“I just grabbed her, hugged her. I couldn’t say or do much else, you know? I’m glad there were no interviews to give,” Coffey said, the emotion still evident in his voice 48 hours later.
“She’s a great kid, a really good horsewoman. She was 10 or 11 days in a coma following the fall, it was just the worst. I don’t reckon I slept the whole time.
“Her mum was on course Saturday and came running up after she’d won. I didn’t even know she was there until then.” The win was also special for the ownership group, with 17 of the 21 owners involved in Donald and District Racing Club.
“After her accident one of our committee members went about collecting donations to help Shanae through her recovery,” club chairman Graeme Leishman said.
“We were able to raise a bit of money for her, so it was really nice to be involved in her first winner.”
Coffey explained that Leishman might have been understating their contribution.
“They were one of the biggest contributors to Shanae’s rehab, the guys at Donald are just terrific,” he said.
“It was a nice touch that a handful of the Donald fraternity were trackside to boot home their winner – it was clear it meant much more than just prizemoney to them.”
In the day’s other results, local trainer Dane Smith broke a six-month drought when his four-year-old mare, Magnolia Rose, $3.50, held on for a tough win in the final event on the card.
From the 1650-metre starting point, jockey Jarrod Fry found a position behind the leader and race favourite Murganella, $3.20, trained by Symon Wilde, and moved up to strike at the home turn.
The crowd cheered as Magnolia Rose took over and held off a fast-finishing $71 Black Monsoon to record a narrow victory.
It was the second local win of the day after the Mark Pegus-trained Gottaluvjimmy, $4, was given a gun ride by Linda Meech to score by two-and-a-half lengths in race five.
Meech never went around a horse over the 1100-metre journey, taking all the shortcuts and recording a soft win aboard the five-year-old gelding. It was the second win from eight career starts for the son of Jimmy Creed, which has always shown the ability to race in a higher grade.
Credit must go to the track staff and committee of Stawell Racing Club for the recent improvements they have made to the landscape and facilities at their venue. The oncourse experience for racegoers was outstanding and track staff had the surface looking and racing superbly.
We can look forward to another great race day at the foot of the Grampians on Friday, January 7.
