She acquired her trainer’s licence in 1972, and although she currently has just two horses in her Alice Springs stable, legendary Northern Territory trainer Sheila Arnold still loves her horse racing.
One of those horses, Qualis, will be aiming to make it three straight wins in the Red Centre on Saturday when he lines up against 0-58 opposition over 1400m.
READ: Saturday’s Alice Springs racing tips
The Fastnet Rock five-year-old gelding, who started his career in NSW for Gai Waterhouse & Adrian Bott, debuted in the NT in July last year in Darwin.
He has had three starts in the Top End with his best result a third over 1600m (Class 2) on July 13.
Between those two visits north, Qualis had four starts in the Alice with his best result a third against the three and four-year-olds over 1100m (Class 2) on debut in October last year.
Returning from this year’s Darwin Cup Carnival, he was seventh at Pioneer Park over 1100m (Class 2) on August 20 before getting his first NT win the following week over 1200m (BM54).
Next up was a fourth over 1200m (Class 2) on September 11, but since then Qualis has saluted over 1400m (BM54) on September 25 and 1600m (0-58) a month ago.
“Qualis is racing well and we’re looking forward to the races on Saturday,” Arnold said.
“We bought him as a three-year-old with hopes of all sorts of things in Darwin, but we had a lot of misfortune with him and a lot of bad luck.
“Just this time in he seems to have started to produce what we’ve always hoped he would.
“He’s always a little touchy in the barriers and we’re trying to do something about that, so this will be the first week that we’re attempting to put a barrier blanket on him to try and settle him in the gates.
“This will be a new experiment and hopefully that will make him feel more comfortable.
“We have Casey Hunter riding and she’s done so well with the horse – she’s a very calm jockey.”
Arnold, who works in tandem with husband Keith, said that winning a race anywhere is difficult adding that it’s not easy to win races on the dirt surface at Alice Springs.
“There’s always good opposition,” she said.
“Qualis is well and it’s probably coming to the end of his preparation, but we did want to give him this one more start with trying to help with the barriers, so we’re very hopeful.”
After 15 starts, which included a first up win in a 1400m maiden in Newcastle in his final NSW start, Qualis has had an up and down career, but the wheel appears to be turning.
“We seemed to have used up all our bad luck, I think,” Arnold said.
“We’ve always thought he had ability, but we were thinking this horse is just a hard luck story and just suddenly he’s clicked.
“He’s five, but he hasn’t raced that much, so we’re hopeful he’ll see us through and keep on improving.”
Over the decades, the Arnolds have made a serious impact on the NT racing landscape.
“We bought our block out on Ross Highway and built stables and brought up our three boys there, and loved our racing in Darwin and the Territory,” she said.
“Then for no reason at all we decided that we would sell up and go south, which we did for 10 years.
“We were at Geelong and Bendigo and then we ended up at Kyneton – we’d always come back to the Territory and then go back.
“We were quite successful, but eventually the horses got slower and I guess so did we and you had to travel four hours through the city and then you’d get beaten and then have to travel all the way home.
“Things started to get a bit tough and we came back.
“We said it’s not too bad up here and the prizemoney is good, we can walk our horses up to the racecourse in five minutes and get beaten and walk them back and be back at the bar in no time.
“We felt that at the time it was a good move and we’re very happy to be back in the Territory.
“We’re now in town, we’re happy and we’re pretty settled – the weather here in Alice is magnificent for horses and people.
“We’ve only got two horses – Yulara Drive always seems to have something wrong with him, so I don’t know where he’s going in the future.
The Arnolds’ son Steven is a former Group 1-winning jockey who once rode Stillme to victory at Flemington in 2010 for his parents and their friends Catriona Green – a former Alice Springs trainer – and husband Donald.
“When you’re up in the Territory, a race at Flemington seems like a dream and we actually did it,” Arnold said.
“Steven is riding track work at Flemington for Chris Waller and he also goes out to Lloyd Williams’ place out at Macedon, so he is keeping very fit.
“Our other son Doug has just given up training in Victoria.
“He was very successful actually for the short time he did it.”
Finally, Arnold said that she couldn’t imagine life without horse racing.
“We’re still enjoying our racing,” she said.
“Just watching the Spring Carnival in Melbourne, it’s a wonderful industry and while we’re still upright and moving around I can’t see a time when we’re not involved.
“It’s a great interest for us and the people here in the Territory have always been great, so we’re having a good life.”
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