From Boulder to Byford – Leanne Lapworth is Making Tracks
Zozo Ma Gogo in full stride to win race seven at Gloucester Park. Photo: Hamilton Content Creators
Leanne Lapworth and her husband Trevor are no strangers to travel, but their long commutes were rewarded on Friday night with their impressive win with their new purchase, Zozo Ma Gogo.
Their efforts were further rewarded when their two-year-old Seven No Trumps brought up an owning Metro double for the Lapworth’s, winning the two-year-old colts and gelding leg of the Western Crown.
The youngster who was purchased for $5000, is trained by Peter Tilbrook and has made it three wins from just four starts, taking his total earnings to $24,436, not including the bonuses on offer for the double west bred colt, by Advance Attack NZ. Seven No Trumps, who appears to have a bright future ahead of him, won in a mile rate of 1:56:6 for driver Shannon Suvaljko, giving punters a nice boost to their wallets, paying $13 on the tote.
“We went to the yearling sales and we were looking around for something that we could buy. Luke Tabbakh and Peter Tilbrook said there was a nice little Advance Attack Colt that they really liked the look of, he was the third last lot in sale, we put our finger up for him and we were lucky to get him.” She said.
Zozo Ma Gogo was having her second start for the new stable, and first drive for recent RWWA Young Achiever Award recipient, Emily Suvaljko. The mare notched up her ninth career win in a slick mile rate of 1:53:8 over the 2130m trip.
“It was my first metro win, so it was great, but to get two in one night was even better.”
Leanne and Trevor Lapworth after their win with Zozo Ma Gogo. Photo Credit: Hamilton Content Creators
Located in West Lamington, just outside of Kalgoorlie, Lapworth has two stables located in the Goldfields and has 6 stables in Byford that she also trains out of. Leanne regularly makes the 630km trip between the stables, often with her companion dog and goat in tow.
“We use our Kalgoorlie stables as our pre-training stables. There are great bush tracks here that we use to get the horses fit, rather than having them in Byford just going round and round in a circle, until they are ready for trials. We then take them down in blocks and then it’s just performance based depending on if we stay for one month, two months or six months.”
Leanne moved to the Goldfields region in 2002, where she works as a Payroll Officer for MLG Oz and an Assistant Accountant. In 2004, Leanne got her stable hands licence and worked for Neville Sly and Brett Snell, but it wasn’t until 2012 that she went on to get her trainer’s licence.
Leanne currently has 3 horses in work in their Byford stables, where her husband Trevor AKA the stable foreman and trackworker is situated and reports back daily.
“When I am down, we work side by side together, but obviously when I am back in Kalgoorlie for work, we have a chat every morning and work out what we are doing for the day, he tells me if there are any issues and we just go from there.” Lapworth said.
Whilst there are currently no plans for Leanne to move down to Perth, the husband-and-wife team recently invested in another yearling at the APG sales, lot 468; a filly by Control the Moment (US) out of Keepsgettingbettor who they hope to get plenty of enjoyment out of.
Ashleigh Paikos