"Have a bowtiful day". If you know of the popular children's group the Wiggles, the win of Yellow Bow at the Tamworth harness meeting on Thursday afternoon had a very special group of followers.
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Yellow Bow produced a tough performance to take out the Tamworth Treated Timbers Pace by a half head over Galiant Knight (Jake Hughes) with Balboa Shannon (Caitlin McElhinney) 11 metres away third.
"My kids gave the horse the stable name of Wiggles, after Emma the Yellow Wiggle. They all know the Yellow Bow song," said reinsman and part-owner Chris Shepherdson of his three children Cohen, Eli and Noah.
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Yellow Bow is raced by the same Narrabri syndicate of Kid Montana, a winner of over $182,000 in prizemoney, in brothers Peter and Gary Shepherdson, Neil Drysdale, Charles Dicks and his son Nathan.
"My wife Liz has also joined in the syndicate this time round so it was nice to see the win. It is the first horse she has owned so her first winner," Shepherdson added.
He is also part of the syndicate with the training of the Pet Rock-Brooke Fraser four-year-old mare handled by his uncle Peter Shepherdson.
"It was a good tough win and she fought on well," said Shepherdson with Yellow Bow having an all the way win after commencing from the three barrier but having to sustain race pressure throughout the 1609m race journey.
Yellow Bow firstly withheld Ladyeenwating (Jemma Coney), who settled into racing out in the breeze before Mako Jewel (Michael Formosa) made a challenge for the lead after a three wide run around the field.
"Michael Formosa (Mako Jewel) put a bit of pressure on for a while but she (Yellow Bow) fought on well," he said.
Shepherdson encouraged Yellow Bow forward of the field from the 400-metre mark but was joined by Galiant Knight as they raced into the home straight.
Galiant Knight is trained by former local Joshua Carroll.
"I went at the 400 as I knew Balboa Shannon was working into the race and I wanted to be ahead of him," Shepherdson said.
Yellow Bow has only had four race starts for the Narrabri connections but Shepherdson had had his eye on the pacer for a little while.
"We were looking around for another horse and I noticed her for sale," he explained.
"I watched some of her race replays before we purchased the mare and she showed me then that she had some good gate speed."
She comes to the stables after racing in the Western Districts and from 30 starts has now registered three wins.
Thursday's win was also a belated birthday present for the family matriarch Doreen Shepherdson, who celebrated her 95th birthday through the week and is the Narrabri Harness Racing Club raceday secretary.
"Gran would have been sitting up at home watching," Shepherdson said.
"It is a nice birthday present for her. Its good to see as she is such a hard worker for the club."
