Given things were once literally heading in the wrong direction the rise and rise of Ray Harvey’s trotter has the Stawell hobby trainer a buzz ahead of his first Group 1.
The $50,000 Aldebaran Park Vicbred Platinum Home Grown Classic three-year-old trotting boys final is a high point for the former gallops jockey and now Wimmera Racing track supervisor, with the Tabcorp Park Melton feature by far the biggest stakes race of his 14-season career.
And in The Penny Drops, who in 2018-19 has already given the co-owner/trainer/breeder his greatest single-season stakes winnings, Harvey has a well-behaved Danny Bouchea gelding who’s finally putting his best foot forward.
That’s no mean feat given the three-year-old “wouldn’t go forward, would only go backwards” in his early days for Harvey, who co-owns him with his partner Moira Hateley and friend Jim Pickering.
“I haven’t struck one like it before and I’ve broken in hundreds,” Harvey said.
“Moira happened to walk past him and he followed her, so she walked a lap with him behind her. Then we got old Baltimore Boy, who had been retired, to stand next to him. He would walk and Ronny (The Penny Drops’ stable name) walked along beside him.
“We just kept moving Baltimore Boy further to the back of the cart and as long as Ronny could hear him he would keep trotting. It is just one of those things that happened. His nature is that way that he wants to be mates with everything.
“Then we left Baltimore Boy at home and Ronny was as good as gold, the penny dropped and he was fine.”
The moment that gave the trotter his name wasn’t the end of the hard work for Harvey, who said at one stage “I was about to give up because he wouldn’t go fast, but since then he has just kept improving and improving”.
He debuted in the final race of the 2018 season and, though “starstruck” and initially galloping, he hasn’t missed a step in three starts since, which have each produced victories.
“His form has been impeccable,” said the trainer, who's delighted to have produced three wins from as many starts after his first 166 outings produced seven.
“I was originally just a thoroughbred man and was a jockey for a good while and then I started working at Stawell racecourse and couldn’t train thoroughbreds because of the hours I worked.
“So I got a pacer, and you can train them yourself at home any hours you like. Once you’ve had a horse you always have to have a horse around you.”
And now he has a Group 1 hope, albeit awkwardly drawn in gate eight with Emma Stewart’s Alpha Male looming large on the outside of the back row.
“Saturday night will be his biggest test,” Harvey said. “All The Muscles will probably get across and lead and there is a big chance we might end up three or four back on the pegs.
“I’d be hoping in the first 100m Neil can get off the pegs. If he gets a sit I think he has the speed, but how far can you give them? If he gets a little bit of luck they will know he is there. It’s pretty good to be there, it would be even better to win it.”