Jarred Hetherington-trained mare Somethingaboutlexy wins in Tamworth

Narrabri harness racing trainer Jarred Hetherington celebrated his second winner of the year last Friday when Somethingaboutlexy charged home to victory at the Tamworth Paceway.

The five-year-old mare took part in the 1980-metre TAB Carnival of Cups pace in what was the ninth and final race of the night.

She lined up on the outside on the second row from barrier 11 in what was a less than favourable draw, and was driven by Tamworth reinswoman Jemma Coney.

The duo had to settle at the back of the 10-horse field early on in the race and had joined the rest of the pack as they ran past the finish post for the first time, moving into ninth.

There were two laps left to go at that stage, and Somethingabout Lexy’s stablemate Sahara Jewell, which was driven by Elly Chapple in that race, was sitting second outside the Dean

Chapple-trained-and-driven gelding Caymangone.

Somethingaboutlexy was running eighth with one circuit to go, and just after she entered that final lap, Coney took her four wide to try and work her way towards the lead.

It was a risky move that certainly paid off as she darted up alongside Caymangone and Sahara Jewell with rapid pace, and then went past them into first place with 500 metres left to run.

She kicked away with 450 metres left to run and held a 10-metre lead over the Kevin Warby-trained, Michael Formosa-driven A Paradigm Shift, which had charged into second.

Those two pacers were comfortably clear of the rest of the pack when they turned for home and it had become a two-way battle for the victory.

But it was Somethingaboutlexy who charged home the quickest and won the race by almost 10 metres from A Paradigm Shift.

Sahara Jewell had entered the final straight in third place but was forced to settle for fourth after being pipped on the post by Dean Chapple-trained, Jack Chapple-driven pacer Shannons Shadow.

Hetherington was certainly pleased with SomethingaboutLexy’s victory.

“She’s been a pretty good mare to us,” he told The Courier.

“She’s got a lot of health issues. She’s actually got Ross River Fever, so we have to manage her work accordingly.

“She drew the worst barrier you can draw in that race, barrier 11.

“But the way she ran, it wouldn’t have mattered where she drew.

“It was a big run.”

The Narrabri trainer also praised Coney for her winning drive.

“It was a gutsy move by Jemma to pull out four wide on the bottom turn, but ultimately it was one that paid dividends,” Hetherington said.

“She summed the race up well and got the result.

“Ideally she’s not a horse that you do that with. You save her up for one hard run at them.

“But on Friday night, she was able to sustain a long run.”

Somethingaboutlexy has now raced 13 times for the Hetherington stable since December, 2021, and she has delivered five wins in that time.

Two of those were at the Narrabri Showground in April last year and two were in Tamworth in May.

She won back-to-back twice across those first four victories, so she will certainly be one to watch when she lines up in Tamworth this Sunday.