For A Reason continues to salute

Catch up on the week’s harness racing action in our weekly review, thanks to Darren Clayton.

THE GOOD

The teal pants have been a regular in races for the past six weeks, however the Redcliffe meeting on Sunday March 14, signalled the end of the Team Teal campaign.

It has been a successful six-week period for the ladies involved, with Queensland contributing $15,200 for ovarian cancer research to support the Research Nurse Grant Program and the Survivors Teaching Students education and prevention program.

This equates to 76 races won throughout the initiative, with three sisters leading the way in the Sunshine State.

Narissa McMullen was the most successful across the six weeks, driving 17 winners and securing the position at the top of the tally thanks to the win of Ideal World on Saturday night.

Charging late to finish in second position, Dannielle Veivers completed the campaign with 16 winners.

Heading into the last meeting at Redcliffe on Sunday night, Dannielle was able to drive a double but fell one short of her big sister.

One of the Team Teal ambassadors for 2021, Taleah McMullen, finished the campaign with 14 winners and completed the McMullen family domination.

Dannielle will get the opportunity for bragging rights over Narissa with the pair travelling to Tasmania to compete in the Australian Female Drivers Championship on March 21.

However, it was Megan Gee that was able to claim victory in the Team Teal Invitation at Albion Park on Saturday night with an inch-perfect drive aboard Onya Doug.

Sitting at the rear, Gee was able to go one better than her second placing in last week’s International Women’s Day Invitation to claim the Team Teal win.

Charging down the outside of the track, Gee coaxed the best out of Onya Doug to score victory by a neck over Chiasso and Kay Crone with Vienna Boy and Kelli Dawson in third placing.

Congratulations to all the winners, with every triumph an invaluable contribution to the overall tally.

THE BAD

After arguably her most successful night in the sport on Saturday March 6, just four days later, Taleah McMullen came back to earth - quite literally - with a thud.

Heading into the Redcliffe meeting on the Wednesday night, the youngest McMullen sibling looked on paper to have a strong book of drives.

That was strengthened when scoring an all-the-way victory with her first drive of the night aboard Feel The Thrill in race three, trained by father John McMullen.

Heading out on the race favourite Our Little Girl in race four, McMullen looked to be getting towards the lead before a chain reaction of events saw a scrimmage and resulted in Taleah being tipped out of the gig.

Hitting the ground hard, she was left prone in the middle of the track and the race was quickly called to a halt.

Unable to fulfil her engagements for the remainder of the evening, the Team Teal ambassador for 2021 was lucky to escape serious injury.

Taking a Thursday out of the sulky, Taleah was able to return to race driving on Friday and although not steering a winner to boost the Team Teal total, was able to finish runner-up on two occasions.

THE MILESTONE

A winner of the 2010 Redcliffe Derby, For A Reason went on to win over $1million in stakes in a career of 27 wins and 17 minor placings.

After a super career on the track, the former Luke McCarthy-trained pacer is now producing super results in the breeding barn.

Last Thursday, For A Reason sired his first female to win a race at Redcliffe, when Our Bella Lucia secured victory for trainer Jonah Hutchinson.

It was a training quinella for Hutchinson, with Kendys Butterfly finishing in second place - both horses owned by the Team Tritton Fractional ownership.

That provided the ownership group with their second win in Queensland following on from the win of Lets Blaze back on February 25.

Meanwhile, it was another great week for wining connections of QBRED stock with the country’s best state-bred breeding scheme again paving a path with gold for owners.

After Darn is a newcomer to Queensland, and scored at her first outing for trainer Wayne Graham to land her owners the first win bonus at her first attempt.

The four-year-old mare by South Park Hanover out of Lizzie By Jove, was bred by Cold Mountain Stud and is a full sister to Theresachance and Little Arrows.

All three siblings have won at Redcliffe in the last five weeks; Little Arrows on February 3, Theresachance on March 4 and After Darn on March 12.

Angus Garrard had a hand in both other winners of the QBRED first win bonus in the past week.

Galvarino for owner/trainer/breeder Ashlea McKinnon scored at Redcliffe with Garrard taking the drive on the gelded son of Hurrikane Kingcole.

It was a Garrard family win on Friday at Albion Park when Moonan Nina scored.

The Changeover mare is owned and bred by Chris Garrard, trained by Daren Garrard, and driven to success by Angus.

With a second win bonus also paid to connections of Big Wheels and Feeling The Power, it really does pay to be QBRED.

THE WILDCARD

Donald Cox tasted success as an owner at Redcliffe on Wednesday night when Feel The Thrill scored a deserved win.

The five-year-old gelding has been racing in consistent fashion this season, taking his career tally to four wins and five minor placings from his 26 career starts.

It certainly has been a thrill for Cox who owns, bred, and took out his stable hand licence to ensure he could be hands on with readying Feel The Thrill on race day.

Sending his five-time winning race mare Smooth Bullville to Mr Feelgood, the resultant colt foal would be named Feel The Thrill.

With an early education and one race start with trainer Steve Burke as a three-year-old, Feel The Thrill was sent for a spell before returning as a four-year-old with John McMullen.

Showing improvement at each appearance, the gelding was able to score a breakthrough win at his 11^th start when leading throughout at Redcliffe on March 12, 2019 with Narissa McMullen taking the reins.

After another two starts that included another win, the gelding was sent for a spell, returning late in the season and taking some time to work back to his best.

Slowly starting to recapture his form, Feel The Thrill has now claimed two wins and two minors in his past seven starts, with Taleah McMullen at the reins for both victories.

Living up to his race name, there is no doubting the joy that Feel The Thrill brings, not only to Donald but everyone associated with the five-year-old.

THIS WEEK

With the Team Teal initiative coming to a close, we will not see the teal pants this week across the five meetings in Queensland.

This week will see Albion Park hosting meetings in their regular timeslots of Tuesday afternoon, Friday afternoon and Saturday night.

Redcliffe will be back to the two meetings with Wednesday night and Thursday afternoon in the schedule.

With more two-year-olds starting to appear at the trials and several juvenile starters having already graced the track, the first two-year-old only event will be contested on Tuesday.

The field has attracted six runners and with all six being QBRED-eligible, it is guaranteed the winner will claim the $12,000 first win bonus on top of the winning prizemoney.