Victorian hobby trainer Peter Wallis has broken a 28-year drought from the winner’s circle, preparing five-year-old gelding Orch (Lincoln Royal) to a victory at the Melton harness racing meeting on Friday night (Sept 26).
To be fair, in most of those 28 years Wallis has had only a handful of starters – but that didn’t detract from the excitement on Friday night. Driven by Ararat reinsman Michael Bellman, Orch showed plenty of grit to take out the Hertz Melton Maiden Pace – and give Wallis his first training win since 1997.
“He’d been racing well, but I just didn’t know what to say – I was just beaming inside and I couldn’t get the big grin off my face. I still can’t believe it I don’t think!” Wallis said.
“Mick came back with the horse and he was just so excited too. ‘We got there – I got you one’,” he said.
“Any win is a good win – but that horse has been a bit of a challenge, so it was a little bit special.”
The victory came at Orch’s 48th start, but it had looked inevitable given his recent form. He caught the eye with a narrow third at Ballarat in August, and had finished close-up in several runs since.
Wallis said patience had been the key.
“It’s been a bit of a long process with him. I bred him and initially he was pretty pig-headed and didn’t want to do things the way I wanted to do them.
“So he took a while to settle into things. Then he seemed to go a bit sour on the world, and he didn’t always put in. But he’s gradually come around with time and he’s a nice horse to handle now. He’s started to race a lot better, too. He wants to do it now.
“I think one of the biggest things that’s helped him has been having no hard work at all between runs. When he’s racing, that’s really his only fast work for the week, and it seems to have him wanting to do it when he gets to the races.”
Now retired from his working life in demolition and siteworks, Wallis has been involved in harness racing for more than 40 years, starting out under the guidance of well-known Ballarat industry stalwart Colin Holloway.
“I got a bit interested and started going out to Colin’s of a morning and he taught me the basics of how to gear them up and it went from there. I started with owning a share in a horse or two with Colin, then training myself,” Wallis said.
“I’ve never had a place of my own, just rented boxes. For a long time I was at the Ballarat Showgrounds – they had a skillion barn, and I built four stables in that. I had a place near Bray Raceway for a few years, and now I’m at Julian Jobe’s stables at Ballarat North, which is great.
“I give Julian a hand with team and his young ones, and I do mine and it works out well.”
Wallis’s last winner came at Maryborough in July 1997 when he trained and drove Winning Fuel. He rates the gelding, with six wins, as one of his best, but his standout remains Aldepete, a mare who raced in the 1980s and notched 11 wins, including three at Moonee Valley.
Orch holds added sentimental value, being out of the broodmare I Am Glenda Lee, named in memory of Wallis’s late sister, who passed away tragically at just 33.
“So Orch is pretty special to me,” Wallis said.
“I also bred his younger brother, by For A Reason, who is a rising two-year-old. He has had a rough start with a bad foot injury, but I really like him a lot. He’ll be my last horse, though.”
The win with Orch was part of a winning treble by popular freelance driver Bellman at the meeting. He was also successful with the Aaron Dunn trained pair Artigas and Pick Up Elvis Then the following night at Melton, Bellman’s run continued when he scored with Tictok for Rebecca Morrissey.
