Popular local trotter Fear Not races for more than trophies and will have a legion of fans cheering her on in tonight’s E.B. Cochran Trotters Cup, despite likely starting at huge odds.

The eight-year-old mare will look immaculate, her meticulous strapper Lyndal Conroy will see to that, and her trainer-driver Glenn Conroy – Lyndal’s father – will relish another race meeting spent with his daughter and their stable favourite.

A winner of more than $175,000 in stakemoney from 215 starts, Fear Not was purchased by Conroy for a meagre $4000 as a yearling at the 2014 Australasian Premier Trotting Sale.

“I heard the auctioneer say, ‘oh well if I can’t get $4000, I’ll turn her out’. I shot my hand up and said I’ll give you $4000”, Conroy said.

A model of consistency, Fear Not – whose stable name is ‘Bitey’ – has won seven races and finished second, third or fourth another 113 times.

“She’s got one big weapon,” Conroy says. “She just keeps coming. They’ll sprint and she’ll say ’29 seconds is all I’m good for, but I’ll keep on coming and coming at the end’.”

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The pride in performance is shared by both horse and trainer and for Conroy it’s deeply personal, with the 62-year-old having lost his wife, Tracey, to breast cancer at just age 42 in 2004.

“I was in the wilderness after we lost Trace,” he said. “We thought we had our whole life ahead of us. After that I’d go to the races by myself and come home by myself, it’s just not the same.”

Tracey was a harness racer in her own right. Conroy takes great pride in recounting how she “won at her first metropolitan drive at Moonee Valley aboard Final Look”.

“After Tracey died our daughter Lyndal took over her colours and every horse Lyndal has been involved in we use those colours. That helps to keep Tracey’s memory alive with us and it keeps her involved,” he said.

Lyndal, 34, grew keener on harness racing as she got older and helps dad morning and night.

“We meet up in the morning, have a cup of tea and some raisin toast then work the horses. Then I go and work horses with Anne Maree (Conroy) and Lyndal goes to work. Then we get back together and work a couple later in the evening,” Conroy said.

And every time they go to the races with ‘Bitey’, the father-daughter team goes together.  

“We’re very, very tight and Lyndal is extremely protective of me. She looks after me and I’m very thankful I have her, otherwise I think I would have drifted away from harness racing,” Conroy said.

“I’d rather have one win with Lyndal than a hundred wins by myself.”

And while most form analysts, and Conroy, agree Fear Not looks outclassed tonight, it doesn’t bother the horseman.

“I liken it to if you were sitting in the crowd on AFL Grand Final day and someone asked, ‘would you like to come on and play for a while?’ You’d say, ‘I won’t get a kick, but I’d love to just get out there and run around’,” he said.

“And Lyndal loves her and gets on social media and promotes her. She likes going that extra mile and has her looking well, with the diamantes on the bridal and breastplate and she has her mane all platted. People enjoy seeing that.”

And there may be a few more gems waiting in the wings at the 2021 Australasian Premier Trotting Sale on Sunday February 7.

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