Racing: Win doesn't change opinion

Samantha Bosson didn't want to become a racehorse trainer.

She still doesn't, despite landing her first winner, Dawdy, at Te Awamutu yesterday.

As Samantha Spratt, Mrs Bosson was destined to become a leading jockey after winning 86 races in a short time as an apprentice with the Jillings/Yuill stable at Takanini.

That effectively ended when she was nearly killed in a horrendous race crash at Trentham in January 2002 when the stable horse she was riding, Dragon Tiger, jumped a chain which covered a break in the inside running rail down the Trentham 1200m chute.

Dragon Tiger and his rider landed upside down in a drain on the inside of the running rail.

Bosson said her severe head injuries included her brain essentially working loose in her skull and specialists were not confident she would fully recover.

She did to the degree that she went back to race riding, but did not have her heart in it and retired after one month. She came by Dawdy almost by accident.

"Opie and I were at his uncle's [trainer Barry Cook] place one day last year and I asked if he knew of a yearling for sale.

"He said he had this little horse in the back paddock and that he was a little small and we mightn't like him.

"I only wanted a show horse and I really liked him. He was real hairy and cute."

The showring was always going to be his future, but Bosson decided to have one crack at the racetrack.

"I couldn't see the point in paying training fees, so I took out a trainer's licence."

She had, after all, not walked around with her eyes closed at one of racing's great stables for more than two years.

"Opie and I didn't think he had enough ability to be a good racehorse - and I'm still not sure he has - and we decided to have a party if he won a track gallop at Matamata."

But Dawdy at least showed heart.

"If a horse tried to pass him in trackwork he'd pick it up and really try."

It was the same yesterday. With Jim Collett in the saddle, Dawdy, at $25, threw himself at the leader Jonty Da Scoundrel, who looked certain to win halfway down the short Te Awamutu home straight.

The only other horse Bosson has in training is former Levin galloper Itsagiven, who came to the stable as a one-win horse and is on its last chance when it races next week.

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Galloper Rainhailorshine was killed when struck by lightning.

A violent thunderstorm hit Cambridge just after 4am yesterday and one hour later Ralph Manning found Rainhailorshine dead in his paddock.

"Oddly, there were no outwards signs, but it would definitely have been the lightning strike.

"It melted the power points to our electric fences on the property."

The two-win Rainhailorshine was owned by Manning in partnership with Don Looker and Waikato Racing Club president Dave Smith.

He finished second in a recent barrier trial and was about to start a fresh campaign.

Manning just missed out on gaining compensation at Te Awamutu races yesterday when the well-fancied Waterhouse was run down by Uncovered, trained by Stephen Autridge and Graeme Rogerson.