ONCE forgotten, Waiting For You is forgotten no longer.
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Nearly two-and-a-half years after making her racing debut, the seven-year-old mare finally broke through for her maiden win at Swan Hill on Tuesday night.
It was cause for great celebration for her trainer, Marong's Trevor Patching, who admits he had nearly given up on the horse after she contracted a virus following her second race start in early 2019.
Waiting For You would spend close to two years in the paddock on Patching's property before a chance opening to resume her career presented late last year.
The daughter of Shadow Play and Lady Guest made her return to the racetrack on January 5 this year at Swan Hill, where she finished at the rear of an 11-horse field.
Her next three runs produced a trio of placings in a sign of genuine improvement, before a sixth at Charlton and a fifth at Maryborough.
But on Tuesday night, the moment her owner-trainer had craved arrived when Waiting For You, brilliantly driven by Jackie Barker, led from start-to-finish to topple a field of six rivals, which included her stablemate Ulani, who finished fifth.
For Patching, the win was worth the wait.
"She picked up a virus and we put her in the paddock and forgot about her," he explained.
"One day there just happened to be a gap in the stable, so we thought we grab her and give her another go, and this is where we are.
"She was the forgotten horse. It must have been a pretty bad virus, we just got her fixed and put her in the paddock and thought we'd bring her back in eventually, but it never happened until recently."
Patching headed to Swan Hill as confident as a trainer can be in a horse yet to deliver their first win.
"She's worked really well the last week or so, so we gave her a good chance," he said.
"We hoped she would lead and it all went to plan.
"She's gotten better as she has gone along, she was really fat when we brought her back in and it took a long time to get her into racing order.
"But he's slowly been getting there with every start."
Patching gave plenty of credit for the win to Barker, who has started the 2021 season in confident fashion.
The Hamilton-based reinswoman has driven Waiting For You in all but the first two of her nine career starts.
"She's a gem," Patching said.
"She has been driving for us for about 12 months now and we're just so lucky to have her.
"I'm so happy we were able to finally get a win for her, that was our first for her.
"We obviously had the regional racing during COVID and she couldn't come across and drive ours when we had a few winners.
"This is the first winner since regional racing. It feels so good."
The stable's last win came courtesy of Pippa One Two at Bendigo's Lord's Raceway on June 14.
While unable to land a winner before Tuesday night, the Patching stable has rarely been out of the money this season with seven placings from 15 starts.
Only twice have their horses finished further back than fourth place.
Waiting For You and Ulani will both have their next starts at Ouyen this Sunday.
A big night for Bendigo region participants at Swan Hill included training doubles for Kate Hargreaves with Onehnadonebounce and Beau Bronski and Charlton newcomer Shane Sanderson (Sea Hawke and Leigha Miller).
On the driving front, Alex Ashwood (Onehnadonebounce and Beau Bronski), Ryan Sanderson (Sea Hawke and Leigha Miller) and Glenn Douglas (Rockowsroad and Rocknroll Eyes) notched up doubles, Ellen Tormey boosted her season tally to 26 with a win for her father John aboard Our Quick Cash, while Brian Gath chimed in with a victory for New South Wales trainer Fiona Widdup with Murano.
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