Trevor Ralph has felt the full spectrum of emotion from frustration to immense happiness after Blackrange Glory took out the Woodlands Stud Trot at Horsham on August 7.
The squaregaiter out of Gloriadon took just over 12-months to secure his second career victory in emphatic style, breaking the track record.
“It has been a long journey,” Ralph said.
“He has certainly been hard, I bought him through the yearling sales and he never got a bid and so I bought him privately and had him broken in.
“He held the track record for only 30 minutes, and it was equalled in the very next race by My High Peak. who was trained by Joanne Franklin, who broke Blackrange Glory in – which was quite ironic. “
The five-year-old has had his fair share of issues making it an arduous journey for the 72-year-old.
“He had a couple of race starts and he did plenty wrong, he paced and he pulled and we kept changing gear and it worked for a few starts, where he ran second, “he said. “Then he won at Horsham.
“He has had a few runs since Horsham and he hasn’t gone very good, he is a bit of a problem horse.”
The significant reduction of gear has helped the gelding out of Gloriadon.
“I just kept changing the gear, some trainers when your horse is doing something wrong you keep adding stuff, so I virtually took all the gear off him,” Ralph said.
The Inglewood horseman had his uncertainties if the squaregaiter would ever find the line first again.
“I had some doubts (if he would win again),” he said. “Because he kept doing everything wrong and he even had a few starts where he failed to finish the course.
“I was nearly on the stage of sacking him and sending him to someone else to train.”
Trevor Ralph has featured in the numbers seven times from 20-starts this season.
