An incident at Forbury Park involving Cambridge horsewoman Nicky Chilcott over 18 years ago was recalled when she returned to the Dunedin raceway last Thursday.
Chilcott was a special guest at a function combined with the race meeting to honour women in business and the harness racing industry. Jess Smith, the Trackside television presenter and radio host, was MC for the function.
“It (the function) went off really well with a number of those in attendance at a race meeting for the first time,” said Rodney Moore, the general manager of the Forbury Park Trotting Club. There were some 50 persons in attendance.
Chilcott (45) is the most successful female driver and trainer (sole capacity) in the history of New Zealand harness racing with 604 and 407 wins respectively. Natalie Rasmussen has won 478 races as a trainer in NZ in partnership with Mark Purdon and driven the winners of 462 races.
Chilcott was at Forbury Park in October, 1998, mainly to drive in a race for invited female drivers. She had other engagements including Honey Gazelle in the second race.
She had arrived at the course and deposited her bag of driving gear in the designated facility then left to attend other matters. When she returned the bag was missing.
“We searched everywhere with no luck then asked a man on the gate and he said he had seen a guy with a bag leave the course,” recalled Chilcott.
“So we started looking in the streets outside, We were about to give up when I spotted this guy bending down close to a fence with the bag.”
Chilcott was none too gentle with the thief and reclaimed the bag. She rushed back, geared up and made a late appearance at the start of race two. She drove Honey Gazelle to win at odds of 55 to one.
The 5-year-old W R H mare trained at Waikouaiti by Graeme Chalmers, was 11/11 in the betting and set up a declared trifecta of $34,430 with Deville (12/12) and Scottish Banner (10/10).
Chilcott, who attended the meeting with Michelle Wallis to represent the North Island, finished last on Chipover in the invitation race. It was won by Bernie Rae driving the Cran Dalgety-trained Silver Lined Pocket from Holmes Princess (Karen Sutherland) and Sunny Boy (Lauren Pearson).
Others to contest the race were Jackie Law, Tracey Healy, Maree Price, Karen O’Connor, Joanna Davies, Jan Meikle, Jan Gould and Jo Herbert. Sutherland drove the Dalgety-trained Imagery to win earlier in the night and Healy won the last of 10 races with Lincoln Hanover for Waimate trainer Bruce Wylie.
Chilcott drove her first winner, Local Choice at Alexandra Park in July 1993. Her first training win was at Cambridge in November, 1997 with Wahora. She drove in one race on Thursday, being unplaced on Jerry Fitz in the final event.
Tayler Strong