Hillbilly hints at what’s to come

By Michael Guerin

Sean McCaffrey has a problem plenty of other trainers would love but that still doesn’t mean he knows how to fix it.
 
Because he has a trotter in Hillbilly talented enough to win at Alexandra Park even though McCaffrey doesn’t think he is at his best.

 The four-year-old made the most of a perfect Emily Johnson steer to beat a horse who is almost a quasi stablemate in Voronov, the pair both trained on the same property.

 It was Hillbilly’s third win but with more in store for a horse whose reputation has outweighed his performances in the last 12 months.

 Hillbilly was competitive with our better two-year-olds as a juvenile so most people expected him to end up in races like the Derbys or even the Ascent but his body started to let him down.

 “That is why we haven’t see the best of him,” says McCaffrey.

 “It is not through a lack of ability but he had some soreness issues and they have stopped him stretching out properly.

 “I actually ended up getting an Iranian lady who lives down the road to come in and work on him and she specializes in massage and physical therapy and it seems to have helped.

 “So he is coming right now but he still isn’t trotting those 27 second quarters (400m) he could as a young horse.

 “I think is he keeps getting better and strengthening up and if we can get him back to his best form then we have a horse who ends up close to open class so we hope that is how it plays out.”

 Hillbilly was the second four-year-old trotting winner in 24 hours for McCaffrey after Luca, owned by his good mate Greg Hope, made it back to back wins at Cambridge on Thursday.

 “He has done a really good job since coming north and you’d love a barn full of horses like him,” says McCaffrey.

 “To be honest I think he will end up in Australia where he would do a super job because once you start winning races back to back up here you get up in the grades quite quickly.

 “So I wouldn’t be surprised if he ends up on the market for somebody looking for a nice trotter if and when he wins again.”

Later on the Alexandra Park card on Friday the young trotter everybody has been waiting for Our Col remained unbeaten but not without a few nervous moments.

 The big three-year-old filly had to be eased around by trainer-driver Tony Herlihy as she learned about big field, standing start racing but always looked likely to get up and will be a better filly, mentally and physically, for the outing.

 It is hard to imagine she won’t win a good race or two this season.