Pomare, just like winner Ocean Billy, refuses to quit
Rotorua horse trainer Bill Pomare started “making rumblings” about retirement about 10 years ago.
However, even at the age of 72, when you love what you do it’s hard to step away. Especially when the career highlights keep coming.
Pomare, who has owned, bred and trained horses for more than 30 years, achieved a career highlight on Saturday when his Ocean Billy triumphed in the Group 3 Waikato Cup at Te Rapa.
Ocean Billy was guided to the win by jockey apprentice Callum Jones who threw caution to the wind midway through the 2400m feature as he sent Ocean Billy to take over the pace-making duties from last year’s winner Justamaiz.
Approaching the home turn, Jones shot clear on Ocean Billy to claim victory by three-quarters of a length from race favourite Savy Yong Blonk, who chased him for the last 400m. Ocean Billy was paying $23 for the win.
Pomare said it was a special win, especially considering it was with a horse he persisted with after being unable to sell it.
“The Waikato Cup is quite an important race on the calendar,” he said.
“And there’s the fact that I did it with a horse that I couldn’t sell at the sales is probably quite a big achievement when you’re against horses that were probably paid upwards of $100,000 for.”
Even leading up to the big race, Ocean Billy had mud rash that had to be dealt with before he could even start but once the gates opened he never looked back.
The horse comes from a strong sprinting family, his mother Cool Storm won races over 100m and 1200m but anything further than that was beyond her. Her mother’s wins came from 800m to 1600m.
“It’s a total sprinting family but that just shows you never really know with horses,” Pomare said.
“You just don’t know what you’re getting when you breed. He didn’t show instant talent because he is such a laidback horse, he was very slow out of the gates.
“The first time I took him to run with horses, he ran about 150m last and the jockey who rode him said he doesn’t know how to gallop. I naturally thought I had a slow horse.
“But we persevered with him and kept him ticking over. I turned him over to Toby Autridge in Matamata for some education out of the gates. Tony said ‘don’t be shy, I’d carry on with him, he’s doing everything right’.”
The persistence paid off as Ocean Billy got better and better, culminating in Saturday’s win.
It was a result that is likely to further postpone Pomare’s retirement.
“The horses take a lot of my time and energy, you have to be up early in the morning and go to the track every day.
“If you’re only going down to horses that only go to run around and are not actually returning some stake, you start thinking about retirement.
“I went through a couple of patches when nothing flash was happening but then out of the blue a real good one comes along and makes it easier to get out of bed, it’s worthwhile.”
Pomare compared the twilight of his career to his old horse truck.
“I’ve got a very old horse truck that I’ve been patching up for years and I’m always thinking it will only have one more year in it. So far, it’s been 20-odd years and it keeps getting its warrant.
“Suzi my wife, she’s one of those typical horse women, she’s ridden since she was 5, she rides our toughest racehorses. What she doesn’t know about horses isn’t worth knowing and she makes my life so much easier. We’re a team, we do it all together.”
"He didn’t show instant talent because he is such a laidback horse, he was very slow out of the gates."
Horse trainer Bill Pomare