In racing parlance Denice Swain was bred in the purple, and her impressive career as a ground-breaking harness horse trainer lived up to that.
Swain was the first woman to train a New Zealand Cup runner, and in her career lined up two horses in the time-honoured classic. Both finished second, and both were runner-up to champions: Christopher Vance and Il Vicolo.
Swain was born and raised in Southland, the eldest of seven children. Her parents were Ray and Rhona Swain of Lumsden, who between them owned several good horses.
She learnt to ride as a child, breaking in wild horses, and learnt a wealth of horsemanship lessons from her parents which were later to stand her in good stead.
Swain moved to Australia with her partner in the 1970s and lived in Sydney for a dozen years before returning to Invercargill, where she set up as a probationary licence holder at a time when women trainers were still something of a novelty.
Swain mixed horse breaking and other work for racing stables, but was persuaded to become a trainer in her own right.
Swain’s first winner came in Dunedin, at Forbury Park, on April 19 1986, when Sweet Song took out R2, the Hey Pace. The win was not unexpected — the horse was 4-2 in the betting and paid $6.65 for the win — but it was made all the more satisfying by the fact that Swain’s brother Robin — a successful trainer and driver in his own right — was in the sulky.
Swain part-owned Sweet Song, and she retained a share in most of the small team which she trained, something which occasionally proved to be lucrative if a Swain prodigy went on to race successfully in the North Island or Australia.
While Invercargill got Swain her start, it was a shift to Ashburton — the club had head-hunted her to shift north — which established Swain as a pre-eminent horsewoman on a national level.
She was the first trainer to move into the club’s then-new stabling complex and chalked up her first winner from her new premises in December 1988, Congo Magic driven by Ricky May.
Swain hit the big time in 1991 thanks to the exploits of Clancy, a horse which was transferred to her stables in May of that year having shown disappointing form. It transpired that the eight-race winner had an infection, and once Swain got on top of that the Clancy of old was back.
Two victories at Addington were followed by a third placing at Ashburton behind star pacers Blossom Lady and Inky Lord. Next start Clancy won the Hannon Memorial at Oamaru in track record time and qualified for the New Zealand Cup.
Both horse and trainer took the attention of being a favoured runner in the cup in their stride and the horse acquitted itself with honour, finishing a close up second to Christopher Vance. The Purdon-trained Christopher Vance was a champion and might have beaten Clancy on his merits, but connections were always left to wonder what might have been had the horse been 100% sound on cup day.
If nothing else, Clancy’s group 1 placing was a confidence booster to Swain that she knew what she was doing when it came to training a good horse, and the $162,850 Clancy won in claiming four wins under Swain’s guidance came in more than a little handy for a small stable as well.
"I was pretty quiet and wouldn’t say too much. I had to harden up or wouldn’t have made it. I learned to stick up for myself," she said.
Swain was back on Cup Day four years later but was well out of the limelight as Just Royce was all but the outsider in the cup field after some indifferent form.
"Hard to fancy’;’ the ODT formline sniffed, and that assessment seemed spot on as Just Royce — steered by Swain’s regular driver John Hay — spent most of the race buried three deep on the pegs.
When he finally got into the clear the all-but outsider gave Il Vicolo (the race favourite, who would win the cup the following year as well) an almighty fright — as well as many punters no doubt.
Second was Just Royce’s lot, beaten a neck, and paying an enormous $19.95 on the place tote.
"He could have won it, he was late getting out and there was only a neck or a head in it," Hay told Harness Racing New Zealand.
"She was a terrific trainer, probably a great trainer, she didn't get recognised enough. She'll tell me they hadn't gone to a trial and they might be a run short and they'd win by two or three lengths.
"They always looked immaculate, unbelievable how good they looked."
Off the track Swain had three children, Darrell, Tama, and Karla (deceased), and eventually became a grandmother, then a great grandmother.
Swain did not get back to the big dance, but she was seldom short of a good horse, including Group 2, Group 3 and listed winners.
Other notable runners in her gold and white silks were Pickpocket, The Orator, Milton Vance, Crackem, Chiavelli and the stakes-winning filly Vera's Dream.
In 1993 the Denice Swain part-owned Top Evander, which she had prepared early in its career before it headed north to the Purdon barn, won the Victoria Trotters Derby.
One day in 1995 Swain won feature races at both Addington and Invercargill, her most successful day on a race track.
All up Denice Swain trained 124 winners between 1986 and 2010. She credited her success to having a small stable: each animal got the trainer’s individual attention, rather than being part of the equine crowd.
Her last winner, fittingly was at Ascot Park: Don’t Be Cruel.
Hay remembered Swain as a real professional and a great horsewoman.
"We had a lot of ups and downs," he said.
"If you didn't do things right you soon heard from her. A spade was a spade."
Her nephew Aaron Swain, who now races horses in his aunt’s colours, posted on social media that he could only hope to accomplish half of what she had in the racing game.
"Racing aside, she had a heart of gold and a very loving person. Always had time or made time to talk to you. Always sharing her opinion was one thing she was great at."
Denice Swain died on September 24 in Invercargill aged 75.
Mike Houlahan, HRNZ and ODT files.
