TRAINING is lovelier the second time around for Shaun Harvey.
The Wyong-based 34-year-old was on top of the racing world when he won his first race last Saturday with only his sixth starter – and fourth in his second venture nearly eight years apart.
Harvey made the trek to Walcha for the second day of the annual Cup carnival, and landed the Class 1 Handicap (1200m) with $7 chance Buckin’ Rippa.
In a thrilling three-way finish, Scone apprentice Chelsea Hillier got the seven-year-old gelding home narrowly from Allande ($4.60) and $2.10 favorite Bring Me To Life.
“It was very exciting; definitely worth the trip,” a delighted Harvey said.
Coincidentally, Buckin’ Rippa was previously also trained at Wyong, by Damien Lane, and though he won only the one race – at Tamworth in July, 2022 - was placed on 15 occasions (eight of them seconds).
“My mother-in-law Chistine McMillan bought him online through Inglis Digital in January last year for $2250,” Harvey said.
Harvey had dipped his toes into the training water in 2016 as a hobby when he had a full-time job in Newcastle.
“I was working as a nurse at an aged care centre, and found it took difficult to do both and let my licence slip,” he explained.
“The only horse in my care (Naked Prince) at the time had two unplaced starts on the Beaumont track in May 2016, and he finished up having two more runs in Victoria for another trainer, and was retired after 10 starts without a placing.”
Harvey says he has always been obsessed with horses.
“I travelled around a bit, but helped out Cessnock trainers the late “Pud” Davies and Jeremy Sylvester when I was much younger,” he said.
“Jason Waters was another trainer I worked for, and later became Grant Allard’s foreman at Gosford before he relocated to Queensland.
“Jake Hull, now training at Gosford, was apprenticed to Grant at the time.”
As well as rehoming horses, Harvey is now also foreman to Wyong trainer Kristen Buchanan.
“Along with working with Kristen, the advice she has been giving me about training has been invaluable,” he said.
“I couldn’t do this without the support of my partner of 11 years, Jack Harrex.”
Harvey renewed his licence late last year, but not before giving his breakthrough winner Buckin’ Rippa a lengthy spell.
“He had been racing around country tracks, and I felt a really good time away would be of great benefit to him,” he said.
“We let him run around with some other horses for six months, and be a horse himself.”
Buckin’ Rippa was Harvey’s first starter back after 2024 Rising Star winner Anna Roper rode the gelding when second in an 845m trial at Wyong on December 15.
“I took him to Bowraville on December 28 for his first run in 12 months, and he ran second in a Benchmark 50 Handicap (1000m),” he said.
“After two more runs at Taree and Tuncurry last month when not beaten far in either, I thought he had a good chance at Walcha with only 53.5kg after Chelsea’s claim.”
Harvey has two horses in his care; the other being at the other end of the racing spectrum to his experienced breakthrough winner.
That is an unraced two-year-old named Dirty Blonde.
“She is a chestnut palomino filly by Goldwing, and has just been broken in,” Harvey explained.
As for Buckin’ Rippa, Harvey is looking ahead a few weeks in order to hopefully put another win on the board.
“He could go to a Benchmark race at Tuncurry next month or the Trangie picnics a few days later,” Harvey said.
“You never know where we might turn up.”
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HOOFNOTE: Kristen Buchanan was understandably thrilled to see Harvey get his first winner.
“Shaun is a lovely young man, who is very good at his job and very good with people,” she said.
“That’s why he is my foreman.”
Buchanan’s debut Newcastle winner, Shalaa two-year-old Winning Proposal, ran an excellent fourth to Fully Lit in last Saturday’s $2m Inglis Millennium (1100m) at Royal Randwick, earning $88,000 prizemoney for connections.
“She went great, but did it on ‘fumes’ and needs a spell,” she said.
Story John Curtis, February 13, 2024 - Pics supplied
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