By Barry Lichter
“On the night of champions, Nicky Chilcott, one of the champions of the raceway, gets her 700th driving success – what a way to finish off a crazy night …”
Cambridge racecaller Aaron White was the first of many to congratulate Chilcott after her milestone win in the final race when she reined home Crazy, the rank outsider of the field.
And how appropriate that Chilcott, 53, could become only the second woman to reach the mark on a horse who had confounded the best of drivers and been out of the winner’s circle for more than three years on both sides of the Tasman.
“He’s certainly well named,” Chilcott said of the trotter who has been pulled up 14 times in his career and posted beaten margins of up to 1157 metres, reflected in his career record of five wins and just a solitary placing in 45 starts.
“I don’t know whether we just get on well together but tonight you wouldn’t have driven a nicer horse. You could have put your grandma on him he was that lovely.”
It was only Chilcott’s second drive behind the Tim Hall-trained eight-year-old after she did what few drivers before her had managed on March 18 – got him away from a stand.
“But I couldn’t steer him that night so I told Tim to put a pole on him and work him in it every day. And when I did a warm-up trip on him tonight, he trotted beautifully.”
And, back behind the mobile, Crazy behaved perfectly, Chilcott making sure not to touch his mouth in the score-up until 50 metres before release.
“He felt as safe as houses and after I got the trail I knew he’d be hard to beat, if he let down.
“Round the bend the one in front was stopping and when it got a bit tight he threw in a funny step but once he got clear it was all over and I didn’t even turn the stick.”
Chilcott, who celebrated with a fist pump over the line, said she was thrilled more for Hall, a one-time White Star worker who registered his 37th win in his 15th year as a public trainer.
“I had the easy job. Tim’s done a great job with this horse and spent a lot of time with him. He’s a real battler but you wouldn’t meet a nicer guy.”
It said a lot for Hall’s patience as a co-owner of the horse when you consider Crazy notched a single placing during a two-and-a-half year stint in Australia, first with Craig and Tony Jamieson in Victoria then Darren McCall in Brisbane.
Chilcott, who earlier in the night finished third behind Always Flyin in the Dorothy Cutts Invitational for women drivers, said it was a great night to end three months of sitting on 699.
“I’m really proud of reaching 700. A lot of people have driven a lot more winners than me but I’ve never been attached to a big stable and driven mostly for owner-trainers.”
Chilcott said she had great respect for the country’s leading woman driver Samantha Ottley who had rocketed past her to 850 wins.
“But I haven’t been driving much at all and just been chipping away.”
By comparison, Chilcott has had 18 drives this year, compared with Ottley, who would drive 18 most weeks, and has had 268 drives this season. And last year it was Chilcott 106 and Ottley 839.
“I’ve been giving a lot of drives to Leah (Hibell) in recent years. You’ve got to look after the young ones coming through.”
Chilcott, who has had 7916 drives since starting in 1993, was glad she delayed her celebrations – she was stopped twice on the short drive home and breath-tested.
“But I’m now going to sit down with a glass of red wine and watch the replay.”