Happy horse and trainer take Gore Summer Cup

By Jonny Turner

Tairlaw Toll is a horse in the zone and it showed when he ran to victory in the Gore Summer Cup on Sunday.

The happy horse made for a happy trainer as Carl Hanna notched win number three on his official training record as the seven-year-old ran to victory for driver Matthew Williamson.

Hanna first got to know Tairlaw Toll when working for Northern Southland stud Macca Lodge.

After heading back to work in the dairy farming sector, he subsequently leased the horse and campaigned him in Canterbury where the pacer produced decent form.

After heading south and joining Hanna, Tairlaw Toll’s form has gone to a new level.

Hanna puts that down to the pacer thriving in his new environment – an Eastern Southland dairy farm.

“He is going very good, he is a happy horse at the moment and he is enjoying his work.”

“I just work him on the farm and just fit him in wherever the day suits.”

“I jog him around the paddocks, at the moment he has been racing most weeks so I haven’t had to do too much with him.”

“He is an older horse so it is a change of scenery for him which I suppose is a help too.”

“I leased the horse at the end of last season and now that I am a bit quieter on the farm, I have got through calving and that sort of thing, I have a bit more time to work him.”

Sunday’s win took Tairlaw Toll’s record to two wins, plus a second and a fourth, from just four starts for Hanna.

The first of those victories was the horseman’s first official training victory.

Preparing winners is nothing new to Hanna whose been doing just that working in several stables in his more than 15 years in harness racing.

With his horse happy and in form, Hanna will continue to look for new targets for him.

“There are a couple of races coming up for him at Northern Southland and Wyndham.”

“He is going to go back in the handicaps so life is going to get a bit tougher for him.”

“But he is in a good place at the moment.”

Matthew Williamson had Tairlaw Toll three-back on the inner for much of Sunday’s feature before angling him into the clear on the home turn.

The horse’s win continued a whirlwind week for his breeders Macca Lodge which included a highly successful National Yearling Sales in Christchurch.