A STIRRING and emotion-laced Wedderburn Trotters Cup victory brought a mixture of sadness, but plenty of joy for harness racing's McNaulty family on Sunday.
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The spirit of harness racing icon Frank Evans was riding with Chissy, who claimed the $14,500 feature in a thrilling blanket finish, ahead of his stable-mate Travel Bug and the Brent Lilley-trained Gil Favor, who was third.
Driven to victory by Ryan Sanderson, the Charlton youngster was first past the post in Evans' old black and white stripe racing colours.
The veteran trainer - a great mentor to winning trainer Jason McNaulty and his brother Shaun throughout their harness racing careers - died during the week, aged 91.
Evans was still licensed at the time of his death, based in Gray Street, St Arnaud, about 20 minutes away from the McNaulty family property at Kooreh, from where the older of the McNaulty brothers, 37-year-old Jason trains.
In a fitting tribute, McNaulty asked and was given the family's blessing to use the colours in Sunday's race.
He was ultimately rapt to do Evans, the family and the silks proud by prevailing in a nail-biter, with five horses spread across the tight Wedderburn track and all a genuine winning hope with 50m to travel.
McNaulty, who bred the seven-year-old Danny Bouchea gelding and owns him in partnership with Shaun and their dad Noel, could not have been happier to see Chissy emerge victoriously.
"When I first got my trainer's licence, I had a couple of horses in at his stable's (at St Arnaud) for a while, so he was pretty influential on me early on and Shaun also," he said.
"The funeral was on Friday and I asked a few of the family if we could do it and they were more than happy.
"The reason I put them on Chissy and not Travel Bug was that Shaun, dad and I all own him, whereas the other one I just lease."
In addition to the link to Evans, there was plenty more sentiment attached to the McNaulty's much-loved trotter and Sunday's win.
Chissy is named after Alan Chisholm, a former life member at the Wedderburn Harness Racing Club, and a huge influence on Noel in his younger days.
"Dad always wanted to name a horse after Chissy and he's also Nick Youngson's grandfather and the horse is by (his four-time Group 1 winner) Danny Bouchea," McNaulty said.
"So there's a good connection there too.
"It was a pretty special win to be honest and for a lot of different reasons."
It was back-to-back success in the Wedderburn Trotters Cup for McNaulty, who won the race in 2021 with Travel Bug.
The six-year-old gelding was as gallant as possible in finishing second off his mark of 30m, conceding 20m to his stable-mate.
Asked countless times during the week, which of his two runners was the better chance, McNaulty said he 'honestly could not separate the two'.
Harder pressed, he might just have given Travel Bug 'the slightest of edges'.
As it turned out, it was a relatively astute assessment with only a head separating the two horses in quinellaing the race.
"There really wasn't much between them, so I couldn't say with any real certainty which one might win it," he said.
"On reflection, I might have thought the other horse (Travel Bug) was probably a better shot, but Chissy is going as good as he has ever gone.
"I bred him and he has broken down a few times. I had him at David Van Ryn's there for a while and he got out of it, and then my brother was training him for a while and he broke down again.
"In the end I thought I'll have a go and for some reason he just seems to be standing up."
It was a pretty special win to be honest and for a lot of different reasons.
- Jason McNaulty
Chissy notched up his 11th win in 53 starts, his more than handy record boosted by 16 placings for earnings of $83,708.
Four of those wins and three placings have come with 18-year-old Sanderson in the sulky - an amazing strike rate given he has driven the horse only nine times.
McNaulty praised the emerging youngster's poise and application and his strong affinity with Chissy.
"I have kind of been using Ryan as my second driver and he really gets along with this horse well," he said.
"There's a great rapport there and I can't really say why, but things have clicked.
"He's doing a great job."
OTHER NEWS: Ryan Sanderson keeps the wins flowing
McNaulty has both horses nominated for the Great Southern Star heats on February 4, but concedes earning a crack at the $300,000 Group 1 final would be a long shot.
Albeit he is hopeful of being a part of the action on the night.
"I'm not keen to pursue the (country) cups every week - it's a long trip and they can take a toll," he said.
"But maybe a cup race every two or three weeks mightn't be too tough on him," he said.
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