Local harness breeders, Rachael and David Micallef of Monteagle, are well on the road to what should be a successful future in the sport they love, harness racing.
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Since setting up their property, ‘Christy Park’ a number of years ago, they have raced, trained, broken in and prepared yearlings for various sales including the Australian Pacing Gold Sales in NSW, Victoria and Queensland for themselves and their clients.
They were successful in preparing the best presented yearling at the Pacing Gold Sales a couple of years back in Sydney, a reflection of the professionalism of this popular couple.
Their most favourite pacer was of course Christy Ella who won numerous races for them in those early days when they were making the move from Sydney to Young.
With a young family to raise and money to earn, they set about setting up stables and putting down a track that hopefully would give them a setup that would enable them both to become fully involved in the sport.
Rachael has been the secretary of the Young Harness Racing club until last year when her work commitments proved too much, whilst David is the assistant starter at the club and branding steward. As a family they have been able to combine all their energies and are now looking at the light at the end of the tunnel.
Their eventual aim is to have a dozen or so broodmares, breeding and selling yearlings is their major goal with possibly just one or two that will go racing.
In that endeavour they have purchased some nice well bred mares, sourced from throughout Australia and have just
recently purchased a well bred mare from the “Apple Isle” in Tasmania.
This four-year-old mare, Chalondra, is by the boom sire Art Major from the
producing mare Gorse Bush and was bred by the respected Rattray Family Trust.
Gorse Bush is by the American sire Ticket To Heaven and she has already
produced seven individual winners that have won 78 races between them.
Those winners have recorded times of 2:00 mins and better so indications are that she could still produce even more speed pacers for the Micallefs.
Since arriving from Tasmania, Chalondra has been in the care of John and Luke McCarthy in Sydney and
successfully raced at Menangle last Tuesday, winning at only her second start on Australian soil.
Her winning mile rate of 1:56.6 was a pleasing result for her owners and no doubt they are looking forward to even more wins before the mare settles in to her maternal duties.
