“There is a God,” declared Wagga trainer Dave Heywood after a Tuesday from hell finally ended in happiness. “My headache’s instantly gone. You can imagine the stress. I felt shocking for the owners.”
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Twelve months after he started planning for Sunday’s $150,000 Country Championships qualifier at Albury, Heywood virtually went to war to get stable star Man Of Peace a start.
Heywood and fellow Southern Districts trainer Kerry Weir – who prepares Championships preview winner, Levee Bank – had been told their horses were ineligible because they hadn’t been in their stables since the cut-off date of September 26.
However, both enjoyed a pre-race win ‘on protest’, after convincing Racing NSW stewards of their right to compete.
Heywood had transferred his horse to Canberra trainer Keith Dryden for three weeks in October while he recovered from an operation but said he’d gained assurances from a Racing NSW administrator in Sydney.
“I wouldn’t have left him there if I’d have known that he wouldn’t have been eligible for the championships,” Heywood said.
After initially conceding defeat, Heywood later tracked down a copy of conditions he’d read on a racing calendar that the horse needed to be stabled with him before the cut-off date. He also tracked down the official he’d spoken with.
“He confirmed my story,” Heywood said. “And the horse was in my name – he only went to Keith for that one start when I couldn’t take him to Sydney,” Heywood said. “And he only went to Canberra because we couldn’t work in Wagga – we were still underwater from the wet winter and hadn’t been on the grass for weeks.”
Late on Tuesday, the horse was re-instated, just as Levee Bank had been for Weir at lunchtime, after the Tumut trainer proved his error was only one of late paperwork.
“There were records of bank statements and invoices to prove the horse was in the stable (before the cut-off),” chief steward Marc van Gestel confirmed.
The clause also caught out Chris Heywood whose gelding The Flash One came to him a week after the cut-off. He still has six of the 17 nominations, including Fermanagh Lad and Lighthouse.
Wagga’s Scott Spackman, Gary Colvin, Tim Donnelly and Peter Morgan are also represented.
But David Heywood is confident in Man Of Peace.
“I think my horse is going to be very competitive… it’d be funny if Levee Bank and him fought it out.”