The start of the Port Lincoln racing season this Sunday will also see a new beginning for two local trainers, with mother-daughter duo Julie Branford and Hayley Dorward kicking off an official partnership.
The pair, who are based at Louth Bay approximately 30 minutes from Port Lincoln, have been working together for a number of years but have now made the partnership official.
It means Dorward is the third generation of the family to train thoroughbreds, with Branford originally taking over her father’s training licence when he passed away in 1992.
“I think Dad and I had our first winner in ’85. He passed away in ’92 and I took it on from then,” Branford said
“We started off as a show jumping family. Then Dad had a horse in Port Lincoln that wasn’t handling very well so I said ‘let me have it out here’. We worked together from then.”
Since taking over the stable, Branford has trained just over 100 winners across the Eyre Peninsula region and in recent years Dorward has done a lot of the stable riding.
“I’ve probably been helping out since I was about 17, so the last 20 years or so. The last six or seven years it’s been a bit more serious,” Dorward said.
“Every time I look at our racing colours I think of Pa and about the generations those colours have been through. To carry on a tradition like that, through Pa and then Mum and now me, makes me proud.”
The pair have four runners in Sunday’s Opening Season Meet including Rugby’s Reward, Artful Ambition, Teleportation and Paulo Pace, and their sights are firmly set on claiming the Port Lincoln Cup at the end of the season.
“Dad’s greatest ambition was to win a Port Lincoln Cup, unfortunately he didn’t make it so I decided that’s what my ambition was too,” Dorwood said.
“I’ve won a few cups but the best cup was last year with Paulo Pace, he won the Prelude. I thought that was pretty good, that’s the first step, the next step is the Port Lincoln (Cup) I hope.
“I love a lot about racing. I love working a horse out, what problems it’s got, trying to overcome those problems, and there’s no greater feeling than seeing that horse come past the post first.”
Fields for Sunday’s Opening Season Meet at Port Lincoln can be viewed here.