Storms Acoming back to Cambridge

By Joshua Smith, Harness News Desk

Hawera trainer Brendan Towers will return to Cambridge Raceway on Thursday hoping to repeat his winning result last week.

His nine-hour round trip to the Waikato track was rewarded on Christmas Eve when Storms Acoming broke through for her maiden victory.

The daughter of Muscle Mass and Group Three winner Emma Hamilton had 29 previous starts and Towers said racing against her own grade made the world of difference last week.

“I changed a bit of gear and some feed lately, but down in Manawatu we are racing against winning horses all of the time and it was a chance to race against maidens (last week),” Towers said.

“She got a good run and everything worked accordingly.”

Storms Acoming will head back north to Cambridge Raceway on Thursday to contest the Garrards Horse & Hound Handicap Trot (2200m) where she will start from behind the 30m tape.

“She has come through the run well, so we will head back up to Cambridge on Thursday,” Towers said.

“I had the choice of going to Otaki next week, but she would be racing against horses with quite a few wins, so this race came up at Cambridge with maidens and her own grade, so I thought it was a good idea to go back there.”

Last week’s win ticks off another item on Towers’ bucket list, with the Taranaki horseman having enjoyed a lifetime involvement with horses.

“I am an ex-steeplechase jockey and started off riding at pony club,” Towers said.

“I represented New Zealand in 1981 with the New Zealand pony club team in Canada, and then went into showjumping.

“Everything was getting a bit expensive, so I then ended up going to the racing side where I was getting paid.

“I rode as a steeplechase jockey for a number of years and luckily the guy I was helping out was a plumber, so I did an apprenticeship at the same time.

“I ended up getting a job through Ken Browne in England and rode there for 10 years and rode a winner at Aintree and Cheltenham on Gold Cup Day. That would probably be the highlight of my career.

“When I came home I worked for Ron and Lorraine Nolen. They had only just started out in trotters and through them I got to know my good mates Hector Bell and Willie Fleming.”

Last week’s victory was Towers’ first trotting win as a trainer and he said he now only has a couple more wins to tick off his bucket list.

“I have ridden a winner on the flat, a winner over hurdles and steeples, driven and trained a pacing winner, and trained a trotting winner. All I have got to do now is train a galloper to win and driver a trotter to win, so there is a few things to tick off the bucket list.”