Dream Come True For Ashley Shepherd
Mister Sauvage and driver Cody Wallrodt after his win at Collie.
It was an emotional win for Ashley Shepherd when his horse Mister Sauvage got the win in race three at Collie, giving Shepherd his first win as an owner.
“I always had this dream growing up of one day becoming a driver/trainer and owning a racehorse.”
Purchasing the gelding for $1000 just months earlier, Mister Sauvage has placed once in his last eight starts, but after getting the rails run on Sunday when Wallrodts other runner drifted up the track, he sailed home to win by 15.4m.
“I was pretty emotional after Mister Sauvage crossed the finish, even more emotional when Karen Wallrodt gave me a big hug and said well-done mate,”
“I can’t explain the feeling. I’ve had some people doubt me and my ability, but I guess I just proved them wrong.” Shepherd said.
Ashley currently owns just the two horses, including Bettor Go Boom who is also trained by Leo Wallrodt, but hopes to eventually get his own trainers and driver’s licence. Bettor Go Boom was purchased last November so that Shepherd could learn to jog and fast work horses.
“He (Bettor Go Boom) has served his purpose well and is being retired after this campaign. I have found him a home already.”
Shepherd got involved in harness racing after meeting the Wallrodt family around three years ago when he started hanging around the family at all the Collie meetings, eventually branching out to helping them out on race day.
“After a while I started doing small things like filling water buckets and getting their race numbers,”
“Karen said to me, give us your phone number and you can start coming to different meetings with us, so I did, and it went off from there. I started doing some more small things like bring in carts and gear bags and that’s pretty much what got me to where I am today.”
Ashleigh Paikos