by Wayne Currall
Busselton trainer Barry Howlett has given punters a good lead by declaring his smart squaregaiter Sunnys Little Whiz ready to win first-up at Gloucester Park on Friday night.
The former Kiwi mare hasn’t graced the racetrack since December 9 when she won the Group 1 $50,000 Trotters Cup (2503m) at headquarters but Howlett has had his star trotter back in work for almost three months and he expects her to be hard to beat first-up off her 20m handicap in the www.gloucesterpark.com.au Trotters Discretionary Handicap (2503m).
“I gave Sunnys a couple of months off after the Trotters Cup,” Howlett said. “She’d done a great job in her first campaign in Australia with her eight wins and two seconds. She enjoyed her break but it’s back to work now and I’m looking forward to seeing her at the races again.” Howlett said Sunnys Little Whiz had been working very well in her lead up to her return to the track. “Of course she’s not race-hardened after a two-month spell, but she’s showing enough on the training track to suggest she’ll be very competitive on Friday night,” he said. “We wouldn’t be starting her unless she was fairly forward in her prep and there’s no Cardigan Boko in her race on Friday night.”
Sunnys Little Whiz was something of a revelation in her first campaign in Australia. She arrived on our shores with very little fanfare, but quickly established a reputation as a foolproof squaregaiter with a big heart. Sunnys Little Whiz strung together six wins in a row before her colours were lowered at Pinjarra as a long odds-on favourite when she uncharacteristically broke in running.
Howlett said, in hindsight, he shouldn’t have started her that day. “She copped a kick in the float on the way to the races,” he said. “She was passed fit to race but it put her off and she really didn’t perform up to her best that day. Her only other defeat came at the hands of Cardigan Boko.”
Howlett, who started training pacers as a hobby, has progressed to a full-time trainer in the past three or four years with 20 to 30 horses in work at any one time. He has his own 800m fast-work track and has concentrated on buying quality stock from New Zealand. It’s a formula that’s obviously working with Howlett sitting comfortably in fourth spot on the State training list behind Greg and Skye Bond, Gary Hall and Ross Olivieri. Horses from the Howlett team have won 58 races so far this season for more than $424,000 in prize money.
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