Experienced harness racing trainer Wayne Graham could be excused for having a wry smile after snaring the feature event for mares at Albion Park on Saturday night.
Graham, who has been involved in the sport for over 50 years, took out the $25,660 Fleur De Lil Ladyship Stakes with five-year-old Justalittle Torque (Mr Feelgood-Torque In Motion (P B Bullville).
"All along she has been a nice mare, but she has certainly stepped up. She's always had blistering speed-and now she's got strength as well," Graham said.
He said winning the Ladyship Stakes had some irony about it.
"We were the under-bidders on Fleur De Lil when she went through the Brisbane Yearling Sales in the mid-2000s. A friend of ours, Luke McCarthy, ended up with her and what a champion pacer she become."
Fleur De Lil (Armbro Operative-French Flair (Preux Chevalier) retired as a "millionaire". The pacer posted 39 wins and 30 placings from 101 starts for $1,041,635 in stakes during a sensational race career.
And while the win was a little ironic for the Grahams, the victory in the Queen of Hearts Pace the previous week by Justalittle Torque was also undoubtedly one for the armchair experts!
The mare's victory has become one of the most-watched of Racing Queensland's successful "race-cam" innovation. Sky Racing shows snaps of vision from the sulky of each Albion Park event – but the full-race video of the mare bursting through the sprint-lane to victory, captured from the helmet of Shane Graham, is an exhilarating viewer experience.
Watch the Helmet Cam vision click here:
Graham said the invitation to drivers to wear the race cam is known colloquially as the "kiss of death"!
"That's what the local drivers call it – because the strike rate of drivers winning when they're wearing it seems to be a bit poor!" he laughed.
"But it's a terrific promotion of the sport – it really does give everyday people a close-up view of the action from the sulky. It shows the speed of the animals and the closeness of racing, and it gets a lot of comment and interest from people who are watching it on Sky."
Graham is based at Birnam, near Beaudesert, which is about one hour south of Brisbane, on a 360-acre farm that has been in the family for three generations and over 100 years.
"My grandfather had horses on the place-but they were only draught horses that he used to plough the ground or chase cows," he said.
"But when my parents took over, they combined dairy farming with racing a few pacers. My dad Tom (now 96 and in aged care) raced mainly at the old Rocklea and Ipswich tracks.
"I suppose I started mucking around with horses when I was 10, but I was more into show jumping. Then three or four years on I began helping dad with his pacers.
"My main income from harness racing for the first 20 or 30 years was the breaking-in side of it. It was something I enjoyed. The cow numbers eventually dropped away as it became a bit hard doing both them and the horses."
Wayne, with the assistance of his wife Lyn, now train a team of 15.
"Lyn works part-time as a nurse, but she's fantastic – and you know what they say about behind every man is a great woman!" he said.
"And it's nice having our son Shane back driving for us. When he was sidelined I used Leonard Cain, Hayden Barnes and Paul Diebert. They were great, but Shane doesn't hold back and he tells me if one of my horses is doing something wrong or can be improved!"
Victorious driver Shane Graham is with Justalittle Torque, prepared by his father Wayne.
Graham said the recent form of one of the stable stars Justalittle Torque had been most exciting, with the mare winning both the $21,000 Queen Of Hearts Pace and then the Ladyship Stakes.
"Her first start back from the break was a close-up second to the brilliant Colt Thirty One (Grant Dixon) in the Westburn Grant Open Pace and I thought that was tremendous," Graham said.
"She followed that up with the two wins, so I couldn't be happier with her. She is a very good sit/sprint mare, but in saying that she is capable when leading as well.
"I was really happy with her three starts at Menangle before she went for a spell as well. I went down for the Ladyship Mile, but had no luck in the lead-up race. She did win at her last run down there."
Graham said Justalittle Torque was bred and owned by enthusiastic participant Ian Corazzol.
"Ian loves the sport, probably more than anyone else I know. He names all of his horses with the moniker Torque," he said.
"I have all four of the foals from her dam Torque In Motion (19wins including the Ladyship Mile; $380k) and all four were at the racetrack last week."
In what was certainly an unusual event, Let's Torque A Deal (by Roll With Joe) ran 4th at Albion Park last Tuesday; Torque Is My Girl (Sportswriter) 3rd at Redcliffe, Wednesday; Torqueonetwothree (Hurricane Kingcole), Albion Park winner, Friday, and then Justalittle Torque, ditto on Saturday.
Terry Gange
NewsAlert PR Mildura
www.newsalertpr.com.au