A casual virtual meeting in the midst of the Pandemie produced one of the most unlikely global ownership groups of Harness Racing.
Media -Superster Brittany Graham interviewed Top Noord -Marican trainer Nancy Takter on Skype and, in the words of Tatker, “it stopped immediately.”
Trips to visit each other in the US, New Zealand and Australia, further cemented the bond and they spent $ 25,000 last year on a young drot -year -old yearling for racing.
Tanker, daughter of Hall of Fame Swedish Horseman Jimmy Tanker, called him Howdy Mate – “as a brutal nod to the cultures of both countries” – and he is already a job winner, who lands the $ 75,000 Nutrien Sales Final at only his seventh start at Melton on September 13.
The gelding will prefer to add the old Tatlow final on Melton at 7.40 pm on Saturday evening.
It will be 5.40 hours in Lexington, Kentucky when Tanker jumps online to view the race, while the now NZ-based Graham will coordinate itself via NZ’s Trackside TV at 9.40 pm her time.
The Howdy Mate team runs deeper than just Traaks and Graham. It is a Harness Racing female powerhouse.
The other co-owner is Tanker’s good friend Michelle Crawford, from the Monstrous Crawford Farms Foking and Racing Empire, while one of the best female conditioners in Australia, Jess Tubbs, Howdy Mate trains.
Tanker, who won Facetimed Tubbs and Graham the nocturnal Howdy Mate the Nutrien -Final, said she was from the “international adventure” that the young trotter had already delivered.
“One of the unexpected gifts of the Pandemie was my friendship with Brittany Graham, who then introduced me to Jess Tubbs and we all became very close,” Tanker said.
“It was when I was in Australia and NZ earlier this year, I met Jess and we asked if she would train the trotter for us after Brittany and her father (Darrel) had broken him and did the early work with him.”
Tanker, each of which has two victories in mega functions such as the Hambletonian in the US and Noord -Marican Cup in Canada, admits that she liked to see how different things are being done.
“I learned quickly and training was a completely different process. It has all been an educational process and we have traded ideas from the different countries,” she said.
The best example was the insistence of Tubbs to strengthen the very quirky and “almost dangerous” Howdy a few months ago.
“When I told Nancy, she said,” Michelle and I don’t race “and I thought that was that, but Jess convinced her. It definitely made a huge difference,” Graham said.
“In the US, if you get a TOP Young Trotter, you always keep it like a foal because the stud value can be huge, but we just don’t have that market.”
Graham, who has driven more than 300 winners and finished fifth in an Inter Dominion that is the finals, said that she is not in the temptation to throw in the side for Howdy Mate despite her love for him.
“No, I don’t think I could treat him … Maybe one day I can ride it in the track, but when it comes to the races, Herbie (leading driver James Herbertson) does fantastic work and the ride is very safe in his hands,” she said.
In addition to Saturday evening, Howdy Mate has a series of job options such as the Victoria Trotters Derby, Vicbred Series and The Breeders Crown.
Through Adam Hamilton For Harness Racing Victoria
#Friends #world #unite #ownership