Harness racing owner Martin Riseley is living the dream and enjoying every minute of it.
When his champion pacer Lennytheshark won last month’s Inter Dominion Grand Final in Perth Riseley realised a lifelong dream, but the euphoria will continue tomorrow night at Tabcorp Park Melton as the 2016 TAB.com.au Sumer of Glory gets under way.
It is Good Form Victoria Cup night and Lennytheshark highly fancied by punters and bookies alike in the $400,000 Group 1 feature race.
“We’re enjoying every bit of it … he’s the greatest horse I’ve ever been involved with without a doubt,” Riseley told RSN Breakfast this morning.
Riseley, who races Lennytheshark in partnership with his father Kevin, said the horse was purchased as a weanling.
“They’re all champions before they get to the track,” he said of his babies. “We always hold high hopes and Lenny was no different to that.”
But how did the gun pacer with the catchy name come to be called Lennytheshark?
“My eldest boy Sam, dad and me would go around and feed the mares and the foals and at that stage Lenny was always just ‘Sharky’, being by Four Starzzz Shark (Lennytheshark’s sire).
“After a few months of that, Sam would have only been three or four, he piped up in the ute and said: ‘It isn’t Sharky, it’s Lenny the Shark’, and he went on to explain to us about the Fish Tales movie he watches and how Lenny the Shark was on that.”
Now Riseley’s kids have their hair done up like a shark’s fin at the races and carry shark mascots in support of their champion, who has netted almost $1.5million in prizemoney with 24 wins from 46 starts to date.
“It’s all still a bit surreal,” he said of the whole experience.
Want to find out more about ownership? Visit the owners booth near the raceday office on Good Form Victoria Cup night at Tabcorp Park Melton or email HRV Ownership Manager Tori Glenister.
Approved By Dean Baring www.harnessbred.com
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