Neigh-sayers silenced when horse gallops to 101-1 victory

Warwick trainers shocked by thrilling run at Brisbane’s most popular track.

HORSE RACING: The odds were stacked against 6-year-old mare Abb Roy at Doomben racecourse on Wednesday afternoon.

At $101 to 1 to win the 1350m class 2 plate, the win came as a shock for Warwick trainers Michael and Naomi Hemmings.

"I was a bit surprised because I've been pushing for her to go out and have a spell - so I was in the frame of mind that she probably shouldn't have raced anyway but she did," Hemmings said.

"We all wanted to get her up a little bit more ground so she's gone over 1350m and had the blinkers taken off, she's had a gear change and she's had a really good jockey that knows her and she's got the better track.

"Everything else was aligned and it was all in order, and as it was it worked out really well."

The starting odds were just as surprising to racing stewards who Hemmings admits inquired post race about the mare's prior form.

"I don't understand why she was such a huge price - for her if you look at her form, where she hasn't won every race or anything like that but none of them do, she always puts in and always runs a good race," she said.

"Even out at Texas where she ran 5th out of 7, she was way last if the people had actually been out there, she didn't handle the track at all it was too hard.

"It shows you what can happen if everything is better suited to your horse, when you think what they've got to put up with, there's just hard tracks everywhere and they don't have the natural grazing that they normally would."

Regulars on the country circuit, Hemmings said the racing scene is slowly undergoing changes in regional towns.

"There's not as many options to go to the country now with the way that racing is being structured, they're trying to phase out country racing which is very sad because there are horses that is where they should be racing," she said.

"So you get pushed into starting them where they're not perhaps suitable and if they don't compete in a competitive manner, they get a bar on them restricting them to country meetings it appears."

While the opportunity to race local appears to be diminishing, Hemmings can see the passion remains among regional trainers.

"There seem to be quite a few horses kicking around, there's some people that only have one in work - like Leo Roche, there's others that have quite a few like Garry Schwenke and we've got quite a few at the moment," she said.

"Scott Barker, he's relatively new to town but he's sort of up and down with his numbers depending on who goes out for a spell, and Stephanie Sixtus is just sort of starting out.

"Country racing is like the base of the pyramid and if you cut the base of the pyramid of what happens."

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