Harness raciing’s millionaire trotting mare One Over Kenny has been retired – but there’s no chance she will be forgotten, the legacy of her wonderful career set to infiltrate the lives of her owners Lex and Heather Williams for years to come.
Luck deserted the 9-year-old Sundon mare in her swansong at Alexandra Park last Friday night (December 17) when, just as she was about to mount what looked to be a winning run, she took fright at the exuberant arm action of the driver in front pulling a hood and galloped out of contention.
It wasn’t the fairytale ending that the Williams’ or trainer Tony Herlihy had hoped for, but they did not dwell on it and the mare, who won nearly $1.1 million from her 32 wins, was taken to Woodlands Stud yesterday to be served by Pegasus Spur.
While most owners have to wait nearly a year to see the first progeny of their mares, the Waimate couple have only two weeks until One Over Kenny’s embryo transplant foal, by Majestic Son, is born to a surrogate mother. “There’s lots to go on with,” said Heather Williams on the drive back to their property, which bears the name One Over Lodge, and has a “Goldie’s paddock” named after the mare.
They have just finished building a new house, which has a complete room dedicated to One Over Kenny, crammed with all her trophies and winning photographs. And, after she returns a 40-day positive test, the mare will come home where “she will get the best of the best,” Williams said.
“We’ve had some magical times with her and she’s taken a lot of people a lot of places.” Heather Williams missed being on course only once for One Over Kenny’s 66 starts and Lex didn’t miss a single race.
From the night she won her two-year-old debut at Auckland on April 4, 2004, they followed her around Australasia, winning just about every big race.
At three she claimed the NZ Trotting Oaks, NZ Trotting Derby and GN Derby and, as an older mare, was virtually unbeatable, winning the Rowe Cup in 2007 and 2009, the National Trot in 2007-08, the Australasian Trotting Championship (2007) and NZ Trotting Championship (2009). Seconds in the Dominion Handicap and Interdominions (behind Sundon’s Gift) were the only misses on her CV.
But the owners aren’t complaining. Just the third horse they had bought, on the recommendation of local trainer Phil Williamson, she cost $23,000 as a yearling and earned $1,098,007.
by Barry LICHTER (Courtesy of the SUNDAY STAR-TIMES)