The trots royalty lines run deep for both horse and connections in team Save Our Pennys, with the resilient seven-year-old gelding’s steady improvement bringing delight to a father-and-son who have been there, done that.
Trainer Graeme Lang, on the eve of his 86th birthday, and driver Gavin Lang, 60, will again chase that winning feeling in tonight’s $250,000 Group 1 Woodlands Great Southern Star, having collectively tasted success more than 10,000 times on a trots track.
“I’m very much enjoying it,” said Graeme Lang of Save Our Pennys, whose E B Cochran Trotters Cup win at Ballarat last Saturday night gifted him his second metropolitan win as a trainer in four years.
To have his son, Gavin, in the cart only makes it more enjoyable, family connections that extend beyond the trainer and driver.
Save Our Pennys is out of the mare Tuppeny Bit, who was a half-sister to Save A Sixpence, 25 times a winner for Graeme Lang, and Steal A Sixpence, a two-time winner at metropolitan class for Lang.
“I’ve always had horses go reasonable,” Lang said. “The first good horse I had was Billboard in the ‘60s, Scotch Notch wasn’t too bad – I don’t know if there has been a better trotter in the country in the last 30 or 40 years. She was a very good mare.
“Wagon Apollo, I think, was the best trotter for four or five seasons. He only won his races by a head or so because he didn’t care about how much he won by.”
Lang doesn’t place Save Our Pennys in their mould, though admitted it would be difficult for any horse to exert such dominance given the depth of talent, which will be on show in tonight’s feature.
“We have got a good lot of trotters at present,” Lang said. “There are more in the races now that can win if they get the breaks. When I had the real good ones they made the races so suit themselves, but you can’t do that now because the other ones are too good.”
Save Our Pennys will need to be at his best to threaten. Drawn gate eight, he will trail out Tough Monarch and likely be – at best – three back on the pegs once Tornado Valley finds the lead.
That means a quiet sit and plenty of petrol in the tank come the closing stages of the 2760m feature, but it also would mean everything would need to go right.
“When three back the pegs you need pressure in the forward part of the race, otherwise they will all run home in 56 seconds,” Lang said. “He’s best with a sit.”
He’ll also be in the best of hands in Gavin Lang, the famed reinsman renowned for his patience and pulling the trigger at the perfect time. His driving talent’s instinctual, said Graeme, and is a trait shared by Gavin’s brother Chris, himself a trainer-driver of almost 2000 wins.
“Gavin and Chris drive extremely well because they are extremely good horsemen, and why shouldn’t they be?” Graeme said. “I remember my mother going crook at me because I would let them drive fast work at home when they were seven or eight years old.
“Both of them had a lot of experience early on. It is very rare that horses don’t do their best for them. They drive the race to suit the horse to start with, and they know when a horse is doing his best and when he’s not.”
Graeme has shared training responsibilities of Save Our Pennys with Gavin and they have a trotter who’s finally putting his best foot forward.
“He’s a big horse who was a little bit hard early in life to get him balanced properly. We spent a fair bit of time on him,” Graeme said.
“He always had a little problem getting balanced right and it seemed to be more on one shoulder than the other, whatever was the problem it seemed to correct itself.
“He’s a better horse than I’d thought he’d be. I thought he could win a couple of metro races, but I didn’t think he could win so many so quickly. He’s won five or six metro races, not many horses can say that.”