Shades of Robyn (Sir Lincoln) caused a massive boilover at the Captain Crunch @ Alabar Mobile Pace in Addington yesterday.
The five-year-old, trained in Dunsandel by Trevor Cross, was 10/10 in the betting, paying $86.60 and $18.40.
“I was quite shocked by the price. He was working well and he had overcome a chest infection he had when he raced in Oamaru. We went to Methven but it was wet and he didn’t like it,” said Cross.
Driver Kim Butt was placed wide early on before settling into one. Coming out of the final bend she peeled the gelding out to run and he rose to beat Tuppence by a head.
SHADES OF ROBYN REPEAT
“I talked to Kim after the race and she said he wasn’t fully extended. He’s very, very green. We’ve had steering problems with him.”
The Harness 5000 is now firmly on Shades Of Robyn’s radar.
“I haven’t worked out a program for him yet, but it might be Oamaru or Timaru or maybe another Wednesday meeting in Addington.”
It was Cross’s first winner since The Wrath Of Robyn won the group three Forbury Park Four and Five Year Old Championship in April 2015, beating Mossdale Conner and Isaiah. That victory gave Craig Ferguson his first ever group success.
Cross has held a trainer’s license since 1996 and prior to yesterday’s win, his only winner was The Wrath Of Robyn, who won eight races.
He started his working life in the late 1960s as a mechanic.
“I thought ‘this is too hard to work on dirty old cars,’ so I went into the sales side and started selling cars in 1974. I had a lot of running customers. Henry Skinner bought cars from me.”
Trevor and his wife Denise sold the former Trevor Cross Motors in Gore in 2000 and the company was renamed Millennium Motors.
“They asked me to stay for a while and I stayed for twenty-one years. It was good because I could do the horses in the morning and go to work a little later.”
Trevor and Denise moved to Dunsandel in 2021.
“The family had moved from the south. Our daughter lived here on ten acres in Dunsandel. She is a lawyer and decided to move to the city, so we decided we would buy it.”
Another former Southlander Bill McDonald lives down the street and former Southern rider Jonny Cox lives nearby.
“We only have a grass track and we’ve had to build fencing and stables. Bill is about a mile away and he has a job and Jonny is about two miles away so I do some work at his house. Jonny is very accommodating. If you ring him up he says he has a horse to work with.”
Despite living in Canterbury, Trevor remains a member of the Gore HRC Committee.
“I have been on the committee for twenty years. I served one term as president and am actually a member for life.”
The cross with the ‘Robyn’ breed ended up in breeding via Graeme Edgar.
“Graeme was a customer of mine. He asked me one day if I wanted a horse and I did.”
He learned the basics of training from the late Percy Esplin.
“Percy was a good old friend of mine. He was Denise’s mother’s partner. We started going to the Cup meet together in the late 1970s. Percy got to the podium when he got a little past getting into the cart, so one day I jumped in the cart and that’s how I started.”
For full race results, click here.
Through Bruce Stewartfor Harnesslink
#Rank #outsider #wins #Cross