Des Baynes' Diamonds Day quinella - "good grief"

By Dave Di Somma, Harness News Desk

It's been nearly 30 years in the making but trainer Des Baynes produced a rare quinella on one of Southland's biggest race days on Sunday.

Storyteller and Repetitive, both sporting Baynes' distinctive gold and brown hoops, went 1-2 in the Betavet Mobile pace on Diamonds Day at Invercargill.

Records show it was his first quinella since Out All Knight and Toss The Dice delivered at Invercargill on Jan 14, 1994.

His response : "Good grief - it's worse than I thought ... it's so long ago it's embarrassing."

But in fairness to Baynes he does not take big numbers to the race track these days. In fact right now Storyteller and Repetitive are the only horses he has in work.

After they both drew the second line, Repetitive was the first to move with Storyteller right on his back.

Turning for home Repetitive briefly took the lead but Nathan Williamson was fair cruising with Storyteller as they won by one and a quarter lengths.

"I knew there would be a lot of speed off the front and you take your chances when you draw like that but it worked out pretty much perfectly."

Storyteller, a Sportswriter three-year-old, had gone into the race a clear favourite after going down a nose to Glaucus on debut.

"He is a nice horse and he could well have been racing up in the grades, in the Supremacy or one of those races, if it wasn't for a stone bruise he got around Christmas."

Storyteller is his first winner in 2023. He has now had 162 winners since starting out in the early 1980s.

He has been involved in many aspects of the sport, including being past president of the Winton Harness Racing Club.

But he's best known for his association with Young Quinn - the mighty champion who won 59 races in Australasia and North America in the 1970s. He bred and owned the horse along with his late father Bud.

While "that was a long time ago" the Young Quinn Raceway at Wyndham not far from his Winton farm is a constant reminder to an all-time great.