After the celebratory photo session, toast and speeches, we asked Phil “Prop” Anderson what the story was with his suitably big horse. “Well, it’s a pretty big one,” he replied, after a swill and a deep breath, ready to tell some of it.
You won't be surprised…There's way more to it!
Donna’s Boy is a big horse with a big owner, a girl’s name, a boisterous fan base — and a life‑and‑death back story. And that’s just the preface.
It was loud as the full field of trotters thundered down the Addington home straight in the Future Wealth Aged Trot Classic, where the battle had come down to two, maybe three, in that final furlong.
One Over Da Line needed the finish line badly after leading for a lap and a half, with Donna’s Boy breathing down his neck for most of it. Those two had dictated tactics and tempo, with the baby of the field, He’s My Creation, tagging along just in behind.
As always in such a sought‑after race, the fans and punters got passionately raucous for the run home. Despite his race freshness and inexperience, Donna’s Boy channelled some relatives from decades ago to lunge for a narrow victory over his race‑hardened rival — and beach‑trained buddy — in the shadows of the post, with not much back to the ‘bub’ closing in third.
It was a cheery post‑race scene in the winner’s circle as the owners, breeders, trainer/driver and even the race sponsor high‑fived and group‑hugged for the photo like it was their first pint‑and‑punt reunion in quite a while.
After the celebratory photo session, toast and speeches, we asked Phil “Prop” Anderson what the story was with his suitably big horse.
“Well, it’s a pretty big one,” he replied, after a swill and a deep breath, ready to tell some of it.
Now, Prop Anderson has collected a few yarns over his years in the harness racing game. Here’s a guy who chaperoned the incomparable trotting champion Lyell Creek around Australasia last century for Tim or Anthony Butt. That probably started an unwanted need for stringing a sentence together as stand‑in when the press hounded for a pre‑race update around “Creek the Freak”.
So to have a “pretty big one” to tell tonight was curious.
“For a start,” Prop continued, “the horse was born dead.”
What?!
“Luckily the person looking after the mare and foal was a vet — Donna Williamson — who spent the first hour resuscitating him and keeping him alive. Basically, that’s how he got named Donna’s Boy.”
Prospects of a page‑turner are high after that one‑beer offering.
Cutting to the chase — or skipping from the foreword to the mid‑chapters, as you do when the first shout has just a mouthful left and time’s ticking — “he went up the road to Brad Mowbray’s for a while and didn’t show much as a young horse. He was too big and immature, so we put him aside and I started with him later on. He came to it as he got a bit stronger.”
Long story drastically shortened, so some fact‑checking before the book and movie release:
Donna’s sire is Pegasus Spur — inside the budget for breeder Gerald Cayford at the time and capable of leaving a nice one like Speeding Spur. Not Lyell Creek, but good enough to give that ‘global trotter’ brief a decent nudge back in his day, including a Canadian Trot Classic and multiple trans‑Tasman Trotter of the Year titles.
His dam, Ygritte, could run a bit, and so could his granddam, Touch Of Sun — a three‑quarter sister to Sundon, after all.
This Future Wealth Trotting Classic win came at Donna’s twelfth career start. He’s too fast to train around his track so Prop does the ground work and sends him to Bob Butt at the beach so he can stretch those big legs properly.
Predicting that the big trotter raced by the big man will race in the big time soon doesn’t seem much of a stretch either — but we’ll “wait and see. There’s the Uncut Gems yet and he’s still off the front in that next month,” says Prop… and there’s another Corona coming.
The Sires’ Stakes Semi Final–winning filly, Secret Wish, was “one in a herd of three” that Brian West didn’t quite know what to do with when they were weanlings.
“I’d bred some mares to Bettor’s Wish when he was first available at stud here, and you wouldn’t fathom that all three would be fillies?!”
The market Brian West operates in tends to speculate more on colts than fillies by new stallions, no matter their credentials — a lesson learned over a long, successful career.
As decision time for 2024 yearling sales nominations approached, the champion New Zealand Standardbred breeder decided he had to keep them and try them himself rather than take a likely hit in the ring.
He’d been there, done that before. And while the pedigree pages were typically good in Secret Wish’s case, there wasn’t much happening in the timely manner needed to attract buyers. Secret Lotion hadn’t produced anything on the track yet, meaning a medium‑term project lay ahead — something he’d succeeded with in the ‘Secret’ family before.
“I had the same situation with Secret Potion quite a few years ago now,” he laughs.
That filly — a sister to the dam of this one — won the Nevele R Fillies Series and Northern Oaks back in 2010.
As tends to happen, the dial began to move shortly after Brian’s decision on his band of weaners.
“Chase A Dream arrived that summer,” he recalls.
“I’d had to stay in him too because he didn’t bring enough money at the yearling sales — but of course that was a great thing as it turns out.”
That outstanding colt matched his looks with an astonishing Sires’ Stakes Final win on Cup Day, launching a stellar million‑dollar career and giving his dam that cherished black‑type catalogue page.
Now Secret Wish is trying to chase her big half‑brother down on the Sires’ Stakes and feature‑race street‑cred front. She’s been pipped in three Group races already in her 13 starts, so this slick victory in the Magness Benrow Sires’ Stakes Semi Final was a welcome winning start to her three‑year‑old stakes campaign for West and Cullen Racing stables.
“I love winning these races because it keeps the belief burning in these breeding theories and systems. This is a fast filly who Hayden thinks is capable of catching a big race win with the sort of sprint she has. Here’s hoping it’s the Sires’ Stakes Final next month.”
Fingers and toes crossed for that wish, Westy.
