Daniel Reardon was just as thrilled for part-owner Bridget Skelton when he trained Lyndal Tact to win at Addington yesterday with his his first horse to the races.
"It was just tremendous to bring some joy to Bridget as she has cancer and has not got long to live," Reardon said.
Reardon was licensed this month and he took over the training of the 5yr-old mare from Phil Anderson, who had given the mare five starts last season without reward.
Reardon (34), a loader at Christchurch airport, drove two winners as a junior driver in the late 1990s. He trains Lyndal Tact from the Lavros Lodge complex of Kypros Kotzikas at Yaldhurst.
He bought Lyndal Tact as a 3yr-old from former Lavros Lodge trainer Robert Cameron, the breeder.
Dominic Anngow, a friend of Reardon, is also in the ownership of the Tinted Cloud-Bess Proof mare.
Lyndal Tact is the second foal of Bess Proof, an unraced Holmes Hanover mare from Five Proof, by Nero's B B from Five Score, a half-sister by Hundred Proof to Tactile and Deft. Tactile won the New Zealand, Great Northern, New South Wales, South Australia and Victoria Derbies in the 1959-60 season, Deft won 10 races and left Noodlum and Olga Korbut.
Noodlum won 28 races including 15 in a row in the early 1970s.
Olga Korbut was a top juvenile pacer.
Cameron drove Tactile to win an Interdominion heat at Forbury Park in 1965 when he was employed by Wyndham trainer Derek Dynes, whose cousin, Jim, bred and raced Tactile.
• Numberone Amenophis, who raced in New Zealand as Amenophis, won first up at Menangle yesterday in 1.54.9 for the mile. He was among seven New Zealand-bred winners on the eight-race card.
Who's Escaped, part-owned by Ray Fidow, of Dunedin, won in 1.55.5. It was her second win in four starts since she joined the stable of Luke McCarthy.
