aaron_bain | Aaron Bain News 60778 Race Review

Aaron Bain Racing this week has announced that champion jockey Barend Vorster has joined our team as Racing Manager.

Aaron Bain, principal of ABR, said Vorster’s decision to join ABR was a massive boost to the business.

“Barend is a good friend of Wayne Mitchell, the owner of Angaston Park, and since Ned and I have begun training at the venue, he has been coming along to watch trackwork and observe day-to-day running of the business,” Bain said.

“It was obvious to me that we needed to get him on board with his incredible knowledge of the industry.

“When he was riding, ABR used Barend as often as we could, and his feedback from riding trackwork and in races was outstanding.

“Unfortunately his riding career has been halted, and we have been able to grab him to become our Racing Manager.”

Vorster started with ABR on Monday, January 6 and he and Bain flew to the Gold Coast to attend the Magic Millions Sales.

There are no plans to purchase a yearling, but rather to allow ABR to get the feel of the sales and develop contacts with a view to being active next year.

If ABR is to continue growing, we need to be seen at major racing events such as the Magic Millions sales.

The full story of Barend Vorster’s appointment will appear as a story on the ABR website.

ABR had a very successful season with our harness racing two-year-olds in 2024 and on Sunday, we were able to trial eight of the crop for 2025.

There were two lots of two-year-old trials at Gawler on Sunday, and ABR had all eight horses taking part.

Heat one went to OPEN THE GATES driven by Bernadette Page coming home a last half in 60.8 seconds.

ROCKNMASEY was second, two metres astern, with POPPY LANE a similar margin away third.

Page also drove DEGARMEA TALE which took out the second heat with a last half in 61.4 seconds.

NOTGUILTY was second beaten a metre with LETSSTARTINHEAVEN a head away third.

ABR was very happy with the efforts of the two-year-olds which will continue their education and preparation at our Gawler stables before heading across to Emma Stewart and Clayton Tonkin.

 On Wednesday, ABR heads to Oakbank with just the one runner – DONTDOUBTLAYLA.

The four-year-old mare will be debuting for ABR in race three, the Kloses Foodland Class One Handicap (1050m) at2.50pm SA time.

Formerly with Ciaron Maher, DONTDOUBTLAYLA has drawn barrier six in a field of nine and will be ridden by apprentice Isaac Sit who will claim 4kg off her weight of 60kg.

A maiden winner on the Kensington track in Sydney in January last year, the mare has had two trials to prepare her for a return to racing.

Importantly, DONTDOUBTLAYLA won a trial over 1050m at Oakbank on December 24 and handled the track beautifully.

She has worked well since and we believe she should be very competitive.  

 

WEEKEND STAR

It might not have been on the weekend, but there is no doubting HIGH GARDEN was again ABR’s star to begin 2025.

At Murray Bridge on New Year’s day, HIGH GARDEN successfully made the step up from maiden company to Benchmark 56.

Make no mistake, it is not easy to win a maiden then score in benchmark grade at you next start, just look the figures.

ABR has a good opinion of HIGH GARDEN, and the mare justified our faith with a virtual last-stride win in the Carlton Draught Benchmark Handicap (1400m) at Murray Bridge.

She was given a great ride by apprentice Taylor Johnstone and finished strongly to score a photo finish win.

HIGH GARDEN is owned by the Pipeliner Bloodstock company of Wayne Mitchell, the owner of Angaston Park.

Mitchell has always believed the mare is capable of getting out over a middle distance and ABR concurs.

Her wins at Balaklava and Murray Bridge have both been over 1400 metres but each time she has run strongly through the line indicating she can stretch out over more ground.