Racing: Also-ran downs top liners

Until last night Michelle Wallis had never had a starter in a group one race - now she has trained the mare who beat Lyell Creek.

The popular Waiuku trainer scored the biggest win of her career and one of the greatest group one upsets at Alexandra Park in the last decade when Paris Metro downed Allegro Agitato and Lyell Creek in the $50,000 National Trot.

Just three starts ago Paris Metro was battling in the intermediate grade in Canterbury, destined for a life of mediocrity.

That outlook changed when she first spotted the beach Wallis and her husband Bernie Hackett use to train their team of battlers and castoffs.

Paris Metro's owners had sent her north for that beach training expertise, with one extremely hopeful eye on getting a start in the Interdominions in March.

Wallis and Hackett soon turned the battling six-year-old mare around, so much so she was able to overcome a second line draw last night to down the best trotters in the country.

And she did it the hard way, looping the field wide on the home bend before winning a rugged home straight struggle with Allegro Agitato.

Lyell Creek lost momentum when held up behind struggling leader Rosscoe at the 200m mark, and while he closed gamely the winner had too much of a break on him.

But there were still no excuses for the vanquished as Paris Metro had given them a start and a beating under the free-for-all conditions, whereas she would have been getting the big start had it been a standard handicap race.

The result left Wallis stunned.

"When I saw the draws I thought Lyell Creek would lead and be too good. I thought we might have had a chance of running second or third.

"But to come here and beat Lyell Creek with my first ever group one runner is unbelievable."

The victory now has Wallis looking forward to the Interdominions which begin on March 4, rather than back to a time when she comtemplated ending her career.

For most of the last decade she has struggled with maidens and lower grade trotters which nearly forced her out of the industry.

"I thought about giving up but then I realised I wasn't qualified to do anything else. After all, I dropped out of school at 15."

The victory caps an amazing fortnight for Wallis and Hackett.

They have also been caring for Jack Cade for trainer Mark Purdon and were given plenty of the credit for that horse's turnaround win in last week's Summer Cup.

* Earlier in the night, Mark Purdon repaid his one-time stable foreman Gareth Dixon for years of service by reining his horse, The Midnight Owl, to victory in the $50,000 Cardigan Bay Stakes.

Dixon trains the juvenile but for years worked for Purdon until he moved to Christchurch.

Purdon hopped back in the sulky for Dixon last night and was able to overcome the outside of he front line barrier draw to win the first major two-year-old race of the season.

The win would have provided Purdon with a case of deja vu as 10 years ago he drove The Midnight Owl's half-brother, The Court Owl, to win the 1994 Cardigan Bay Stakes.

The win was Dixon's biggest at Alexandra Park since starting his own training career.

"I was thrilled to get one for Gareth because he did so much work for us over the years and he is a good young trainer," said Purdon.

* Purdon was back in the winner's circle in the next race with another son of Christian Cullen as Born Again Christian continued his inevitable march toward open class.

The four-year-old, co-owned by the estate of the late John Seaton, sat parked to beat Armbro Innocence in a hard run 2200m event, with Maheer Lord a solid third.

With Armbro Innocence and Maheer Lord already showing they can handle themselves in the best company, Born Again Christian should have little trouble making an impression in the open class ranks when he reaches them.