It’s taken a while, actually quite a while, but Senior Citizen, owned at Portland by Nifty Lenehan and Nicole Stanley and trained by the former, finally stepped out for her first race start last Sunday in the Metal Worx Stake (305 metres) at Tara Raceway.
And the black daughter of Orson Allen and Cryer’s Harper – a winner of 22 races at Tara Raceway – quickly found the front from box five and ultimately held on for a three-quarter length win in 17.77 seconds over Lektra Hank, trained by Lenehan’s brother Phil.
Whelped in November 2021, and reared at Portland, Senior Citizen at one stage looked as though she would never see a race track.
“She’s now 3½ years old and it got to the stage that every time we almost got her to the track something would go wrong,” Lenehan said.
In fact, one way and another Stanley and Lenehan have encountered problems with a few of the Orson Allen x Cryer’s Harper litter.
“Mushy won his maiden last May and hasn’t raced since June. Mama Chicken was three years old when winning her maiden and first starter Okay Corral was three years and three months old when successful in February,” he said.
Cryer’s Harper has a second litter following. Whelped in June 2022, the litter is by US sire Kinda Cruel Red and includes Shuffling, a maiden winner over 400 metres in February.
Berringa trainer Michael Niele was back at Tara Raceway last Thursday for the first time since the end of January. And it turned out to be a successful day after he landed a treble – his first at the track since last August.
Kicking off the first of his three winners last week was Sherry Cherry, a daughter of Bernardo and Lorenza who led all the way from box four in the Carlin & Gazzard TG1-4W Stake (305 m) when defeating kennelmate Flying Madeline by 5¾ lengths in 17.70 seconds.
On the back of wins at Horsham and Mount Gambier, Cherry Time, a litter sister to Niele’s first winner, settled in third spot behind Compton Layla in the Federal Hotel TG1-4W Stake (400 m).
Cherry Time then found the front turning for home before running out a one length winner over the early leader in 23.42 seconds.
Wrapping up his successful day was Bridgewater Bob in the Commercial Hotel TG5+W Stake (400 m). The son of Bernardo and Spirited Bingle settled in second spot early behind Cadillac Magic before finding the front off the back and running out a 1½ length winner in 23.70 seconds.
Niele’s last treble at the track had been on Thursday, August 29 when Amali Moo, Property Mogul and Silver Streak were successful.
Meanwhile, Bourne Sid (David Peckham), Magic Poppy (Edna Fennell) and Mr. Tangelo (Tracie Price) were the top three qualifiers for the Fast Forward 1-4 Wins final (512 m) when running times of 30.12, 30.13 and 30.15 in the second of two heats.