Jarred Hetherington-trained Night Lights wins first race on Australian soil

Narrabri harness racing trainer Jarred Hetherington was a happy man on Monday afternoon when he oversaw New Zealand-bred pacer Night Lights win her first start on an Australian track.

Night Lights had raced 29 times previously in New Zealand for just one win before joining the Hetherington stable in February.

The five-year-old mare started from pole position as the $1.10 favourite in the first race of the day at the Narrabri Harness Racing Club’s annual TAB meeting which this year was held at the Tamworth Paceway.

That was the TAB Odds and Evens Pace in which she was driven by Hunter Valley reinsman Mick Formosa to a 1.7-metre victory.

The pair endured a less then ideal start when Night Lights galloped for a few strides at the start of the 1980-metre race which saw her fall back to third.

However she quickly recovered and then charged forward to trail the Gregory-Coney-trained, Jemma Coney-driven leader Dargos Pet by less than two metres with two circuits left to run.

With one 750-metre lap left to run Night Lights had advanced to second position and trailed Dargos Pet by less than a metre. With 400 metres to run that pair were running side by side, with Dargos Pet occupying the inside lane. As the duo approached the final turn Night Lights raced out to a two-metre lead and she maintained that as she stormed down the final straight to her first Australian victory.

Dargos Pet finished fourth, overtaken by the Dean Chapple-trained-and-driven Childers Road which placed second, and the Anthony Missen-trained, Tom Ison-driven Regretable which ran home third.

Hetherington told The Courier that he expected Night Lights to win the race and was pleased with how she was progressing.

“We went over there knowing Night Lights would win,” Hetherington said.

“On face value I was very disappointed with her run, she bobbled the start and lost 10 or 12 metres trying to get going again.
“But she was the only horse to do all the work in the race and finish the race off so that was pleasing.

“Speaking to the driver (Mick Formosa) after the race he said she was just jogging, and the picture on the line shows her ears pricked.

“I’m very happy with her, she’s come a long way in a short space of time and she’s still learning.

“She actually arrived around February 3 but prior to us getting her she’d had three weeks off so we basically had to start from scratch with her.

“She’s not fully wound up fitness-wise yet but we are expecting after her next couple of starts she will be fully wound up and we should start to see the best of her.”

“Hetherington commended the performance of reinsman Formosa who drove four out of the five Hetherington-trained pacers on the day.

“Mick’s won about four Group One races, he knows what he’s doing,” Hetherington said.

“I’ve had a long association with Mick, he’s had some of my horses and won races in Sydney with them, and we’ve been close mates for a long time.

“With Night Lights’ bobbling start I think if it was a lesser driver on, the whole start would have been blown.

“Mick is very experienced and was able to get her back down and he just drove her accordingly from there.”