Career high sets up lifelong Redwood dream

Fresh from the biggest win of his harness racing career, jovial New South Wales trainer Grant Forrest is preparing a border-hopping mission to Victoria in pursuit of a long-held dream.

Forrest, who trains at Mount Fairy, in the Southern Tablelands northeast of Canberra, has been a regular visitor to Maryborough over the years – but there’s one prestigious event for two-year-olds that he now has in his sights.

“I’ve raced at Maryborough meetings probably about 20 times, but I’ve never had a runner in The Redwood Classic – so we are really looking forward to it,” he said.

The $60,000 Redwood Classic is the centrepiece of Maryborough’s famous two-day Redwood Carnival, to be staged this year on Friday, October 30, and Sunday, November 1.

Steeped in trotting tradition, the standing-start feature was established in the mid-1980s by the Victorian Square Trotters Association and named in honour of the late Hugh Redwood, a former president and foundation member of the VSTA who was renowned for his passion for square gaiters.

Now Forrest has a promising young filly who could give him the much-anticipated opportunity to be part of one of the Redwood Carnival showpiece.

Forrest celebrated a career highlight at Menangle on October 10 when Arete Virtue (On A Streak USA), a filly he bred, owns and trains, captured the $75,000 Yabby Dam Farms Two-Year-Old Fillies Final, a Listed Classic event.

“She’s a lovely filly and showed us early on that she was pretty handy. I decided to look up a name that would suit her,” he said.

Arete is an Ancient Greek concept associated with excellence, virtue and performing a function supremely well – a fitting name for a filly beginning to live up to her early promise.

Forrest said Arete Virtue had encountered some smart opposition in her early starts, but her performances were better than the results suggested.

“In one she galloped and lost 70 metres and ended up being beaten by 30 metres. And then another time she was going to run third and got squeezed,” he said.

“But it’s all a learning curve because at home I only work her by herself. The only time she sees any other horses is at the races or the trials.

“I haven’t been to the Maryborough Redwood Carnival for three years so it’s all pretty exciting.”

Harness racing is firmly in Forrest’s blood, with the 40-year-old a fourth-generation participant who proudly carries on a family tradition.

“My great-grandfather was involved in the late 1930s and then followed my grandfather and later my father Gregory got into them in the ‘70s. My race colors are brown and yellow checks – the ones used by my great-grandfather and father,” he said.

A full-time PE teacher at Bungendore High School, Forrest has scaled back his training operation from a team of up to 25 to a handful of mostly young trotters, balancing his passion for racing and a busy family life with three children under seven.

“It was a full time business then and we had people working for us.  But our older children are into cricket, Oz-tag, scouts, swimming and other sports so it’s now so much easier with just a small team.”

Forrest has trained more than 100 winners and earned $1.1 million in prizemoney, with his breeding interests receiving a boost through a long-standing association with Yabby Dam Farms principal Pat Driscoll.

“I rang Pat about six years ago asking if he had any mares because I was keen to breed some nice trotters,” Forrest said.

“He found a few for me and our bloodlines have definitely got better. It was a bit later that I got Let’s Be Happy, the dam of Arete Virtue, off Pat.”

Arete Virtue faces a formidable challenge, not least from unbeaten Victorian star Verbici (Orlando Vici), who hails from the same family.

Trained by Chris Lang and Sonia Mahar, Verbici has won all seven starts, including multiple Group and Listed features. His most recent triumph came in the Yabby Dam Farms Two-Year-Old Colts and Geldings Final at Menangle – the boys’ equivalent of the race won by Arete Virtue on the same night.

Verbici’s dam Verbier (Dream Vacation) is a half-sister to Arete Virtue, both from the Andover Hall mare, Lets Be Happy.

As much as the Redwood Classic is a test of raw juvenile ability, success in the 2190 metre test also depends on the youngsters coping with the standing start conditions, something Forrest is quietly confident about with Arete Virtue.

“The main sticking point is the horse with the best manners usually wins the Redwood. She qualified from the stand last week in a Canberra trial and I’ve been giving her plenty of standing start practice,” he said.

“We’re hoping we can convince Chris (Geary) to come to Maryborough.  He’s played a big role in her development and is very good for her. He has a cool head and great hands with trotters.

“I hope I can persuade him to make the trip. I still have an occasional drive, maybe on the naughty ones or when it suits, but we’re so grateful to have Chris – he’s as good as they come and is very much under-rated as a driver.”

 

From Terry Gange for Harnesslink