Bragging rights up for grabs in the Henley household

Grafton husband and wife trainers Scott and Fleur Henley will go head to head with their stable stars during the July Racing Carnival.

Grafton husband and wife trainers Scott Henley and Fleur Blanch are chasing a dream quinella in the grand finale of this year’s July Racing Carnival.

The pair have accepted their respective stable stars Boyles and Dark Euro for the $34,000 Maclean Cup at Clarence River Jockey Club this Sunday.

“We race in the same colours,” Scott said. “Mine’s hot pink with green and black, and Fleur’s is purple with the green and black.

“Purple team all the way,” Fleur added.

“There’s always a soft spot for Boyles, but we’d love to quinella it. We’re dying for a picture on the wall, so if we can get that we’d be pretty happy.”

The couple moved to Grafton from the Gai Waterhouse stables in 2014 to start a family and launch their own training venture, with Scott the licensed trainer, achieving moderate success including five wins and $111,980 in prizemoney with Hotel Drive.

Fleur Blanch with stable star Hotel Drive before running third in the 2017 NRRA Country Championship Qualifier at Grafton.

However, Scott suffered a debilitating injury in a fall during a trial at Grafton two years ago, limiting the use of his right arm and condemning him to never be able to ride a horse again. Meanwhile he was later served with a 14-month suspension for a mysterious positive cobalt swab detected two months prior to his accident.

Related Story: Horse trainer dodges death in horrific fall

Grafton trainer Scott Henley nurses a raft of injuries at his home across the road from his stables and the racecourse following a fall during a trial in 2019.

Fleur, heavily pregnant with their third child at the time, took on the head trainer duties, winning on debut with Basanite at Coffs Harbour in December 2019. She has since had 71 starts for eight wins and 14 places.

But on November 4 last year, Scott went back to work and bounced back with immediate effect, taking on promising maiden Demykani Miss and Boyles, both finishing runners up in his return to racing at Grafton.

Since returning to the fold he has landed two winners and eight placings from 19 starts.

“I’m limited with just a couple of horses in work,” he said. “All I do is watch them through the binoculars. Fleur does all the work.

“I just walk around with my gammy arm and do what I do - and that’s not much.

“I’ve trained a lot of placings. This season she’s trained six winners to my two.

“She’s smashing like a rock star in a motel. She’s given me a lesson in her first year of training. Icouldn’t be any more prouder as a husband watching her do her thing.”

Boyles started its career with the Henleys, but was transferred to the late Alan Ryan after the penalty was handed down, and then on to Aidan St Vincent.

Now back where he started, the five-year-old gelding has added two victories to take his career tally to five and is on the verge of surpassing Hotel Drive as the stable’s most successful steed.

“He’s been struggling the last couple of starts with a sore back, but we seem to have sorted him out and I think he’s right to go now,” Scott said.

“He’s been racing on shifty tracks at the Gold Coast and hasn’t handled it. He likes either a fast track or a real heavy track.”

James Innes Jnr on Boyles wins race 2 the TAB Highway Class 3 Handicap at Royal Randwick on January 02, 2021 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Mark Evans/Getty Images)

However, Fleur has her own star rapidly climbing the ranks in Dark Euro, who after his last start win in a Benchmark 66 at Coffs Harbour on June 21 has chalked up three wins, three 2nds and four 3rds from 15 starts under her watch for $65,500 in prizemoney.

With Grafton currently racing a soft five, the give in the track could be more suited to the son of Eurozone on Sunday.

“He’s having a really good preparation this time round,” Fleur said.

“He’s raced against some pretty handy horses on the Gold Coast that have gone on to win races in the city.

“He came out and won quite effortlessly at Coffs Harbour the other day. It was a really good win on the soft track, and I think he’ll be really competitive in the Maclean Cup.

“He’ll be down in the weights and Lani (Alannah) Fancourt is keen to get back on. She’s coming down for the one ride on Maclean Cup Day.”

Coming in at benchmark 63, Dark Euro scraped into the cup field and will wear the No.14 rug, while Boyles (benchmark 60) is No.16 and will be relying on a couple of scratchings to get a start and turn the family rivalry into reality.

Fleur enjoyed a good start to her carnival campaign when Phoenix River ($3.60, Aaron Bullock) ran third behind Tony Newing-trained Alpha Go ($3.70, Blaike McDougall) as the topweight (60.5kg) favourite in the Mark Bloomer Transport CG&E Class 2 Handicap (1100m) on Wednesday, before Sun Lily ($201, Anthony Allen) was unplaced behind David McColm’s Far Too Easy ($4.80, Chris Caserta) in the NBN Springboard to Fame 2YO Plate (1200m) on Thursday.

“She just can’t draw a gate,” Fleur said of Sun Lily prior to the race. “Hoping she might slot in somewhere, maybe midfield and just run a nice race. She’ll be better next time in.”

Meanwhile, at time of publication Scott had Rari installed for the Village Green Hotel Country Magic Association Class 6 Plate (1175m) preceding the Grafton Cup.

“Rari, drawn bad, 16,” Scott said.

“His first up run was better than it looked. He jumped widest of all and travelled wide throughout the run, and weakened out at the top of the straight.

“But he comes here with the right race, the right weight. We just drew bad, that’s the only thing. If he drew good I’d probably say he’d be winning, but from 16 you need a lot of luck.”