The Southland Trainers Premiership went right down to the wire today but Branxholme trainer Nathan Williamson with two winners fended off Kirstin Barclay and Tank Ellis to take out the season’s title by two wins.
Williamson’s first winner was Southland’s rising trotting star Chinese Whisper who came from a long way back after pacemaker Davey Mac shot away to a big lead.
“You don’t want to be too far back but I knew when I asked him he’d close the gap pretty good,” Williamson said after the four year old won by three and three quarter lengths.
“Well probably give him another start in a few weeks’ time. I might ever take him away at his next start to give him a trip away.”
The premiership was sealed later in the programme when pacing filly Flight Crew showed plenty of toughness to overcome a wide draw.
The winning crew with sponsors Craig Heyrick – Photo Bruce Stewart
“She did plenty of work, came off the unruly and they went 43 (2-43.1). I managed to get a good run early and get into a reasonable spot without her getting too worked up. I was four wide with a lap to go and worked up to sit parked. I was quite impressed with the run.”
The wins qualifies the Panspacificflight filly for the Southland Oaks in October.
Flight Crew navigating her way to the finish – Photo Bruce Stewart
This was the Williamson fourth Trainers Premiership. He’d previously won it in 2013, 2015 and 2016.
“Win as many as you can is always the goal. It’s great to do it again. I thought this year I’d have a good shot because we had a lot of nice horses then Covid mucked everything up. We managed to last which was great.”
The win also sealed his twelfth Southland Drivers Championship with fifty wins, ten clear of Brent Barclay.
The day was capped off for Williamson when he won the Southern Harness Website ‘Drive with Five’ betting competition. He didn’t have a win on the board and was last in the five driver competition. His last bet of $10 each way was on rank outsider Mr Olympus which won and paid $60-30 and $10-50 netting Williamson a cool $738.00
Bruce Stewart