80 year old Invercargill trainer Owen Lawrence doesn't train too many horses these days and although there's been buyer interest in his pacer I'm Trouble, Lawrence is keen to hang on to him.
"Dad's had offers for him but we're both enjoying this horse so we'll keep him," said Lawrence's daughter Carol Graham who drives the Changeover gelding in all his work.
The three year old has had plenty of groundwork and roadtrips just to get him used to the race day environment.
"He's just come into his own in the last couple of months. He was a bit of a handful in his stall at the races. He knows what racing is all about now. He's always looked as if he would go alright. He went round the trials quite a bit because we didn't realise that we'd qualified him first up."
Today the three year old settled seventh on the outside. At the 400 driver Rory McIIwrick launched I'm Trouble three wide and he cruised up to the leaders just after turning in. He let down nicely to win by a length and a quarter from Better B Ready.
I'm Trouble winning his second race – Photo Bruce Stewart.
"Rory said he did it on his ear. He's liked him for a wee while."
I'm Trouble was bred by Hamish Scott and Doctor Kim Lawson and is out of the Troublemaker mare Trouble In The Ranks. She won once from five starts. Her pedigree goes back to a breed the late Andrew Sellars had success with, breeding horses like Sassenach (12 wins), Ryal (9 wins), Zabadak (11 wins) and Stampede (11 wins).
Lawrence used to be a regular buyer at the yearling sales but he's now breeding from Arancia, a Washington VC mare he won four races with. She has fillies by Auckland Reactor and Sir Lincoln.
He's had a licence to train since 1986. His first winner was Our Angela driven by Doug McNaught at Wyndham in February 1987.
Today's win was his twenty seventh. Twenty of those have been with trotters.
Bruce Stewart
Southland Harness racing