OUR SLEEPING Beauty won her first and what looks like being her last race at Tamworth Paceway last Thursday.
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The four-year-old bay mare was having her 23rd race start in the TAB Rewards Pace (1609m) and led all the way to hold on for a narrow half head win from Velvets Dream with Noble Victory a nose away third.
Marist Rose, trained at Gunnedah by Ivan Finlay, had also joined in late to make it an exciting blanket finish with the four pacers in the photo-finish.
For winning driver Guy Chapple it was a nervous little wait.
He had thought she might have won but couldn’t see how close the widest horse, Marist Rose, had finished.
He also thought she was labouring at the 600m.
“But she boxed on well,” Chapple told on-course interviewer Mark Lowe after the race.
“They bought her as a brood mare.
“She’s a well bred little thing and now they’ll retire her and put her to stud.
“Hopefully they get a good foal out of her.”
Aunty Nanna Kath won for the first time in a while later in the day, holding on to beat Artistica Uno by a head in the Peter Mac Photography Pace (1980m).
She had a couple of “duck eggs” against her name for her last-start efforts at Tamworth but turned that on its head with a solid win in a 2:02.9 mile rate.
“She’s been a bit crook,” driver Josh Osborn said of the Tony Missen-trained four-year-old mare.
“She’s got over that now and has come good.
“Tony’s done well to get her back on track.
“She’s not real strong but hopefully she can win a few more.”
She has now won two of her 28 starts.
Missen was delighted she could turn her form around after overcoming her illness.
He wasn’t as delighted as the owners though.
“Stan (Allan) owns her. Him and Joy (Tony’s wife) and Dan (his son).
“She’s Dan’s first horse as an owner too.”
Tamworth Harness Racing Club races again Thursday, June 30.
Nominations for that meeting close at 9.30am this Friday.