Kyneton trainer Danielle Chapman is pictured with Lonagan Milham at Hanging Rock races on Australia Day.
Chapman’s four-year-old mare Snappy Li’l Thing, a $800 bargain buy, led throughout to win the Lonagan Milham Maiden Plate by over four lengths.
Ridden by Michael Poy, Smart Li’l Thing ($8.50) was having her sixth start.
“She didn’t handle the soft track at Camperdown the previous run and her natural speed paid off today,” Chapman said.
Every Australia Day the local racing club invites Milham back to present the trophy for the race named in his honour.
On Australia Day 21 years ago Milham was a young rider who suffered a near fatal fall at Hanging Rock; he was in a coma for six months.
Never to ride again, he has been helped by the National Jockeys Association and many in the racing industry on the road to recovery.
By Bel Esprit, Snappy Li’l Thing is another of the ‘Snappy’ gallopers raced by the Chapman family from their property at North Woodend.
