Trots Centre: Little trotter bringing big joy this Holliday season

Little Yankee may be gunning for five wins on the trot at Shepparton tonight, but his story goes back decades and has a strong family flavour.

The talented trotter is lining up in a heat of the Yield Boko@Alderbaran Park Vicbred Super Series for four-year-old entires and geldings, with Snake Valley trainer Lindsay Rogers hoping ‘Jack’ can finish an excellent year with a Group 1 win in the $100,000 final on New Year’s Eve.

A victory at Melton on NYE would be the culmination of a tale stretching back to the early 1990s, when Rogers’ late father, Ray, and brother, former talented reinsman Bryan, raced the brilliant Admiral Holliday (19 wins, $233,115 in prizemoney).

“My uncle Bernie, who owned Admiral Holliday, gave me a mare (from him, Admirals Image),” Rogers said. “She didn’t make the races as she got crook as a two-year-old.

“So I had her in the paddock for about 15 years and, after we were talking around the fire one day, I decided to get her in foal. Jack has been the end result. You couldn’t script it actually.”

Rogers said Ray, who was a highly-regarded trainer, had up to 18 horses in work during the 1980s and 1990s.

While Rogers was also involved, through owning the likes of Callamar Kid (five wins, $16,195), he never got his training licence until Little Yankee came along, but he said it had “always been in the back of my mind”.

“I went away with work (driving trucks) for a bit (but) I was still into the trots,” he said.

Little Yankee now has a career record of six wins and seven placings from 20 starts, with his latest success in the Reward Hospitality Trot at Melton pushing his total prize money past $34,000.

And his winning run couldn’t have come at a better time for Rogers, who recently spent four days in hospital after he was injured in a riding fall.

But the best thing about Jack’s success, Rogers said, was the connection to his family – not only through Admiral Holliday, but because he was winning in Ray’s old colours.

“My dad has passed away now but my aunty Bev gets a lot of enjoyment out of it,” he said.

“It is a bit emotional for me, it is just great using Dad’s old colours and everything.

“Jack has got a lot of (Admiral Holliday) in him; he was a determined horse and I think Jack’s got a bit of that off him, it has worked out great.

“Everyone gets a lot of enjoyment; hopefully we get a lot of enjoyment on New Year’s Eve, but we have to get through (tonight‘s heat) first.”

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