A training first for Grant Milne and a welcome return to the winner’s circle for Murray Brown highlighted harness racing action at Oamaru and Winton over the weekend.
First training win for Grant Milne
By Jonny Turner
Grant Milne lived up to his pedigree when producing his first winner as a trainer at Oamaru on Sunday.
Milne is a blueblood in harness racing terms given both of his grandfathers have been leading Southland trainers, while his father and uncles have produced hundreds of winners between them.
Milne is the son of Alex Milne and brother of Nigel Milne, the grandson of the late Alex Milne Snr and the late Les Norman, as well as being the nephew of Keith and Brian Norman.
Cruising Fontana helped the rookie trainer begin to add to his family’s incredible legacy when breaking through for a deserved maiden win in the Well Done to Team Teal Mobile Pace for driver Blair Orange.
Milne went into partnership with his father at the beginning of this year and Sunday’s victory is their first together.
The junior training partner bred and races Cruising Fontana which made his first victory nearly perfect.
There was just one aspect Milne missed out on, he wasn’t able to be on track or watch his horse win live.
Milne previously worked in both touch and rugby league development and still volunteers as a coach.
So rather than being tuned into his horse’s race from afar, his eyes were firmly on the road.
“It’s pretty special, it is the dream result, really,” Milne said.
“Well the dream would have been to be there, but I was driving a van load of kids home from a tournament in Christchurch.”
“But it is still special, I have been hoping we could kick things off with this horse because I bred and own him.”
Milne works in the harness racing industry full-time and he has plenty more horses he can tick off more milestones with in the future.
“It is nice working with Dad and I love working on the farm.”
“When I was working in Dunedin I was breeding horses and I have got a heap of them to come through.”
“I have a couple of three-year-old fillies coming up to the workouts soon and a nice two-year-old by Captain Crunch coming through.”
Having worked alongside all of his relatives at some point, Milne has no shortage of knowledge to call on as he builds his training career.
And along the way he has made some great memories.
“One of Grandad Milne’s last good horses was Camsplace Alec, he raced in the New Zealand Derby and a few good races and I remember going up with him to Addington.”
“I would pop around and help him with trackwork.”
“There are a lot of great stories of Grandad Les (Norman) too.”
“And when I have worked with Brian (Norman) there has always been a lot of banter.”
Milne credits Cruising Fontana’s win to careful placement, as well as the horse’s continued progression.
“He showed us a bit breaking him in and even as a two-year-old, but he is five now.”
“He has just taken a bit of time.”
“It has taken careful study of the programmes to get him into the right races, either low-rated or on the grass where the big bangers won’t go.”
“It is nice reward for a wee battler.”
“He is a great horse to have around, we use him to educate the younger ones, he will just cruise along.”
Milne will continue to place Cruising Fontana carefully and has plans to head to Ascot Park early next month with the pacer.
Ted sees Murray Brown back in winner’s circle
By Jonny Turner
Murray Brown’s outstanding training career may have ended but his colours are still making their way into the winner’s circle.
The outstanding Southland horseman enjoyed another victory when Lauren Pearson produced Ted to win the Winton Cup Day Thursday 17th April Mobile Pace for driver Nathan Williamson at Winton on Saturday.
Ted transferred to Pearson’s stable earlier this year after Brown closed the doors on his Ascot Park barn after establishing himself as one of Southland’s best trainers during his 35-year training career.
Brown won 551 races and just about all of Southland’s feature and cup races over that time and he has many career highlights to look back on fondly.
“There are plenty of good memories to choose from and a few bad ones, you know what horses are like,” Brown said.
“Beaudiene Bad Babe would have to be the best of them, she could do it all.”
“She never knocked herself around, she was just the perfect horse.”
“She would just run around with the rest of them at home but she knew when it was race day.”
“We had a heap of good ones over the years, Highview Jude, Freeway Don and horses like Awesum Teddy.”
“We won most of the cup races in Southland but I think there was one we missed out on.”
Though he isn’t hands-on anymore, Brown’s horses will continue to be seen in Southland.
“I qualified a two-year-old filly by Bettor’s Delight and we have a brother to Ted as well as a Sweet Lou foal.”
Brown races Ted with Andrew Grierson of Woodlands Stud who he struck up a racing connection with many years ago.
“I didn’t know him until he was billeted with us for the yearling sales tour down here, that was probably 15 years ago and we have had a few horses together since.”
The Sweet Lou four-year-old hadn’t been handed much racing luck leading up to his Winton victory, but he’d been running home strongly in his recent races.
On Saturday, it could have been a similar story until Williamson found clear air for the pacer late.
“He has been going good races, but we always seem to draw badly with the preferential draws.”
“He has always had speed, but he hadn’t shown that at the races.”
“But he is getting better, they ran home in 27.6sec (400m) and he would have gone better than that coming from behind them.”
The feature event at Saturday’s Winton meeting was taken out by another Sweet Lou pacer.
Canterbury raider Piccadilly Pete took out a highly tactical running of the Central Southland Cup for trainer Matt Purvis and driver Matthew Williamson.
