Picking a winner not Tricky for local race sponsor

By HARRY CLARKE

IT WAS all in the name for local businesswoman Trish “Tricky” Little when she placed a bet on the race she sponsored at Chinchilla’s annual February meeting.

The Little Tricky’s Cleaning Maiden Plate 1200M was won by Harry’s Me Boy, a 7-year-old gelding trained by Toowoomba’s Mark Larkin and ridden by jockey Scott Sweedman.

It was a joyous occasion for Ms Little, who’d long desired to sponsor a local horse race and ended up personally backing the winner.

“My first pick, Prompt Reply, wasn’t running and I thought, “Harry’s Me Boy – I like that name!” So I went for him and he came home,” Little said.

“I’ve recently joined The Racing League and taken a bit of an interest in the sport, so that sort of prompted me to get behind my local club.

“On the weekend I’ve got 50 bucks here and there to have a bit of a punt on the races.

“I figured I’d give something back to the community by sponsoring, and also get my team together to have a bit of a fun day because we work so hard.”

RACE FOOTAGE COURTESY OF ON THE BIT RACING AUSTRALIA.

Harry’s Me Boy was Norm Larkin’s only runner at Chinchilla and he travelled out from his Toowoomba stable to watch the gelding’s first win.

He said it was “a long time coming”.

“He’s showed me a lot of promise in the past and just couldn’t quite get there. He’s been working really well and hopefully he goes on from here,” Larkin said.

“He’s normally up on the pace. He missed the start a bit, apparently, but after a bit of a dig (jockey Scott Sweedman) said he took off and that was where he stayed. It was a good ride.”

When asked by the Caller why he chose to run Harry Me Boy at Chinchilla, Larkin laughed “you put your horse in the worst race and you put yourself in the best company.”

“I picked out a maiden in Toowoomba in a fortnight and now I don’t know where I’ll put him. I’ll just have to wait and see.”

Chinchilla Race Club president Don Critch said the committee was happy to see strong local support for the February meeting, which was generally always a smaller affair than other events throughout the year.

“There was probably close to 300 people there, which is definitely more than we’ve had at the last few February meetings,” Critch said.

“We were very pleased with the day. It was a good crowd and we’re now looking forward to our tropical theme race day on April 17.”