Trainer old hand at giant-killing
Surgenor even groomed Japan’s Olympic team
It’s too easy for some to skirt over the name Joanne Surgenor. When Fully Funded proved the giant-killer at Ruakaka on Saturday, as he did at Ellerslie previously, many probably thought Surgenor some relative newcomer to horses.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
The South-Island bred horsewoman was riding work for talented former trainer Garth Jackson at Riccarton long before she left school. She moved north to work for Auckland’s Haunui Stud and while there won a scholarship to spend time at the National Stud.
She was keen on showjumping and accepted a position with a horse farm just north of Tokyo and stayed 10 years, pre-training racehorses and competing in showjumping.
So highly though of, she was appointed a groom for Japan’s Olympic equestrian team, a huge honour for a non-Japanese.
She had not been long back in New Zealand in 2005 when she went back to Japan, but after a few months she felt she’d been away from New Zealand for too long.
Life is all about timing and destiny can be created in a few minutes by a chance happening. Surgenor was working a horse around a paddock on the South Auckland property of Auckland Racing Club director Peter Walker, for whom she now trains, when master trainer Colin Jillings dropped in for a chat with Walker.
“Colin must have liked the way I ride because he said I had to come and work for him and ride some of his work. I thought, if I’m going to learn how to train racehorses I may as well learn from the best.”
Surgenor worked for Jillings for two years and three months before the fabulous horseman retired.
“I cannot tell you how much I learned off Colin. He is an amazing teacher and I got to ride some stunning horses. It was a privilege.
“I rode Cheval de Troy (a Derby contender in his year) in his work and he was a movie star horse. Probably the best I’ve ever sat my butt on.”
Surgenor says she is delighted to still glean advice from Jillings.
“He rings and offers advice and he’s not frightened to tell me when he thinks I’ve done it wrong.”
Be assured, Surgenor is not the first in the horse world to experience that from the great trainer.
She trains only a team of six at any one time and has an excellent strike rate. Fully Funded has been a work in progress and Surgenor believes although she has lost a few battles with the lookalike of his sire Fully Fledged, she has finally won the war.
“He was an idiot to start with and many times he took me to the edge, but he’s only in recent months turned from a boy into a man.
‘‘What I like about him is he won’t lie down, he loves being in for the fight.
‘‘Sam [Spratt] thought he was beaten yesterday, but he came back and got the decision. He’s really only starting his career.”
Which means with seven wins already behind him, Fully Funded has a lot ahead of him. Perhaps just like his trainer.
Ruakaka trainer Donna Logan’s judgment proved spot on when she labelled progressive intermediate galloper Command Royale as one of the best chances on the card at her local meeting on Saturday.
Logan and training partner Chris Gibbs produced three winners on the day with Command Royale’s performance suggesting there is plenty more in store for the three-year-old.
The well-deserved victory came off the back of a pair of eye-catching performances at Te Rapa which had punters quick to install him a hot favourite for the 1200 metre event.
His backers had little cause for concern as Cameron Lammas bounced him into a handy position from an inside barrier where he got the run of the race throughout.