 | RACING HISTORY |
YEAR: 2008
FEATURE RACE COMMENT
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When Graham and Virginia Williams bred their Nero's BB mare Second Guess to Armbro Invasion, it was going to be the last one. The mechanic at the Cust garage and his wife had not bred a winner, and they thought it was time to stop.
The foal they bred had been hurt, almost put down, but a neighbour took it on lease and later bought him for $1000. That was Major Decision, the winner of 17 races and $349,000, still racing at 13, and for the Williams "the turning point". Since then they have bred one or two foals every season, either from Second Guess or Lady Attewell, an unraced dual-gaited mare by Meadow Roydon.
None of them had been winners in 17 years, until a dramatic change in their fortunes in the $35,000 NZ Trotters Trust NZ Trotting Oaks at Addington last Friday night. They won it with Lady Eskay, Lady Attewell's filly by Safely Kept. Lady Eskay had done nothing in 11 starts to suggest she would be much of a worry for the favourites and form horses, and in any event she was meant to be pacing.
Four years ago, the couple won a service offered by Alabar at a breeders' night to either D M Dilinger or Safely Kept. They chose the latter, and bred a dark brown, energetic little thing who was a handful to break in. Her trainer Brent Lilley says she was "fiery". She never paced; and Lilley never tried her. But he liked her enough to take a share in racing her. She could trot, and to keep on top of her, Lilley kept her busy.
"She had growing pains, and little niggling problems, but I always had some time for her, even though there's not much of her. Brent Borcoskie did a great job with her in her lead-up races, but the owners felt that in a race like this they wanted someone who was out in these type of races more often. That's why Mark drove her." And, as he did with Doctor Mickey the week before when he caused an upset in the NZ Trotters' Derby, Purdon played a waiting game, buried three-deep in this case behind Gladys Emanuel and Darby Doll. He punctured the tyre of Gladys Emanuel as he eased into the open after With Intent broke on the corner, then caught Darby Doll and Gladys Emanuel and ran past them to win by half a length and half a head.
Graham Williams owes his start in harness racing to a friendship he had with Waru Taumanu, then "doing the boxes" for Denis Nyhan when Nyhan had one of the best stables in the country. "I remember leading two horses down to a paddock one day and thought 'I've got a NZ Cup winner on one side, and a Dominion Handicap winner on the other - Robalan and Hal Good."
They have more young ones to come, and they're pleased about that. One is a 2-year-old brother to Major Decision, and the other is a yearling filly by Armbro Operative from Lady Attewell. Now they have the Jewels ahead of them with Lady Eskay, though Lilley is making no commitment about that right now. Both Second Guess and Lady Attewell are getting on, one 20 and the other 16. Until recently, the Williams may not have been anxiuos to replace them, but a Group 3 winner has taken the guesswork out of that.
Credit: Mike Grainger writing in HRWeekly 9Apr08