Sharon Pomerenke living the dream

By Glenn Davis

Hobby trainer Sharon Pomerenke is living the dream with her wonder mare Palawa Kani and she is hopeful of landing her first metropolitan winner at Ipswich on Wednesday.

Pomerenke started her training career in the 2018-19 season and only has Palawa Kani in work.

The 48-year-old conditioner is excited about Palawa Kani’s chances in the Benchmark 75 Handicap and has no concerns with the drop back in distance to 800 metres.

The seven-year-old Palawa Kani has strung together four straight wins and is unbeaten in her current campaign.

A daughter of Your Song, Palawa Kani was ridden by claiming apprentice Leah Martyn last start when she easily accounted for her opposition in a Benchmark race over 1000 metres at Dalby on August 19.

“She’s going super,” Pomerenke said.

“I was worried about her getting 1000 metres at Dalby last start but there wasn’t a problem.

“I can’t say why but she seems to be getting better every run.

“She’s got an enormous will to win and I think she’ll go pretty good again and she has no problem travelling.”

Pomerenke prefers to keep only one horse in work at Tara as she has a permanent day time job working for the Western Downs Regional Council where she starts work at 7am each morning.

Palawa Kani started her winning streak in a Benchmark race at Gatton in June which provided Pomerenke with her first win since the 2019-20 season.

Her previous win was with Pretty Song who was successful at Chinchilla in November of 2019.

Palawa Kani has become a bargain buy for Pomerenke after her husband Scott bought the mare online for a paltry $5,500.

“She had been racing over the border but she’s by Your Song and I had been looking at buying one of his progeny for a long time when we spotted her for sale online,” Pomerenke said.

“I had about $5,000 to spend and we thought she’d go for around $20,000.

“Scott surprised me when he said he bought her, but his bid went $500 over budget.

Pomerenke is the daughter of the late Ken Dowling who was a popular bush trainer in Tara before his death in 2019.

She has booked apprentice Olivia Webb to partner Palawa Kani.

“Olivia would have ridden her last start, but she was unavailable due to her university exams,” Pomerenke said.