By Adam Hamilton
AN old marvel of Aussie harness took Team Tritton’s phenomenally successful North American launch to a new level.
After two wins from their first two US runners last weekend, Shane and Lauren Tritton snagged another three wins from their next four runners.
My Ruebe Star backed-up from her US debut win to repeat the dose, again at The Meadowlands on Saturday morning (NZ time).
Their three-race winning streak ended with Ohoka Johnny finished third at The Meadowlands yesterday morning (Sunday), but Team Tritton bounced straight back for wins with former NZ Cup contestant Letspendanitetogetha and Flaming Flutter.
“That one (Flaming Flutter) was a bit emotional for us. He’s been such a great horse, but he’s so special to us. Lauren said we weren’t allowed to leave home without him,” Shane said.
“We thought he’d settled in really well and were disappointed when he drew the outside for his first run, but it didn’t stop him.
“To be four-wide into the first bend, the three-wide and never see the marker pegs, but still put them away and go a 1min49.1sec mile – it just shows his class.
“He might be an 11-year-old over here, but he’s going to love the racing and win a lot more races. It’s hard to say he’ll make it back to the top at his age, but he’ll give some good horses a big fright with the right run on the strength of what he did today. People were saying, ‘wow, that’s a serious horse’ after he won.”
Flaming Flutter raced 122 times Down Under for 25 wins, 43 placings and $814,235 in stakemoney, mainly for Geoff Webster before joining Team Tritton late last year.
He was a top flight juvenile, but it best known for finishing second to Beautide in the 2015 Sydney Inter Dominion final and third to Lennytheshark in the Perth Inter Dominion final nine months later.
Team Tritton’s first unplaced runner came in the 15th race at The Meadowlands yesterday when Im A Director copped a check and a flat tyre.
In total, they’ve had seven runners for five wins and a third.
“It’s certainly been a dream start and it’s a bit surprising because we’re still very much working out how to train the horses here compared to back home,” Shane said.
“People are certainly taking notice. We’ve had a few calls from owners which could lead to us getting some more nice horses in the barn.”
Team Tritton will race mainly at The Meadowlands and Yonkers, which re-opens today (Monday) after a COVID shutdown.
“It’ll be great to have Yonkers back open because they race for such amazing money. They the standard races will be $US44,000 once we get fully past COVID. As it is, they say they’ll be racing for $US33,000,” Shane said.