IMPORTANT “FIRSTS” FOR GREEN AND STANLEY
- Provincial Racing NSW
- Jul 2
- 4 min read
IT was “firsts” all round for provincial pair, Hawkesbury trainer Peter Green and Newcastle apprentice William Stanley, at Warwick Farm today.
Versatile horseman Green “kicked” an important goal of his own by training his first city winner, and Stanley continued his rise since transferring from the country to the coast by claiming his maiden city double.
Green’s Killer Kerr, a daughter of Shooting To Win and aptly-named after Matildas soccer star Sam Kerr, landed the Benchmark 64 Handicap (1200m) at $10.
Louise Day took full advantage of an opening on the rails after straightening, and Killer Kerr surged from last on the turn in the field of seven to defeat Honey Perfume ($5.50) and Vermicella ($4.40).
“I’m over the moon to get my first city winner in town,” Green said this evening.
“It wasn’t a Saturday, but a Wednesday will do fine.”
That was a reference to not being able to secure a start with Killer Kerr in a Midway Benchmark 72 Handicap (1300m) at Rosehill Gardens last Saturday.
Killer Kerr was second reserve and needed one more scratching to make the field.
“I would have run her last Saturday, but this is a pretty good consolation,” Green said.
“I haven’t had many city runners, and it’s fantastic to be able to win one in town.”
It’s been a special couple of days for Green, who also drives pacers and won a race at Penrith yesterday on Rogervalerio Lombo, who came off the second row to score at $11.
Green was successful at Menangle on June 24 on Dancing With My Ex ($6) for Rogervalerio Lombo’s trainer Malcolm Smith.
The Hawkesbury trainer, who has nine horses in work, has an interest in all three racing codes, as he and his wife Lauren race a couple of greyhounds with trainer Craig Pollard, who was at Warwick Farm to join Green cheer his mare home.
Green and his brother Clint paid $6500 for Killer Kerr at the 2021 Inglis HTBA yearling sale, and she has now won four races (along with nine placings) and earned nearly $150,000.
Green paid credit to jockey Grant Buckley, who rides Killer Kerr trackwork – but it is the “girls” who have the key to her when it comes to racedays.
Both Louise Day and Robyn Freeman have each won two races on her.
“Bucko (Grant Buckley) does a terrific job working Killer Kerr, and has ridden her in races (placed on five occasions), and it was he who suggested I should keep the ladies on her in races,” Green said.
“We have found the key to Killer Kerr by allowing her to settle in her races, and she has really struck form at her last few runs.
“Louise walked the track beforehand and said it was even throughout, so I left it to her to ride the race as best she saw it.”
Killer Kerr has a number of owners initially involved with racing Green’s good mare Star Mission, who won three provincial races and was narrowly beaten in a Midway Benchmark 72 Handicap (1500m) at Rosehill in March 2023.
Unfortunately, the mare died suddenly from an anaphylactic shock (a severe allergic reaction to an antibiotic) in August 2023.
Killer Kerr had not won but was placed at five of her first eight starts at the time of Star Mission’s death.
“As many of Star Mission’s owners were newcomers and a number of them good mates with my brother Clint through playing soccer, we gave them an opportunity to come in to the syndicate at a small fee, and quite a few got involved,” Green explained.
“We just wanted to repay their loyalty by giving them the chance to race a nice horse who had shown ability from early on.”
. Stanley boosted his benchmark season tally to 38 (and career 112) by scoring on Romeo’s Choice ($4.80 favorite) for Richard Litt and Covert Thinking ($9) for Ciaron Maher.
They were his only two rides at the meeting run on a heavy track knocked about by scratchings because of the conditions.
Stanley, on the recommendation of dual Melbourne Cup winning jockey Corey Brown, transferred his indentures from Orange trainer Alison Smith to leading Newcastle trainer Kris Lees in the latter part of last year, and is now officially apprenticed to him.
The 21-year-old rode his first provincial winner ($11 chance Dances With Hooves) at his new home track on December 14, and brought up a career 100 winners with a Newcastle double (Impressionism and Lounerse) on April 26.
A well spoken young man who cut his riding teeth on the picnic circuit, ironically he beat two fellow Newcastle apprentices to clinch a memorable city double.
Stanley, on Romeo’s Choice, beat “stablemate” Ben Osmond (Defiant Heart, $7) in the Benchmark 72 Handicap (1000m), and made it a hat-trick of wins on Covert Thinking, holding out Shannen Llewellyn, another country apprentice who has just linked with Newcastle trainer Nathan Doyle, who rode $3.60 favorite Aroha Stone in the Benchmark 64 Handicap (1600m).
To add insult to injury, Llewellyn was later outed by RacingNSW stewards after pleading guilty to a careless riding charge in the home straight.
That suspension came on top of an earlier suspension incurred in the fourth race at Dubbo last Sunday for use of the whip on 12 occasions prior to the 100m.
Story John Curtis, July 2, 2025 - Pics Bradley Photos
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