AT The TOTE Racing Centre in Launceston last Wednesday night Tasmanian thoroughbred horse owner-breeder Anne Howlett stood in the unsaddling enclosure to applaud the effort of Bazanne, a horse she part-owns, for finishing a game second in a class one handicap,
Bazanne had won at her previous outing and Howlett said she was confident the mare had a bright future.
But concealed beneath her focus on Bazanne’s exploits was a simmering nervousness associated with the prospect of a much greater prize in the offing.
In just over three weeks Howlett will be sitting in the main grandstand at Rosehill Gardens in Sydney on Easter Saturday hoping to watch her brilliant filly Driefontein defeat the best two-year-olds in the land in the $3.5 million Golden Slipper.
Driefontein is trained in Sydney by Gai Waterhouse and is unbeaten from four starts including the $2 million Magic Millions 2YO Classic that netted her owners a cool $1.14 million in prize money.
The filly has already accrued about $1.4 million from her four wins and if she is successful in the Golden Slipper she will add another $2.1 million to the tally.
Howlett’s outlay for a 10 per cent share was only $12,750 but given what Driefontein has already earned it is clear she was a sound investment.
When asked how she became involved in the filly Howlett said it was as simple as a phone call.
“Denise Martin from Star Thoroughbreds rang me and asked if I would like a share in a filly by Fastnet Rock and on her advice I said yes. It was that simple,” Howlett said.
She didn’t have to wait long to get a result on her investment.
Howlett says for the first few weeks after the filly won the Magic Millions, albeit on protest from her stablemate No Looking Back, she had to keep pinching herself to make sure it wasn’t a dream.
“Every owner, no matter where you live and race your horses, hopes one day to have s star and one that can win a Group race and we’ve finally done it,” Howlett said.
“I’ve been racing horses for about 35 years and Bob (husband) and I have had a fair bit of success in Tasmania but this is something quite different.”
“When Driefontein won her first race at Randwick in Sydney we were just ecstatic but then she went to Queensland and won a Group 3 race at her next start and that was unbelievable.”
“But to win the Magic Millions race realised my dream and the best part is she is going into the richest two-year-old race in Australia as one of the favourites,” she said.
It isn’t the first time a Tasmanian has been taken on a ride of a lifetime by a Gai Waterhouse-trained horse.
Martin convinced Queenstown supermarket proprietor Phil Evans to invest a similar outlay to Howlett for a share in Theseo that won five of the 19 Group 1 races he contested as well as three other Group wins.
Theseo ended his racing career last year with the imposing record of 11 wins and nine placings from 40 starts for $3.2 million in stakes.
Driefontein is reported to be working well in Sydney and Waterhouse is upbeat about the filly’s prospects of keeping her unbeaten record intact.