Harness racing enthusiast Claire Goble’s passion was rewarded with the Chairman’s award at the 2016/2017 Harness Racing South Australia awards function on Sunday afternoon.
Mr Chris Hartwig, chairman of Harness Racing South Australia, said Ms Goble had been involved in harness racing for about 30 years, but had overcome adversity in the past two years to have a very successful 2016/2017.
Claire and partner Dennis Lyle developed Clarenden Standardbreds at Wasleys about 20 years ago.
Her day starts at 6am when she tends to horses for two hours before leaving for her job.
Claire oversees the Vocation, Education and Training program at Trinity College in Gawler. The program is the largest of its kind in South Australia and helps non-university bound students find a pathway into the work force.
She returns home around 4pm and goes out to work and tend her horses working until around 6.30pm during the winter and as late as 9pm during daylight saving in summer.
On November 25, 2015, the Pinery bushfires raced through the Clarenden Standardbreds property but fortunately swept around the main house and a group of the nearby sand yards saving a number of horses.
Three of the horses on the property that day, which would have been subjected to the extreme heat and smoke were Clarenden Hustler, Clarenden Valour and Emilys Vacation – all finalists in the 2016-2017 Horse Of The Year awards.
Claire only had those three horses, and Clarenden Daydream in work during the 2016/2017 season.
Their records were amazing. Clarenden Hustler had 13 starts for 5 wins, 1 second and 3 thirds; Clarenden Valour had 12 starts for 3 wins, 3 seconds and 3 thirds; Emilys Vacation had 26 starts for 3 wins, 4 seconds and 3 thirds while Clarenden Daydream had 30 starts for 4 wins, 6 seconds and 3 thirds.
The Clarenden horses were also bred by Claire.
Apart from her job with Trinity plus training and caring for the horses, after the Pinery fire, Claire has also had to assist partner Dennis Lyle in the rebuilding of their fire damaged property, a job which is still going on.
So far, they have refenced about two-thirds of the property, replaced all of the piping used to carry water to the stables and yards, cleared the burnt trees and scrub, planted 400 trees in the last three months which need to be watered regularly to withstand the upcoming summer, replaced the insulation batts in the main house along with replacing the blinds plus knocking down and removing the old house which was destroyed by the fire, replaced hay sheds and a tack room.
Claire has about 30 horses on the property covering all ages. From weanlings, yearlings, broodmares and racehorses that all receive her individual attention.
Graham Fischer