A small salute was delivered with a trademark cheeky grin as Oamaru trainer Phil Williamson recorded his 50th winner of the season at Forbury Park last night.
Williamson became the first New Zealand trainer to train 50 trotting winners in a season when Winners Shout trotted boldly to the line for his driver and son, Brad, who part-owns the 3yr-old.
Williamson had already eclipsed his best season of 46, set in 2006-07, but still has six weeks to set a new mark for other trotting trainers - or indeed Williamson himself - to chase.
"I thought we'd never repeat that with the quality of horses we had,'' Williamson said reflecting on the 2006-07 season when Jasmyn's Gift, One Over Kenny, Allegro Agitato and Springbank Richard were scaling the heights of trotting.
"But I guess any record you set is made to be broken, so it's nice to shift the bar up further. We had a lot of horses who have done a job for us.''
Williamson has made his name training solely the straight-out trotters, with just 19 pacing winners to his name from his 491 winners in 24 seasons of training.
The Totara-based horseman will push on through the winter with a team of eight to 10 trotters, as he creeps closer to 500 career wins.
His eldest son, Nathan, reined home four winners last night to move to 85 wins for the season.
When Golden Gate is good, she is very good.‘‘And when she's bad, she's bad,'' her trainer, John Ryan, quipped last night after her win in the c2-c7 trot last night.
Ryan, of Gore, has seen both sides of the mare this season going from the high of a spectacular third placing in the group 3 Southern Lights in March to being stood down from racing at Winton a week later due to her poor manners at the starting tapes.
"We had to go back to the trials because she was rearing and being a nuisance at the start,'' Ryan said.
Ryan did not make any gear changes, but just noticed the Earl mare was becoming more placid in her day-to-day work.
"She seems to have got a bit more settled on her own account. She's probably the oldest horse in that race and she seems to be more relaxed when you go to harness her up.''
Sam Young earned his first win - officially at least - when Eli Lowe cleared maiden ranks last night.
Young, his parents, Lindsay and Debbie, and sister Lisa, bought the son of Elsu from Alec Milne shortly after Milne claimed the gelding at Ascot Park in February last year.
Sam Young had been involved with Midnight Music, but was too young to be an official owner as he was under 18 when the Julius Caesar mare won at Ascot Park in March 2013.
Four Starrrz Shiraz, who won the claimers pace, was claimed by Shane Forgie, of Outram, for $10,000.
Superior Desire, who ran sixth, was claimed by Craig Parsons, of Christchurch, for $5000.
