a nose
“I actually asked to see the photo because it was that close,” laighs Stevens.
But she wasn’t losing any sleep over being beaten out of a 100 per cent record, happy to be on the board at only her ninth start as a trainer.
“To win a race at Alexandra Park was amazing, but for me to win any race would have been great.” It has been a Trans Tasman-criss crossing journey to the winner’s circle for Stevens.
The 25-year-old Australian moved to New Zealand to work for Graeme Rogerson’s galloping stable, which is where she met Ferguson, who was working for the harness racing team there.
They became a couple and then returned to Australia as Ferguson sought experience with Amanda Turnbull and Nathan Jack, which is when Stevens started to really get interested in harness racing.
When the couple returned to Cambridge, Stevens took out her licence and after a couple of starters last season has found the right two horses to set her career alight.
“We recently claimed On The Razzle, which is a great way to get a horse because you can race them straight away and the owners don’t have to wait for a return,” she says.
“Then Dylan spoke to Graeme about taking over The Scruff recently and he only joined us about 10 days before he won.
“We also bought a yearling at the sales but it is spelling so I only have two horses in work. So last Friday was almost perfect.”
Stevens still retains her love of gallopers, working for local thoroughbred trainer Gary Alton in the mornings while Ferguson helps out Nicky Chilcott before they return to the stables owned by Ferguson’s parents to work their own twosome.
“It is only a start and one day I’d like to train fulltime but obviously that would be hard with getting our own land.
“But that is the dream and we are on the board now.” The other highlights of Friday night’s meeting was Temporale’s win against older horses in the trot, while his trainer Tony Herlihy trained what he believes to be his first ever racenight trifecta with Hank Bromac, Bettors Pocket and Bonnie Khaleesi.
And the novelty factor was provided by a fire alarm in the grandstand during a race that saw the big mid-winter crowd spill out into the cold and the meeting set back one race.
Approved By Dean Baring www.harnessbred.com
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