FOLLOWING another career-best 59-wins in the past 12 months, Kate Hargreaves plans to continue raising the bar.
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The young Shelbourne trainer publicly set herself a goal of 40 wins during the 2019-20 harness racing season (after 24 the previous year); she and training partner Alex Ashwood eclipsed that target during May.
That tally will only grow with confirmation from Harness Racing Australia (HRA) this week advising the racing year will be permanently changed to a calendar year from January 1, 2021, effectively adding four months to the current season.
But for Hargreaves, the 12-month milestone from September 1, 2019, to August 31, 2020, serves as an important one and something definitely worth savouring.
"It's definitely exceeded my expectations; we did want 40 winners, to get 59, I'm really proud," she said.
In a season flush with highlights for K and A Racing, Hargreaves nominated three performances as the standouts.
They were the brilliant debut win of the two-year-old filly Sheshell Rock at Bendigo in February, a brave second by Dyslexic in the $30,000 Tasmania Derby Final in March, and Beat City's third placing in the final of the $30,000 Group 3 South Australian Derby in February.
"Those derby results were pretty exciting, so hopefully we get a few more horses in those sorts of races next season," she said.
"Looking ahead, I'd love to get 60 (winners) in the next 12 months. That would be nice.
"If I'm going to dream big, 80 would be better."
A return of 59 winners and 66 placings has Hargreaves placed seventh on the state trainers' premiership list.
Of those above her, only David Miles (65 winners from 281 runners) has had a fewer number of starters than Hargreaves, who had 307.
"That was a huge thrill too, seeing my name up there among the best trainers - it doesn't seem real sometimes," she said.
Hargreaves was able to bring down the curtain on what would have been the usual ending to the racing season by notching one last winner at Maryborough on Monday afternoon with the unpredictable Aldebaran Showdown.
The four-year-old Skyvalley gelding has been with the Hargreaves-Ashwood team for at least three years but had previously failed to register a win in seven starts
"Alex and I bought him from the sales about three or four years ago and we've always known he's had the ability and we've always really liked him," Hargreaves said.
"He's just done things wrong all the time; he's galloped nearly every start.
"We were going to sell him; he was getting a bit stressful and giving us a few headaches, but in these last few weeks he's really started to put it together at home.
"We made a few gear changes and things, but to see him (on Monday) trot as well as he did and trot all the way and win was just unbelievable."
The stable's momentum continued at Shepparton on Tuesday night with Constantina (Josh Duggan) and Roquefort Cheese (Jordan Leedham) quinellaing the three-year-old pace.
It was a third win in six starts for Constantina since joining the stable in June.
Attention now turns to Ballarat tonight (Wednesday) with Wisp Of Smoke and Shepparton on Saturday night with Streitkid and Well Defined.
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