After a few top -class hub in his career, coach Melissa Gillies believes that her stable finally gets the best out of talented Trotter Northern Heights (My high expectations).
Northern Heights, a four-year-old, landed the highest honor of his 22-start racing periods in Albion Park on Saturday evening when the Square Gamper was a dominant winner of the annual Jim McNeil Trotters Championship Finales.
Northern Heights was presented in the early stages of his racing career on Group 2 -Ruhm and began as a 2 -Dollar shot in the Qbred Trotting 2yo final from 2023.
There was not much to plan on this occasion, since Gillies was satisfied with second place with Staffen Gait with Grace.
In the final of the Springboard series for two-year-old Trotter in 2023, Northern Heights began as a scorching pot of $ 1.30 and ended almost 24 meters behind stare dates Gait with Grace.
Brisk lead by March 2025 and Northern Heights did not find out in the final phases in one of the Jim McNeil warming over 2138 meters.
But with Pete McMullen in a bike for the determination of the longer journey, he ate the additional soil.
The 41-year-old Gillies still has to win a black-type event in her training career to win the long-time Jim McNeil series. It was an significant milestone for her stable, which she describes as a “family effort”.
“It was really invigorating because we planned this series loosely from a long way,” she said.
“Not everything planned the process along the process than bringing it there and then pulling it – it was very invigorating.”
As a respected businessman and horse owner, McNeil was a pioneer of trot races in the sunshine. She helped to raise the horse population in Brisbane and escalate the profile of the racing shape.
The Jim McNeil Trotter's championship has been operated since 2011.
The victory of Northern Heights was one of five at the city meeting for Reinsman McMullen on Saturday evening.
It was the fifth time in his eminent career that McMullen had driven a handful of winners to a metropolitan program.
Like a number of runners on the field, Northern Heights still had to contest the 2647 meter trip in Albion Park, over which the Decider of the Jim McNeil series was conducted.
The Gillies, based in Wanora, had a certain concern that their troters stepped in the distance, but the northern heights certainly appreciated the additional trip.
“We were confident that we had him good and his work was good,” she said.
“But we were a little careful with the distance, we weren't sure how he would accept the 2647 meters.
“He runs quite sharply and he has never passed this distance.
“In the end, he definitely went well and did the line really strongly.”
After the victory on Saturday on Saturday, Northern Heights has now collected five wins and eight smaller placements of 22 starts.
The Gillies Camp was bred by Kathryn McLachlan and was given northern heights to prepare his connections alongside Gait with grace as yearlings.
With a view of the rest of 2025, Gillies are aimed at four -year dirred events with northern heights.
“He was a pretty horse, but sometimes frustrating as a typical trotter. He made many mistakes,” she said.
“He sometimes made these mistakes when it counts the most, he blown it quite badly in the two -year triad.
“The thumb crossed, he starts to work out and now put everything together.”
Gillies prepares a ten team with the support of her family and works in addition to working as a school teacher.
On Tuesday she will go to the races with another traber from her barn, Ignite.
With McMullen who were booked for the steering, Ignite has been watching his first victory since November last year.
“He is always there and never too far away,” said Gillies about Ignite.
“He will appear every now and then when he gets his real luck while running.”
from Jordan GerransFor racing queensland
