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A long and varied racing career as a jockey and trainer had its finest moment for the widely travelled Stephen Lockhart when his filly Shady Hustle recorded an upset win in Sunday’s $150,000 Brooklyn Park Tasmanian Oaks at Mowbray.
Lockhart, 54, began his racing journey as a teenage apprentice at Kembla Grange in NSW after he arrived in Australia from Scotland with his family when only four.
He rode successfully for seven years, riding many winners for leading trainers Bede Murray and Kevin Robinson, before increasing weight forced him out of the saddle in 1990.He then moved to South Australia, where he worked for 19 years at the famous Lindsay Park property, first under the late Peter Hayes followed by Tony McEvoy and then David Hayes when he returned to Australia from Hong Kong.
It was while he was at Lindsay Park that Lockhart set his sights on his own training career, eventually moving to Tasmania in 2010 to establish his own stable.“I was apprenticed to Howard Wilson at Kembla Grange and rode a lot of winners for Bede Murray and Kevin Robinson - they were great trainers and gave me a lot of opportunities,” Lockhart recalled.
“I learned a lot at Lindsay Park and moving to Tasmania was the best thing I have done - it’s a great place to live and train.”Lockhart has trained 40 winners in Tasmania including six this season with Shady Hustle’s Oaks win at odds of $41 his first black type success.
Lockhart said he was surprised by the filly’s generous odds considering she had won three of her previous four starts.“I always thought she was going to be a good stayer – she’s a good filly,” Lockhart said.
Shady Hustle was first sold as a yearling for $30,000 at the Magic Millions Adelaide Sale where she was acquired by Gold Coast trainers Brian and Daniel Guy.After two trials she was offered through an online auction last June with Lockhart picking her up for only $3300.
She has now returned almost $150,000 prizemoney from her four wins in just six starts.The Oaks gave Turkish jockey Bulent Muhcu his biggest Australian win since he settled in Tasmania more than five years ago, but only after he picked up the ride on Shady Hustle at the last minute after her regular rider Ryan Bishop was injured in a fall in an earlier race.
Shady Hustle had finished fourth at her previous start in the Strutt Stakes (2100m) at Elwick behind Godolphin filly Rock Dove, Our Long Sali and True Magic but clearly had their measure on the Mowbray track where she is unbeaten in three starts.Our Long Sali made a game attempt to lead for the last 1200m before finishing second while Rock Dove failed to finish off over the last 200m, fading to third..
Glass Warrior, the other fancied filly after finishing second against the colts in the Tasmanian Derby, finished fourth.