Grant Milne lived up to his pedigree when producing his first winner as a trainer at Oamaru on Sunday.
Milne is a blueblood in harness racing terms given both of his grandfathers have been leading Southland trainers, while his father and uncles have produced hundreds of winners between them.
Milne is the son of Alex Milne and brother of Nigel Milne, the grandson of the late Alex Milne sen and the late Les Norman, as well as being the nephew of Keith and Brian Norman.
Cruising Fontana helped the rookie trainer begin to add to his family’s impressive legacy when breaking through for a deserved maiden win for driver Blair Orange.
Milne went into partnership with his father at the beginning of this year and Sunday’s victory was their first together.
The junior training partner bred and races Cruising Fontana which made his first victory nearly perfect.
There was just one aspect Milne missed out on. He was not able to be on track or watch his horse win live.
Milne previously worked in both touch and rugby league development and still volunteers as a coach.
So rather than being tuned into his horse’s race from afar, his eyes were firmly on the road.
"It’s pretty special, it is the dream result, really," Milne said.
"Well, the dream would have been to be there, but I was driving a van-load of kids home from a tournament in Christchurch.
"But it is still special. I have been hoping we could kick things off with this horse because I bred and own him."
Milne works in the harness racing industry full-time and he has plenty more horses he can tick off more milestones with in the future.
"It is nice working with Dad and I love working on the farm."
"When I was working in Dunedin I was breeding horses and I have got a heap of them to come through.
"I have a couple of 3-year-old fillies coming up to the workouts soon and a nice 2-year-old by Captain Crunch coming through."
Having worked alongside all of his relatives at some point, Milne has no shortage of knowledge to call on as he builds his training career.
And along the way he has made some great memories.
"One of Grandad Milne’s last good horses was Camsplace Alec. He raced in the New Zealand Derby and a few good races and I remember going up with him to Addington.
"I would pop around and help him with trackwork.
"There are a lot of great stories of Grandad Les [Norman] too.
"And when I have worked with Brian [Norman] there has always been a lot of banter."
Milne credits Cruising Fontana’s win to careful placement, as well as the horse’s continued progression.
"He showed us a bit breaking him in and even as a 2-year-old, but he is 5 now.
"He has just taken a bit of time.
"It has taken careful study of the programmes to get him into the right races, either low-rated or on the grass where the big bangers won’t go.
"It is nice reward for a wee battler.
"He is a great horse to have around we use him to educate the younger ones, he will just cruise along."
Milne will continue to place Cruising Fontana carefully and has plans to head to Ascot Park early next month with the pacer.
