By Brigette Solomon
Junior driver Emily Johnson's ability with the square-gaiters was again on full display at Cambridge last night.
The 20-year-old and her employer, Tamahere trainer Sean McCaffrey were a winning combo as Wind Of Change scored his maiden victory in the Hire A Venue At Cambridge Raceway Trot.
“He was really good tonight,” said Johnson, “I was a bit cautious to let him go too much in the run home, but he did it easy enough.”
The three-year-old gelding by Southwind Frank had shown potential in his previous six race starts but small mistakes had proven costly. However, Wind Of Change stepped smoothly to lead, and was unchallenged throughout. He made easy work of it in the home straight winning by 3.25 lengths virtually untouched by Johnson.
“It’s taken some work to get him to this stage and sort out a few niggles and I think Sean (McCaffrey) will probably be giving him a break now that he’s done things right and got a win.”
Earlier in the month, McCaffrey and Johnson also combined to score back to back victories with talented juvenile trotter Ya Eejit Ya. The exciting gelding by Majestic Son is certainly one to look out for in the future.
“I really like him, he’s got a lot of speed and has been behaving well for a young trotter,” said Johnson, “it’s such a good opportunity for me driving one like him and I think the plan is for him to stay up here and look toward the Golden Gait final in December.”
Johnson is having a successful season having driven 11 winners to date and uniquely, all of them on trotters. Before making her New Zealand debut in February Johnson had racked up 65 wins across the Tasman, in Western Australia.
She also recently qualified as one of the finalists for the McMillan Equine Feeds New Zealand Junior Drivers Championships next month to be held at Cambridge and Addington.
“It’s pretty exciting to be in the Junior Champs,” said Johnson, “I’ve never been to the South Island before so it will be awesome to get there and drive at Addington.”
