After Melanie Maxwell put her harness racing ambitions on hold for more than a decade, a rogue horse that she just wouldn't give up on has finally fulfilled her dreams.
The optimistically-named One Mans Trash (Falcons Icon-Psycho Molley (Dare You To) finally broke through to win a modest maiden at Cranbourne on Saturday – but his path to the winner's circle is one of the unlikeliest of harness racing success stories.
That One Man's Trash was an eight-year-old having his third lifetime start (and his first in two years) gives some inkling of the back story. But the impressive barnstorming victory repaid in a moment Melanie's countless hours of patience and care.
"I've watched the replay of the race probably 100 trillion times! He went awesome! I always knew he was a good horse and my friends Chris Hunter (trainer) and Des Hughes kept telling me he was capable of running some smart times," Melanie said.
"There were plenty of times I threatened to send him back. I may not have been 100 percent serious, but that's how I felt at the time – but oh what a fantastic feeling to finally get that win," she laughed.
One Mans Trash strides to his maiden victory at age 8
The happy-go-lucky horsewoman's harness racing ambitions began in the 1990s when she completed the harness course at Victoria's Gippsland Training Centre at Warragul.
"After I did the training, I worked with the late Arthur Fullwood for 12 months and then with Chris Hunter for a few years," Melanie, of Neerim, in West Gippsland, said.
"I never really stopped being interested in harness racing, but I got occupied with raising a family of three lovely daughters, as happens," she said.
"Then 10 years down the track I just happened to spot a two-and-a-half-year-old standardbred 'cast off' in an Echuca sales catalogue, and it was funny, because I just kept coming back to check out this one particular horse."
Curiosity got the better of her, and Melanie made some calls to track down the youngster's background.
"I'm pretty sure he was headed for the knackery – everyone I spoke to warned me about him, that he was crazy, but I just couldn't let him go, for some reason."
Melanie couldn't afford the horse's $350 price tag, but a conversation with Rehoming Horses Victoria was the key.
"It was unreal. Rehoming Horses Victoria raised the money in 24 hours from people wanting to save these horses. I was just blown away by all the lovely people gathering up the money," she said.
When the horse arrived at Melanie's property, he was more than a little worse for wear, and clearly a "project horse" – not an ideal prospect for a relatively inexperienced trainer.
"He was scared of everything, even his own shadow and he was always ready for a fight! He was my first horse, so it was like the blind leading the blind!" she laughed.
"It took two months to get a rug on him and over 12 months to re-break him. At home I would jog him along an 800m stretch of a dirt road and just keep doing loops.
"I felt I was always taking two steps forward with him, and then 10 back, but after 18 months I finally got him onto a float so we could go into Warragul and do trackwork-and we both survived! Then we started going there two or three times a week."
Melanie junior with the family favorite
One Man's trash began showing solid progress and Melanie believed, some promise and in October of 2018, he was ready for the next step.
"I was going to trial him and when they got called off, I just put him straight into the races at Cranbourne," she said.
"It was the first time he'd seen a mobile barrier and our driver Rodney Petroff did a terrific job. The horse went super by running second. We went back three weeks later and ran 5th, but the next day he couldn't walk."
Melanie found the pacer's hoof had been attacked by an aggressive condition similar to seedy toe.
"Half of his hoof rotted out and we had to make sure it stayed dry and was kept cleaned out, so he had two years in the paddock as we cut out the infection."
In the extended recovery period, Melanie began studying to be a paramedic, and being time-poor, let her trainer's licence lapse, accepting her dream may have ended.
"I thought: 'Well that's that.' I'd run out of time, but deep down I believed he could do it after he'd overcome all of his setbacks, so I asked Chris Hunter if he would have a try with 'Monkey'," she said.
"I just wanted to see the horse out on the track and the only way that was going to happen was to hand him on to someone else. Chris has always been happy to help and is always there for you and thankfully he agreed.
"He's done a brilliant job, and our driver, Rodney (Petroff) also deserves a lot of credit."
Hunter, a highly respected horseman at Trafalgar, was full of praise for One Mans Trash, one of three horses he has in work.
"He has a will to win and it was a good job to come back and get the victory after two years in a paddock. We'll have a bit of fun with him because he's definitely got some high speed," Hunter said.
"Mel has been marvellous with the horse. He was an absolute idiot when she first got him, but she kept hanging in there. She was rapt with the win – she was on the phone about five seconds after the race!"
Watch the emotional win of One Man's Trash here.
One Mans Trash will face the starter again on Sunday at Warragul and his four biggest fans in Melanie and her three girls Shae, 17, Chelsea, 15, and Melanie Jnr, 11, are sure to be cheering their hearts out.
"The amazing thing is that he is such a lovely horse now – all he girls have ridden him at some stage, they brush him and he loves all the fuss," Melanie said.
"I'd love to have 100 horses. Even when we started a family, I always thought I'd be back and was trying to keep a toe in. I just love it."
Terry Gange
NewsAlert PR Mildura