Greg Sugars drives Illawong Libby to victory at Warragul for trainer Terry Howard.
When one door shut another opened for Terry Howard, and leaping through it enabled him to do the one thing he’d craved since childhood – become a trots trainer.
The Rosanna resident’s name was in big bold print after Illawong Libby outpaced all others in Monday’s Next Payments Vicbred Pace at Warragul, further fuelling the 64-year-old’s passion for the sport.
“As a child I would go to the showgrounds when I was 13 or 14 every Saturday and just loved it,” Howard said. “I went to a couple of lectures on learning to drive as a young person, but finished up moving away from that because my parents were working class people and we didn’t have the property. I got into teaching and had a satisfactory career and became a principal for 23 years.”
But his passion for the trots continued to simmer in the background and it didn’t take much of a spark to be rekindled.
“When I retired I heard an advertisement for a stablehand course at Bendigo’s Harness Racing Training Centre and headed out there in 2014 two or three times a week,” Howard said.
While there Howard ventured to Martin Harnett’s reduction sale and snapped up Illawong Libby, having been unable to resist putting up his hand “for about $2000”, which he thought a bargain. “She had caught my eye,” he said. “She was a last-start winner at Mildura and I like the way she worked.”
In Jodi Quinlan’s care until May 2014, Illawong Libby crossed to Boris Devcic’s stable for three months, in which time her nine starts produced two wins and a third before being put up for sale, which was when Howard pounced.
He initially kept the mare at Bendigo with Scott Rains, a friend of Howard, before she was shifted to Cranbourne trainer Michael Hughes, who Howard hard started to work for. That partnership has continued and now Hughes has two of Howard’s fillies – Rosanna Lindy and Rosanna Raider – in his care. Howard helps with them, while training Illawong Libby in his own right.
“I get up at 5 o’clock six times a week and can’t wait to get down there,” he said. “I’m just loving working with these horses, which I have wanted to do since I was a kid and it blows my mind that I’m doing it.”
It is made all the sweeter when Illawong Libby brings him success, which has happened three times in 30 starts since Howard purchased the mare by Modern Art out of Illawong Lizzie. That includes Monday’s triumph, when Illawong Libby began well and then took cover behind British General until Greg Sugars steered her out of the box seat and cleared out in the straight.
“She is a great trier,” he said. “Certainly I have reaped everything I have paid for her, she is a terrific mare and probably has some future as a broodmare.
“I love working with Mick down at Cranbourne. We have a good partnership going. Going forward I see myself working with a small team of horses down there for as long as I am able to. Before this I was spending my retirement playing golf and this is a lot more enjoyable.”
Illawong Libby will likely next start at Ballarat on April 28, when another Howard runner, Rosanna Raider, is also expected to be taken north to contest the race for two-year-old fillies.
Media enquiries:
Michael Howard (HRV Media/Communications Co-Ordinator)
t: 03 8378 0286 | e: mhoward@hrv.org.au | tw: @MichaelRHoward
