Jamie Egan has tasted ultimate success for the first time with his horse, Malava Miss, winning the Haras des Trotteurs Pace at Cranbourne on Sunday.
Malava Miss, piloted by Greg Sugars, had to power home down the outside to hand the Arcadia South trainer his first victory.
The journey to finally claim a maiden win was 25 years in the making for Egan.
The 44-year-old had been on the podium before with his horses Franco Salisbury and Van Damme, but had previously fallen short in his bid to prepare a winner.
After starting his training career in the 1997-98 season, Egan took a break from the sport but wanted to get back involved through owner Peter Cole.
“I was looking for another horse to dabble with, and I couldn’t afford much because Rebekah (Dudley) and I are getting married on the 26th of October, and all the money is going toward that,” Egan told Toby McKinnon on Trots Life.
“I wanted a horse to keep going back to the races, and I spoke to Peter Cole, and he said, ‘It’s all yours.’”
Malava Miss was Egan’s sixth horse and provided his first success after a previous record of 57 starters for seven placings.
“A couple of trainers asked me ‘where are you racing next?’ and I said Cranbourne, and they said, ‘you’re mad going all that way’,” he said.
“I said to them, ‘It’s a rating 45, you have to take the horse where you think you’ve got the best possible chance of winning’.”
The mare started as a $3.40 favourite from barrier eight and had to rise late to claim the win.
“When the field came out, and I saw where we had drawn, I thought we had a chance here, but we needed a lot of luck,” he said.
“We had Greg Sugars on board, and he drove it to absolute perfection. We didn’t have a lot of luck early in the race, but he made his own luck and the race just panned out perfectly for us.”
Sugars even tweeted about the result after the triumph.
“It’s been a fantastic week on the track. The Kilmore Cup, no doubt, was the highlight, but I just had the pleasure of driving trainer Jamie Egan’s first career winner. Every win is special to someone.”
LISTEN TO THE FULL INTERVIEW WITH EGAN BELOW:
