Stawell trainer Dane Smith will give his family some excitement when their nine-year-old gelding runs in the 2017 Seppelt Salinger Great Western Cup.
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Something To Share has turned his career around in the country and has quickly became a stable favourite for the young Smith family.
“He is a bit of a stable favourite around the place,” Smith said.
“He has a fair bit of character and he is pretty good to deal with. He is quite big in terms of size they don’t come much bigger, but he has a beautiful nature.”
Something To Share made his way to Stawell six months ago after he gave former trainer Darren Weir a hard time in the barriers.
“He was a bad barrier horse and that is how we ended up with him,” Smith said.
“He was barred from the barriers and we had to get him used to being in the barriers again. That was our first obstacle we had to overcome and getting him to race to his potential is our second obstacle.”
Smith said the gelding was now terrific in the gates.
Along with his issues in the barriers Something To Share has had a continuing issue with his feet.
“He has had on going feet issues,” Smith said.
“We have taken the heart bar shoes off him and we think this is the best he has been going since he came to our stables.”
John Allen will take the ride onboard Something To Share in the feature race on Sunday.
“John Allen rode the horse at Darren’s and gets along with the horse pretty well,” Smith said.
“We thought we would go back to what has worked well in the past, that’s why we went with Johnny.”
Smith and his family work hard to manage their stables which currently has 15 horses in work.
Smith’s father-in-law Bruce Blenheim is one of the biggest helpers around the stables.
“He helps out with the horses, he helps look after the kids and we honestly couldn't do it without him,” Smith said.
“We have always done a lot of the work ourselves, but when it is a whole family thing these moments are even more special.”
Since coming to Stawell Something To Share has run a strong second in Ararat and had starts at both Werribee and Mooney Valley.
“We would like to think he has potential in town, but he hasn't quite stood up the couple of times we have taken him to town,” Smith said.
“We will start with the Great Western Cup first then maybe a Colac Cup or something similar he will stay on the country cup circuit though.”
Smith will also have Our Dexter, Are The Bungs In and Al Monta racing on the day.