Cheers and bubbly as Shepherd wins again

It’s been a long time coming, but regally bred gelding Shepherd Of Fire is finally repaying the faith of his all-female ownership group with winning form at Cluden Park.

The six-year-old son of Fastnet Rock and 2013 Goodwood Hcp winner Platelet made it two straight Townsville wins with a runaway victory on Friday.

Trainer Bill Kenning is hoping the Sydney cast-off now has the confidence to keep the winning run going for his owners, the Bubbles Racing Syndicate.

“We’ve had him for a while and he’s always been honest with seconds and thirds, but found it hard to win,” Kenning said.

“After he won the other day, for some reason he had his tail up and you could see the improvement in him.

“That bit of confidence showed today and there’s no reason why he can’t go on with it again.”

Shepherd Of Fire is the latest in a long list of winners for the Bubbles Syndicate which was formed by Townsville businesswoman Deidre Walsh and a group of friends in 2009.

Bubbles followed Walsh’ involvement with a similar all-female ownership group called the Lipstick Syndicate which enjoyed good success in the 1990s.

“We were originally with Faye Robbins of Robbins Racing and I met Faye and she asked me if I’d be interested in setting up a syndicate. I said I would and that’s how Bubbles started 13 years ago,” Walsh said.

“There was 13 members to begin with and now there are eight – seven live in Townsville and one lives in Brisbane.

“And the girls just love it. We have a great time together and we have a great time with Billy (Kenning).

“One of our members – Wendy Pack – keeps all of the records and she’s written a book on our syndicate. Every so often she’ll decide to put a quiz by all the girls and we have to name all of the horses. It’s unbelievable.

“Our winners would be up there in the high 20s now. I don’t buy the framed race photos any more, I have so many in my bar area down stairs at home, they’re everywhere.”

Bubbles buy their horses in consultation with Kenning and usually race a couple at a time.

Shepherd Of Fire was a bargain buy for $5000 from the Bryce Heys stable in Sydney.

“One of our syndicate members has a close association with a fellow who races with Bryce and they wanted to move the horse on somewhere in easier class,” Walsh said.

“The girls decided to take him on and Billy, who has been our trainer for many years, thought it was a reasonable price and worth a go.

“He’s been very consistent for us but the last two runs for two wins have been fantastic.”

Bubbles only other horse with Kenning is the talented Dawn Too Good, which won two for the Syndicate earlier this year but a new addition might not be far off according to Walsh.

“We recently moved Lighthorse Lad on and he was good to us. At the moment we’re talking about where we’re going next.”

Shepherd Of Fire’s easy win in the TAB Cl3 Plate (1200m) landed the second leg a winning double for jockey Wanderson D’Avila.

He scored a last-stride win earlier in the Maiden Plate (1400m) with a late pick-up ride on the Renee Schluenz-trained Little Red Pepper.

D’Avila, who recently relocated from Townsville to Ipswich, plans to continue travelling north for rides.

The Little Red Pepper mount was a late pick up ride for D’Avila after Brisbane jockey Nathan Day was delayed getting to the track with flight issues.

Day also missed the winning ride on Heroic Boy but later scored on Licona for Cairns trainer Scott Cooper.