Top drive steers Boudica to Hawera Cup victory

By Mike Love 

A "peach" of a drive by Harrison Orange helped  Blenheim trainer Tony Thomas and his mare Boudica take out the DTS Hawera Cup at Hawera yesterday. 

“It was good. She tries so hard every time she races,” said Thomas.

Boudica settled back of midfield early from their 10 metre handicap. Orange then elected to move around the field with eyes on the lead at the 1200m. From there the pair staved off all challengers, holding on to win by one length.

“We were pretty stiff on the first day. It was a 10 out of 10 drive by Harrison Orange. He took luck out of play.”

“She’s a stand start specialist. She’s not really a grass track horse, but the junior driver penalty free was the carrot that got us up here."

Thomas reflects on Orange’s drive as a “peach” while reminiscing on the fact Harrison’s father Blair drove Thomas’ first winner back in 1998 with Rich Jem at Hokitika. It was part of a winning treble by Orange - he also won with Tina Ace and Golden Line. 

Boudica has been clocking up the kilometres with racing recently up and down the country. 

The seven-year-old Sportswriter mare has now won 10 from 90 starts, with over $166,000 in stakes.

“We will go to the Addington mares race this Friday. Then we may go up to Palmerston and back up to Auckland for the Northern Country Cups and the Northern Breeders stakes.” 

Thomas has now trained 35 winners with over $340,000 in stakes. 

Other highlights on the card included a double and 500th winner for trainer Derek Balle (Rewiri Hill and Conrad H) and Michael House (Golden Line and State Trooper) trained a double while Crystal Hackett had a driving double with Kourtney Kardash and High Energy.