Four-year-old pacer Cheermeonimacracka will tonight line up for consecutive wins when he contests the Christians Auto Pace (Race 2) – a C0 Only event – at Terang.
Only months earlier, Cheermeonimacracka, after two unplaced starts, was purchased by Amy Clarke from the SHEPP Second Chance Horses for just $800 with the intention of him being a hack horse.
‘Cracka, who stands at a whopping 17 hands, didn’t take to that lifestyle, so Clarke, along with trainer Barry Ainsworth, driver Jason Ainsworth and his partner Natasha Raven, put him back into work.
They hoped he would be competitive; they got more than they bargained for.
“We just starting working him, not expecting a lot, just going to see what happens,” Jason Ainsworth told RSN927.
“He did everything he had to do and before you knew it he was at the trials. He won the (Ararat) trial; they didn’t go quick time, but he did it tough, coming from last three-wide.
“We got a little bit excited, thinking he might actually be a racehorse.
“Then we took him to the races (at Stawell on September 2)… our main aim was that he could keep up and not disgrace himself. Amy was just over the moon that he even got to the races.”
Sent off at $17.70, Cheermeonimacracka began from the outside the second row, before peeling three-wide at the 600m and dashing home to score a stirring victory by a neck.
It may have only been a 4YO+ C0 event worth $4,000, but for the connections of ‘Cracka, it felt like they had just won the Victoria Cup.
“Amy was in tears. She’d only ever had an old standardbred as a hack,” the 21-year-old driver recalled.
“Things like this just don’t happen. Amy’s grandpa, who was involved with horses a long time ago, is fairly ill and can’t do a lot. She got the DVD of the race and took it around to him to watch.”
Cheermeonimacracka will start from barrier 5 tonight, race time is 6.06pm AEST.
