Blanch hopes to celebrate birthday with first city winner

By Glenn Davis

Grafton trainer Fleur Blanch will be chasing a belated birthday celebration and her first metropolitan winner when Dark Euro tackles the Class 5 Handicap at Doomben on Wednesday.

Dark Euro – an Anthony Allen mount – is stepping out for the first time since finishing second in the Christmas Cup at Lismore on December 22.

Blanch hasn’t had a Brisbane starter since five-time winner Miss Super finished sixth at Doomben in March of last year.

Blanch, who turned 39 on Monday, is married to Grafton trainer Scott Henley but has never seriously contemplated a training partnership with him.

“I thought about it for a fleeting moment but we’ve got our own ways of training and it works well,” Blanch said.

“As we are not training in a partnership we stay happily married."

Blanch and Henley have three children, Layla, 9, Zachary, 8 and Page, 4, and rely heavily on her father, Kevin, 84, a former leading harness trainer in Victoria.

“Dad’s 84 and every morning at 2am he rides his push-bike to our place to look after the kids while Scott and I go off to work,” Blanch said.

Blanch is confident Dark Euro will acquit himself well despite having been successful once in 10 starts first-up.

“This is a great race for him first-up,” Blanch said.

“He’s been ultra-competitive in his races and we would have liked a better barrier but hopefully he can find a nice position early.

“He’s got a wonderful turn of foot and it’s the best I’ve ever had him for a first-up run.”

Blanch is not concerned she hasn’t given Dark Euro a barrier trial ahead of his return.

“I never give him a barrier trial or a jump out as he’s better off going into his races fresh,” she said.

“He spells for four weeks and works for eight weeks and then he’s ready to go.”

Born in Grafton, Blanch has a team of eight horses in work and has a long history in racing working with Gai Waterhouse in Sydney and Lloyd Williams in Melbourne as well as working overseas in the United States.

“I’ve only been training for just over four years but I was a foreman for Gai Waterhouse for 12 years and then I had a year off and went to the United States to work with Todd Pletcher,” she said.

“He was the leading trainer in six states at the time and it was a great experience.

“I also spent a year in Victoria working for Lloyd Williams and I was with Stephen Lee for two years here before I went to Sydney.”