A syndicate of Wellington owners are hell-bent on claiming the Stephen Wallace Memorial Trophy when their mare Previous Find goes around in the Rating 62 Handicap (1200m) at Dubbo tomorrow.
The $10,000 race is named in honour of a former racing man who died well before his time in February 2002, aged just 50. His mother Zita Wallace this week took possession of a magnificent trophy that will be presented to owners of the winning horse.
Part of Stephen Wallace’s working life was spent in Wellington in the hotel business before he moved to the family property Murrumbidgee and then joined that holding with Geurie Homestead.
The Wallace family later got into the racing business and had great success with Rockin Ramapo, which was trained by Mike Williams and won feature cup races in the country and at Randwick.
Stephen Wallace’s memory in racing continues with the race named in his honour tomorrow.
Trained by Johnno Johnson at Orange, Precious Find has been tagged as the $2.50 favourite on the back on her maiden win at Parkes on November 2.
Wellington painter Ian Darney is part of the syndicate that includes mates Steve and Shane Louick, Garry Cusack and Les Thomas, and remembers Stephen Wallace when he was in the town.
“It would nice to win this race,” he said yesterday.
“We picked our mare at a fire sale and with the knowledge that her mother Roccina had won three races in Melbourne, we had a pretty high option of her so sent her to David Payne at Randwick.
“She had three unplaced runs but then we run into the equine influenza period so she came back home.
“When the EI was all over and she had built herself up again we asked Tracey Bartley about taking her on but he had a full book so he suggested that Johnno (Johnson) would be ideal as he was back into training and only had a couple of horses.
“The rest is history. Johnno took her in, did all the pre-race work, and in the space of nine weeks won a race for us. It was his comeback win after earlier announcing his retirement and our first with him, so it was all good. The run at Parkes was impressive. She missed the kick by a couple of lengths and was then three wide in the closing stages but still won by a length. I think she’s be improved by that run.”
Narromine-based jockey Joe Galea will ride Precious Find today, replacing Kody Nestor who will be on Hiding Place for Warren trainer Bill Dwyer in the same race.
Stephen Wallace Memorial Handicap market: $2.50 Precious Find, 2.90 Cheeky View, 3.50 Secret Dane, 5.00 Hiding Place, 13.00 Kings Emperor, Dew Drop Kiss, 17.00 Reigning Pennies, 21.00 Over The Phone, 26.00 Heliograph, Misha’s Magic, 51.00 Kelosomai Raider.