SHE may not have had a runner in last month's expanded Provincial-Midway Championship Final, but Gosford conditioner Angela Davies is still in the business of preparing winners.
Angela's small stable of about 14 horses, includes winners in recent weeks five-year-old mare Salina Dreaming (by Dream Ahead), four-year-old mare Pleading (Star Witness) and three-year-old Deep Snow, a Deep Field gelding now heading to city-class.
Other talented gallopers about to race include Rocstar Boy (has won two from four starts for Angela), and second start winner Alicia Roma, a Your Song filly which Angela says "shows lots of talent."
Angela has lived a life around horses, sparked when growing up on the back-streets behind the Gosford racecourse and associating with its neighbouring trainers, which began the horse-lover's early-learning of Thoroughbreds.
"I have always had horses somewhere in my life, but I did not have a float, so I would just ride them around where-ever I was living," Angela said.
Now 25-years at her neat Narara establishment, Angela has an open air stable/yards and shelters arrangement with a modern walking-machine to aid with the horses' fitness.
She - along with dedicated long-time partner Peter Brown, truck the horses to the Gosford track five kilometres away for pace-work.
"You need a good headline horse in the stable to keep people interested," Angela said.
That "headline" horse has been Through The Cracks which finished third in the Newcastle Newmarket Handicap-G3 at his most recent start in March.
"Through The Cracks is a people's horse, people know his name; he is the best horse that I've had, and he's won the most prizemoney of any horse that I've had."
Currently spelling Angela is aiming to take the gelding to Melbourne this spring.
"I think the long Flemington straight will suit him ideally, as he gets back and there is plenty of room for him to wind-up."
Bred by the Ferguson family's Bell River Thoroughbreds (now near Dungog), Through The Cracks (by Fastnet Rock stallion Wanted) has won seven races and $600,000.
"I bought him at Scone (Yearling Sale) for $7500 (in 2016), and sold him on the way home for $750 a share."
Through The Cracks gave Angela her most important win when taking the Provincial Championship Final in 2020, a Randwick meet that was conducted empty of people due to Covid-19 restrictions.
"I was standing with Pete and (Wyong trainer) Tracey Bartley, and we were watching on the big screen; Tracy said mine is going okay, and I said mine is going okay, then Tracy said mine is going good, and I said mine is coming, and then I said - well mine has won, and Tracey said - well that is a bugger but mine has run second."
"Then I looked behind at the empty stands, and said oh my God I have just won the Provincial Championship Final, and there was no one there to see it."
"There were no cheering or celebratory drinks, so we got our trophy - which is sensational, loaded the horse up on the float and went home - it was a weird kind of day."
Angela is also involved in the management of a number of her clients' former racing mares which are now in the breeding paddocks.
"I will select a stallion, and particular of the mares that I have trained, I know their conformation, strengths, and weaknesses, I look to up-grade their mares to commercial breeding propositions."
"My first yearling I bred - for Premier Thoroughbreds, was a colt by Deep Field (out of Lindy Lou) and it sold for $650,000 at the Magic Millions (Gold Coast Yearling Sale), and this year out of the same mare, the Shalaa colt made $425,000."
Having a financial interest in Lindy Lou, Angela also has shares in She's A Stalker, the mare's second foal - a Deep Field colt, fetched $260,000 at the 2020 Inglis Classic Yearling Sale.
Angela manages about six broodmares and which are agisted at Kerrie's Tibbey's Goodwood Farm near Murrurundi.
Horses in Angela's stable are constantly in her care, as when spelling they transfer to the paddocks at "Edenvale" (about 15 kilometres away) at Somersby. Among youngsters in her stable include first crop horses by Yarraman Park's Hellbent, and Raheen Stud, Queensland stud success Heroic Valour, and a More Than Ready filly. Angela said wet tracks were a challenge.
