Clarke focused on her 'tiny' winner

Saturday 4 November 2017, 6:48pm

Udyta Clarke was so worried about her beloved "little pony" Rich Charm she seriously considered ditching the race and taking him home.

In fact she was still so concerned after winning Flemington's Group Two TAB Multiplier Stakes she headed straight to the stalls.

The 70-year-old Cranbourne trainer is known to sleep in the stables with her horses, she loves them so much.

"I've looked after him like he's my child," she said, constantly looking for Rich Charm to return to the mounting yard following Derby Day's last race.

Clarke, herself tiny in stature, insists she came close to taking him home an hour before the race.

"I nearly put him on the truck ... I really did.

"I looked at all the other horses and I thought, 'They're so big and they're so strong'.

"And look at my horse, he's like a little pony.

"I thought, 'He's so tiny. You can't beat horses like this, this is ridiculous.'

"Every other race I've coped but it's really got to me today."

Clarke, her stomach churning and tears flowing, ignored everyone chasing her to have her accept the winning trainer's trophy.

She had no interest in the black and white fancy dress code for Derby Day either.

All she cared about was her little horse.

For jockey Patrick Moloney, the emotion of the win was worth so much more than the $500 fine he copped for his enthusiastic victory salute before the finish line.

"It's probably my biggest career highlight," the 23-year-old grandson of late Hall of Fame trainer Jim Moloney said.

"To get a ride on Derby Day is a good enough thing for the stage I'm at but to ride a winner on the day and for Mrs Clarke on Rich Charm, it's just unbelievable.

"To win it for her, she's a fantastic horse lady and deserves all the luck she gets."

– AAP

Latest News

Prime Thoroughbreds - We have a Host of Leaders in our Team

Tuesday, 29 June 2021

Prime Thor­ough­bred’s cur­rent rac­ing team is putt­ing to­gether quite a re­cord. We have 22 hors­es that have raced in our team at pre­sent. Six­teen of th­ese are win­n­ers in­clud­ing the Stakes win­n­ing trio Ru­bisa­ki, Fituese and Xtreme­time with Miss Di­vine Em and Miss In Charge run­n­ing 4th in Stakes races. This sees a stakes win­n­er to win­n­er ra­tio of 18.75% with a stake’s per­formed to win­n­er ra­tio of 31.25%. Th­ese are ex­cep­tio­n­al fig­ures.   More »

Freedmans land maiden Group One win

Saturday, 27 February 2021

Un­der-rat­ed fil­ly For­bid­den Love has emerged as an au­tumn car­ni­val smokey with a bril­liant per­for­mance to win the Sur­round Stakes at Rand­wick.  More »

Capriccio completes Damian Lane treble

Saturday, 27 February 2021

In a big day for coun­try-trained hors­es, War­r­nam­bool fil­ly Capric­cio has tak­en out the In­glis Dash for Daniel Bow­man.  More »

More news headlines »