House on the money again at Manawatu

[Wandering Eyes]

By Brigette Solomon  

No stable is winning races like Michael House is right now.

On Tuesday at Manawatu his runners won five of the night’s seven races – it’s the third time this year that he’s had five wins at the same meeting. The previous five-fors were also at Manawatu on February 11 and February 13.

Four of the five winners were driven by son Wilson House, who is second in the drivers’ premiership with 43 wins this year, 10 shy of seven time champion Blair Orange.  

“It was a really good day, but a lot of credit has to go to the team that work for us,” said Michael House, “we have a bunch of really good horse people that give the horses such good consistent care prior to and after racing.”

“I’m really proud of my two boys as well, Wilson is doing well with his driving and my youngest son George has taken on the role of travelling manager for me and he’s doing a great job and is really finding his feet and developing into the role.”

The stable’s five winners included two horses having their first look at Manawatu with Koko Kaboom taking out the Creative Catering Handicap Trot despite losing considerable ground when galloping on the first bend. Patiently driven by House, the gelding settled with the back markers and caught the leading pack to land the one out one back position. Koko Kaboom was shuffled back one spot when stable mate Tinkerbelle rounded the field to take the parked position, but Koko Kaboom was tough when House made his move with 400 metres left to run, reeling in the field to win by a length.

“It was touch and go if we sent Koko Kaboom up as I didn’t think he’d handle the track and he’s not very tractable and there’s still a few things to iron out yet,” said House “he definitely raced better than he’s been working but credit to Wilson who got him round in his two starts prior after we had changed his shoeing and got him a bit more organised.”

“Matai Harry was the other having his first look at Manawatu and the genuine pace in the race turned it into a bit of a staying contest which played right into his hands.”

Matai Harry, also driven by House, was content to let the gelding settle at the rear of the field before setting off three wide with 700 metres to run. House allowed the gelding to steadily improve, levelling with the leader Jahi 400 metres from home, and from there Matai Harry edged in front to take out the Happy 45th Birthday Greg Olsen Mobile Pace.

House also went on to win on Doctor Tim (R5) and Matai Lizzie(R7), while Sailesh Abernethy was the successful driver of Stickifingers (R4) for the House Stable.

House now has 56 wins for the season to date. He leads the drivers’ premiership by 32 from nearest rivals Steve and Amanda Telfer. 

“Chasing the premiership is definitely not one of our goals but it’s been great to see the endeavour of targeting the summer and autumn racing circuits up here pay off” said House, “it was something I had envisioned back in November and after securing Harrison Orange as a concession junior driver for the team it was all systems go.”

“There will be a few of the big stables that will have a lot of horses coming out shortly and I’m happy to leave it to them to target premierships, we’ll just be focussing day to day on the stable.”

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