Reeling in the prize catch
FORMER North Queensland barramundi farmer Wendy Roche is fishing for one more win with her favourite mare Nettoyer which could be set to go under the hammer after Saturday‘s Doomben Cup.
The twice Group 1 winner became famous for her post-race celebrations with Nettoyer where she would feed her favourite galloper pizza and champagne, but there is more to the mare she says is so “naughty” she can’t be trained anywhere but her home track of Warwick Farm.
Roche had to bring the seven-yearold back to Sydney following her disappointing run in the Hollindale Stakes on the Gold Coast, simply because she refuses to work anywhere but home.
“She came back to Sydney because she can’t work on the tracks up there because she’s naughty,” Roche said.
“She wouldn’t work on the tracks. She is used to travelling so she comes to Sydney and works on her home track, swims in her home pool and has a normal environment then goes up there and races.
“She is not used to any of the tracks up there, Doomben is all grass and she works on the polytrack so it doesn’t really suit her.
“I don’t want to work her on a surface she doesn’t want to be on. It is only an eight-and-a-half hour trip up the freeway now.”
Roche spent almost 20 years in the tiny town of Mount Molloy as a barramundi farmer before making the move to horse training.
Asked why the sudden switch of careers, Roche responded “stupidity”.
“I was born in Murwillumbah then I spent 16 years in North Queensland above Port Douglas in a place called Mount Molloy where I had a barramundi farm for that time,” she said.
“Then I came home because I got sick of the rain and I moved to the Southern Highlands.
“With a barramundi farm you are reliant on the weather but while you’re sleeping you’re making money because they are growing.
“It is a lot of hard work just like racing is, I just love horses and I don’t find them to be a job really..”
Nettoyer is down to be sold at
Magic Millions later in the month, but Roche would love to see the Group 1 Doncaster Mile and Queen of the Turf (1600m) winner go through to The Q22 (2200m) on June 12.
“We’re not quite sure if this is her last run – she is in the sale – but I am not quite sure what happens after because she is nominated in The Q22,” she said.