Maria Perriton Harness Racing
WELCOME
Hi, I’m Maria Perriton and I train a small team of horses at the Franklin Park Training Center in Pukekohe, Auckland. My team consists of Mares I have bred or acquired for breeding when finished racing. I retain most of the fillies I breed and race them myself before they retire to the broodmare paddock. I sell the colts as yearlings, and recently colts I’ve sold in Charlie P and Randel Huston P, have been in winning form for their new owners 🙂
Dolly P and Own The Moment (Mo) are back racing for the summer. Mo has shown some improvement this time in, so here’s hoping she can get her hoof in the till this prep. Dolly has been getting the standing start much better of late, and is long over due for her maiden win. We seem to be on top of her tying up issues at the moment, so with her manners much improved she has been racing more consistently with a couple of 4th placings lately.
Lisa Marie P’s filly by En Solitaire is growing well, and has had a little bit of halter training, and has taken it all in her stride. Being a late foal born mid December, she has a few more weeks to go until weaning, but good to start on the halter training before she’s weaned 🙂
Own The Moment had her first start at Alexandra Park on Friday night 20th January 2023. It was a massive milestone for her, as she is a rescue from a much worse fate because of her behavior issues in the cart.
She was previously given up on as a 2yo because she refused to go around the track and would buck and put the boot in, so her previous owners decided to finish with her. I took her on as a 5yo after 3 years in the paddock, and she pretty much looked like a broodmare, big and fat. She had a lovely nature on the ground so I decided to try and save her and give her a second chance.
I took her slowly and gained her trust. I practice energy healing and communication, and used those skills to help me figure her out. The biggest thing that kept coming up in her readings was the crupper was the problem. So, with heart in mouth, I proceeded to try her with no crupper on, and from day one with no crupper, she has been good as gold in the cart. Every time I tried to put the crupper back on, she would misbehave and want to pull up in the running, and tuck her bum down to buck. Crupper off again, and no trouble, happy to do her work.
The energy healing side of it, I can feel heat around her dock when I put my hands there, so perhaps she injured her tail as a youngster and the crupper aggravates the area, or it’s a memory thing. Physically to touch, her tail appears fine, I can’t find anything wrong with it, doesn’t seem broken or crooked, it appears she is just very sensitive to anything touching the underside of her tail.
Fast forward to Friday night, her first start. Well, back to her old ways in the preliminary, I thought we weren’t even going to make it to the start, with her threatening to buck on several occasions, then it dawned on me, the problem was likely the number, being stiff PVC and covering a large area of her back, I hadn’t thought to desensitize her of this prior to race day . Luckily she got over it after a couple of laps, and as a precaution I took over overcheck up a couple of holes, and pulled her tail tie as tight as I could so she couldn’t get her bum down to buck.
She raced very green, a bit slow away, panicked a little and pulled with the horses around her. She didn’t know how to quicken when the speed went on at the 400m and finished at the back of the field, but trotted all the way, and was the last to pull up down the back strait. She didn’t know the race was over bless her, and wanted to go another lap, so I was happy with her first start. 🙂
Lisa Marie P is a mum again, she gave birth to a beautiful filly on the 12 December 2022. I am hoping to name the filly Edith P, after French Singer Edith Piaf who’s career and fame gained momentum during the German occupation of France in World War II, which I feel is fitting since the Sire is French stallion En Solitaire
Dolly P back from a spell ran a nice 2nd placing at Alexandra Park on Thursday night 24th November.
I have been battling muscle issues with her forever, with bad tying up episodes, which have been keeping her away from racing, and from being competitive when she was racing. It’s been a huge learning curve for me, trial and error, however diet really is the key for her, and I may just have found the right feeding regime to keep the muscle issues at bay. Time will tell, fingers crossed.
For anyone who’s interested, I have been doing research on genetic muscle diseases in horses, and found this interesting article on research done on Standarbreds.
Dolly P finally got her act together and put her best hoof forward on Friday night at Alexandra Park trotting perfectly for a much improved 2nd placing. It was her first run back after a spell, and her first start as a 5yo.
Trotters sure are testing on the patience, but I knew the ability was there, it was just a matter of time, and maturity, that she would finally show her true self.
She has been a head scratcher but now she is on a strict grain free oil and copra based diet, she has turned the corner and should keep on improving from here on in.
There are ownership opportunities available to race Dolly P and her stable mates with Maria. Find out more here.
Gwyneth P backed up her left handed win at the workouts last week with a nice win again going in the opposite direction. Although they were just pacers learners heats, it’s the way she has finished on strongly at the end and taken everything in her stride, both left and right handed, that is the most pleasing. In particular, yesterdays workout right handed, the ear plugs where pulled for the first time in her life and she reeled off a last quarter in 27.8 under a hold, pacing her last half in 60 flat. It was pleasing that she has shown some speed, the fastest she had gone in training prior was 29 secs.
The plan now is to step up her training to get more stamina into her, and line up in maiden heats at the workouts for the next couple of weeks. We don’t expect her to keep winning when she steps up to the maiden grade next week as she will have more seasoned rivals to compete against. She will need a couple of harder runs at the workouts / trials to get her race ready, and all going well she will have her first start towards the end of April.
Dolly P also had a run at the workouts yesterday. Even though she is a trotter, Maria lined her up with the maiden pacers to get some practice behind the mobile. Dolly trotted beautifully and didn’t put a foot wrong. Maria decided to ease her out of the race at the 400m as she’d trotted her middle mile in around 2:01, and with the pacers sprinting a bit quicker than she is capable of, didn’t want to flatten her. Her recovery heart rate was great after the run so she will be nominated for Alexandra Park next Friday in the Maiden Mobile trot.
Maria is keen to get more people involved in racing the horses with her, so do get in touch if you are interested in joining the ownership group. With two horses ready to race, all the hard work is done, it’s time to have some fun. Budgets no matter how big or small can be accommodated so don’t be shy, get involved, lets have some fun at the races over the winter with Gwyneth P and Dolly P 🙂
Why wait for that yearling purchased at the sales to come of age, come join the fun with us with horses that are currently at the trials, and will be racing in the next month. Dolly P is likely to resume racing next week, and you could be part of her ownership. She ran a cracking 5th at her last start, and was then turned out due to Maria having been injured and needed some time off from training the horses.
All Systems go now, Dolly returned to the workouts last Saturday at Pukekohe and didn’t disgrace herself finishing 3 lengths from much higher graded horses. With her pulling a bit hard in front she was entitled to get tired at the end, and just came to the end of her run the last little bit. Open class trotter Invictus, and the unbeaten Harness Jewels winner Double Delight came off her back in the home strait in the 3 horse heat, and she finished not far of them only 3 lengths behind, not bad for a maiden trotter.
Dolly has always shown ability, and now she has matured she has the best ahead of her, and is certainly capable of footing it in the next grade once she wins her maiden. Now is the time to get involved, be a part of her journey, along with her stable mate Gwyneth P.
To find out more register as a member of the website here and you will see more information on how affordable it is to become a harness racing owner and be involved in the racing careers of Placebo Effect Stables Horses. If you would rather not register on the website, you can use the contact form or phone Maria on 022 413 4123
Gwyneth P made a return to the workouts yesterday at Pukekohe after a 16 month hiatus with a winning run in the learners pace. She had been off the scene due to a fistulas whither, which took longer than expected to resolve due to antibiotic resistance of the bacteria involved.
After several months of trying different antibiotics from the vet, and the fistulas whither clearing up then recurring just as fast after antibiotics stopped, as a last resort when all else had failed, we tried Tea Tree Oil, and much to our delight it worked! Within a week of treating with Tea Tree Oil, the infection cleared up and Gwyneth was finally on the mend.
It’s hard to believe what seemed to be such a minor thing to begin with, could end up being such a big problem. After spending over $1200 on vet bills, which failed to resolve the problem, a $20 bottle of Tea Tree Oil killed the bacteria and the fistula receded within a couple of days, and fully healed within a month after that.
Gwyneth ended up being out of work for 10 months, and has been back in work for 6 months now. We have built her back up slowly to make sure the whither didn’t flare up again. We suspect her bursa (just in front of the whither) had been ruptured by the bacteria also, so it was important to be careful not to put too much pressure on her in the cart as the saddle and movement of the cart puts pressure on the bursa. So far so good, touch wood. To try and help her as much as possible, she has learned to go at speed with no overcheck, to keep the pressure away from the shoulder and whither area. She took a while to get confident at speed with no overcheck, but is happy as now 🙂
Gwyneth P will continue her preparation at the workouts for another month or so in anticipation of her first race day start. We will keep her in the learners for one more start since she had been off the scene for so long, then give her a couple of maiden trials before making her race debut.