Kempsey's 76-year-old trainer Roy Franklin is proving to be a successful dabbler with racehorses and his wife, Tammy, reckons he should get fair dinkum and give the Macleay Hotel trade away and concentrate more on gallopers.
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"She maintains there is more fun with racehorses than being in the pub business," Franklin said.
"It is a nice hobby late in life but to be full-time I would have to find some more owners with horses to race."
But at the moment five-year-old mare Sarasota Bay and four-year-old Lady Mossman are giving him plenty to cheer about with wins.
They certainly made the decision more compelling at Manning Valley Race Club's meeting last Friday when Sarasota Bay won the $27,000 Hannam Vale Cup over 1600m and Lady Mossman put in her normal concistent run for a length third to Warwick Farm mare Velocano, trained by Marc Connors.
Franklin has always had one foot in the door with racing, starting with greyhounds, then trotters and now racehorses.
He believes he has a happy knack of finding cheap tried gallopers and then having wins with them.
The formula has certainly worked so far with both mares, one costing $8000, winning races and having placings for him.
He only has the two gallopers and "my wife's slow grey horse."
Sarasota Bay was his first buy but just after Franklin moved to Kempsey 14-months-ago her introduction to racing took nearly all that time as she suffered an horrific accident in the paddock.
"She got hooked up on a fence and her legs were ripped to pieces.
"I cried as I never thought I would get her back to race.
"Since she recovered she has had three wins, a second and fifth and has certainly paid her way.
"She still goes crazy before races but has ability."
Lady Mossman was trained at Warwick Farm but after she failed to win, having had many fourths and fifths in 17 starts, she was sold to Franklin and has had two wins recently.
Franklin said his mates say he has had more stops and starts than Don Bradman at training over the decades.
"Who knows what will happen next."
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