IT was a $15,000 maiden race on a grey and blustery day in Ararat, but Rebecca Gribble had plenty to celebrate when her horse Hackles mowed down runaway leader Heavenliness to hit the line a nose in front last Monday.
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It was a breakthrough win for the pair of them.
A breakthrough for a winless horse making its first start since July 2013, and its first start for its new trainer.
Gribble admitted it took her by surprise.
“It was a little bit unexpected,” she said.
“He’s had a couple of jump-outs at Ballarat and we thought we’d give him a good experience yesterday as he hasn’t been at the races for 83 weeks.
“We thought we’d send him around, drop him out the back and do a bit of work late, but he came home a lot better than we thought he would.”
Jockey Jarrod Fry rode him to instruction, sitting off the speed for most of the 1100m journey.
After working into the clear at the top of the straight, Hackles hit top gear to reel in Paul Preusker’s front-runner and claim the win.
It was the first career win for the five-year-old son of US sire Old Deuteronomy, and Gribble’s first winner since October 2012.
“There’s nothing better than having a first-up winner,” Gribble said.
“Especially with a horse that’s come from another stable. It’s nice to think you can have a training effort to get a horse back winning.
“It’s something anyone would be proud of.”
Gribble used to run a satellite stable for Mick Kent, Hackles’ first trainer, and leased the horse from its owner some 14 months ago.
With much of her time and attention devoted to pre-training for Henry Dwyer, Gribble has just the one horse in work at her Ballarat base, and Hackles has kept her hands full.
“It’s been a tedious process getting him right,” she said.
“If there’s some way to knock himself, he’ll find it.
“He bucked the rider off one morning and cut his tongue, which set us back five months.
“To get him back to the races was an achievement in itself. To get up and win was just icing on the cake.”
With a race, and a win, finally under Hackles’ belt, Gribble is hoping her lone horse can string together a few more.
“The horse has had no major injuries. Just little things, little setbacks along the way that added up to weeks and months,” she said.
“We’re hoping to keep going now.
“I don’t think I could do another 83 weeks with him on the sidelines.”
Other highlights during the meeting at NMIT Ararat Park last week included a winning treble for trainer-jockey combination Darren Weir and Dean Yendall.
The first of the wins came in race four with three-year-old filly Tintaglia, who claimed the maiden race on debut by more than a length.
The pair finished third in the following race, before again saluting at the front of the field in the Programmed 0 - 58 Handicap over 1100 metres with Karlesha.
The win was impressive, by more than four lengths.
Rounding out a strong day, Yendall guided four-year-old mare Chloe Anna to victory in the final race on the card.
?- with Conor Ryan, Country ?Racing Victoria
