Win brings a new era in “Alm” racing legacy

It’s been a long road back to the winner’s circle for Central Victorian harness racing couple John and Jeanette Mamouney, so the victory of their maiden trotter at Ballarat on Thursday night (Apr 3) not only stirred high emotion, but many fond memories.

John, who’s now 81, has endured an extended stint on the sidelines through a succession of health issues, so the front-running win of six-year-old mare Blue Skye Alm (Skyvalley), driven by Sean O’Sullivan, was the sweetest of victories.

“I haven’t been to the races for a very, very long time. I was very excited, and John was very emotional about it all,” Jeanette said.

“It’s been 10 years since our last winner, and John has had a shoulder replacement, and two knee replacements in that time.  He didn’t want to have them, but he’s so much better now.”

John and Jeanette continued breeding youngsters at their property Almond Meadows, near Marong while they were unable to race, but the preparations of the youngsters were interrupted by John’s surgeries.

“Then he got a run on things late last year until he was working one of the horses and he had an axle break on the sulky.  He got four broken ribs and a punctured lung and was in ICU for seven days.

“Then he had respiratory failure and had four more ribs broken,” she said.

“Our daughter Kara and our granddaughters Mackenzie and Georgia have been around horses all their life and they kept them in work right through this time, which was brilliant.

“Then when he got home, John was back in the sulky within four weeks. People were shocked but you can’t stop him now – and why would you want to? It’s just his life.”

Harness racing and horses have indeed been “life” for both Jeanette and John, as the “Alm” moniker of their breed indicates.

Jeanette’s parents Gwen and Arthur Pearce bred the legendary Victorian pacer Popular Alm, acknowledged as the fastest and most brilliant of his era, setting a world record for a one-mile trial at Moonee Valley in 1983 of 1:53.2.

“Dad had pacers and trotters and mum used to ride pacers in the Show races as a 15- or 16-year-old in the 1920s.  They were red hot, very competitive bookmaker races, the whole thing.  She was competing with the men, and she won quite a lot of them,” Jeanette said.

“So I was born into the sport, I rode horses and owned some, then when John came on the scene, he was interested and got involved.  We had the farm (Almond Meadows) which he loved.  We lived next door to mum and dad near Lord’s Raceway, then we shifted out here.

“I ran a saddlery business in Bendigo for 38 years, but John’s work was running the farm and the horses.  We had hundreds of horses on the property at some stages, breeding, training, breaking-in.”

Blue Skye Alm is owned by Kara, Georgia and Mackenzie Mamouney-Brown, along with another bred and trained by the family, Bruiser Alm (Creatine), which qualified at Maryborough trials on Sunday (Apr 6).

“She (Blue Skye Alm) has had her problems along the way.  She’s a little bit fiery and John’s brought her along quite slowly, but she’s trialed well and now she’s travelling better and working better mentally, I think is the big thing,” Jeanette said.

“Hopefully there’ll be more wins to come.  It’s all a family thing now and everybody is involved. That’s where we get the enjoyment from, that everybody’s involved and everyone’s having fun.”

From Terry Gange for Harnesslink