Lindsay Castleton’s maiden victory at Oamaru yesterday followed up on good recent form from One Over Da Moon, giving Williams something to smile about after his fall from scaffolding two weeks ago.
"He tried to save himself, but the drainpipe he held on to broke, so he fell headfirst and landed on his head and cracked a vertebra in his neck," wife Heather Williams said yesterday.
The couple’s son, Brad, and his wife were with Lex Williams yesterday, giving Heather a chance to pop half-an-hour down the road to Oamaru Racecourse.
The trip was well worth it, too, as the Brent White-trained 5yr-old took over with a lap to go and bolted away to win by 6 lengths, with the earplugs still firmly lodged in the ears.
Lindsay Castleton, named after Lex’s cousin, is another winner out of Anna Castleton for the family.
"That mare has done well for us," Heather Williams said.
"We’ve got [3yr-old] Troy Castleton which Brent has got as well, then we’ve got a lovely colt out of Anna Castleton by One Over Da Moon."
Lindsay Castleton still looked green during the running, and considering driver Stephen McNally never had to activate the earplugs, the c1 grade should hold few fears.
"He’s got plenty more to come — he just had to get strong and we just had to wait for him."
Lex Williams returned home late last week after 11 days in Dunedin Hospital, where he had an operation to put a screw in his neck, so he had a long recovery ahead of him, Heather Williams said.
● Leeston trainer Hayden Galway has reignited his family’s link with racing after I’m A Dreamer provided him with his first training victory at just his fifth attempt.
Galway (28) had been working for his second cousin, Jamie Gameson, for two years before moving on earlier this year.
Galway has an ancestral interest in harness racing through his maternal grandfather, Ray Paget, and Jock Docherty, a great-grandfather on his father’s side.
"But I never really had much to do with the horses — I just followed them," he said.
The two years at Gameson’s Burnham stables changed that. though.
"I got a start through there and once you’ve got the bug, you can’t get rid of it, can you?
"At the moment, I have a couple more jobs lined up, so it’s a good time to get a win between jobs."
● Galway is at one end of the experience scale in harness racing, in stark contrast to leading driver Blair Orange and Oamaru trainer Phil Williamson.
They have more than 1600 wins between them, and combined for victory for the first time in 10 years with The Silver Fox yesterday.
Orange’s last win behind a Williamson-trained runner was with Lets Get Serious in the 4yr-old trotters championship at Addington in April 2006.
● Westwood Beach trainer Graeme Anderson took two pacers to Oamaru and both returned as winners.
Hopes and Dreams bettered her rivals in the junior drivers’ event before Arden’s Concord dealt to his rivals in the c2-c4 mobile pace.
Anderson geared the horses up early and got driver Rory McIlwrick to warm them up more than half an hour before their races.
"It’s a thing that I learned in Australia and America, and it keeps me out of the bar," Anderson quipped.
