A chance virtual meeting amid the pandemic spawned one of harness racing’s most unlikely global ownership groups.
Media superstar Brittany Graham interviewed top North American trainer Nancy Takter on Skype and, in Tatker’s words, they “immediately hit it off.”
Trips to visit each other in the US, New Zealand and Australia further cemented the bond and they spent $25,000 last year on a young trotting yearling to race together.
Takter, daughter of Hall of Fame Swedish horseman Jimmy Takter, named him Howdy Mate – “as a cheeky nod to both countries’ cultures” – and he is already a feature winner, landing the $75,000 Nutrien Sales final at just his seventh start at Melton on September 13.
The gelding will be strongly favoured to add the time-honoured Tatlow final at Melton at 7.40pm on Saturday night.
It will be 5.40am in Lexington, Kentucky when Takter jumps online to watch the race, while the now NZ-based Graham will be tuning in via NZ’s Trackside TV at 9.40pm her time.
The Howdy Mate team runs deeper than just Takter and Graham. It’s a harness racing female powerhouse.
The other part-owner is Takter’s close friend Michelle Crawford, of the monstrous Crawford Farms breeding and racing empire, while one of Australia’s top female conditioners, Jess Tubbs, trains Howdy Mate.
Takter, who FaceTimed Tubbs and Graham the night Howdy Mate won the Nutrien final, said she was loving the “international adventure” the young trotter had already delivered.
“One of the unexpected gifts of the pandemic was my friendship with Brittany Graham, who then introduced me to Jess Tubbs and we’ve all become very close,” Takter said.
“It was when I was across in Australia and NZ earlier this year I met Jess and we asked if she’d train the trotter for us after Brittany and her father (Darrel) had broken him and done the early work with him.”
Takter, who boasts two wins each in mega features like the Hambletonian in the US and North American Cup in Canada, admits she enjoyed seeing how differently things are done Down Under.
“I quickly learned breaking-in and training was a very different process. It’s all been an educational process and we’ve traded ideas from the different countries,” she said.
The best example was Tubbs’ insistence to geld the very headstrong and “almost dangerous” Howdy Mate a few months back.
“When I told Nancy, she said: ‘Michelle and I don’t race geldings’ and I thought that was that, but Jess persuaded her. It’s definitely made a huge difference,” Graham said.
“In the US, if you get a top young trotter you’ll always keep him as a colt because the stud value can be enormous, but we just don’t have that market Down Under.”
Graham, who has driven over 300 winners and finished fifth in an Inter Dominion trotting final, said she isn’t tempted to throw the silks back on for Howdy Mate despite her love for him.
“No, I don’t think I’d be able to handle him … maybe I might drive him in track work one day, but when it comes to the races, Herbie (premier driver James Herbertson) is doing a fantastic job and the drive is very safe in his hands,” she said.
Beyond Saturday night, Howdy Mate has a string of feature options like the Victoria Trotters Derby, Vicbred series and the Breeders Crown.
· Adam Hamilton is a paid contributor writing on harness racing for News Corp.
