Sharon Pomerenke carrying on her late father's legacy

By Jordan Gerrans

The Tara Race Club is one of the smaller complexes for participant numbers in the Sunshine State and that works just fine for hobby trainer Sharon Pomerenke.

As well as working at the Western Downs Regional Council, Pomerenke prepares a small team from the Tara track where she has been the sole trainer for some time. 

The 48-year-old is carrying on the legacy of her late father Ken Dowling who also trained a team of gallopers at the Queensland bush town for decades.

Tragically, Dowling never saw his daughter prepare a winner as he passed away just before she took a horse to the races back in 2019.

Pomerenke is forging on the racing clan’s tradition in racing and trained her maiden TAB winner on Friday afternoon at Gatton.

The passionate horsewoman has a victory on the bush circuit already on her resume, but she was over the moon to nab one at Lockyer Valley Turf Club with Palawa Kani.

“I didn’t know what to feel, I was a bit shocked, probably,” she said.

“The luck had finally changed.

“It has been a long road but now she has the win under her belt.

“She is a lovely old horse to have around and I would have a stable full of them if I could.”

Pomerenke and her mare Palawa Kani had to survive a photo-finish decision as apprentice hoop Chloe Lowe swooped down the outside to upset early leader Enuff Pills in the concluding stages. 

The victory was a drought-breaker for the small Tara-based barn, their first since November of 2019 at Chinchilla.

It was earlier in that year that Pomerenke took out her own training ticket after her father began to battle with his health. 

“Just before he passed away, he said to me that I needed to get my own licence,” she recalls.

“I had applied for it and I was about to have my first starter actually just before he passed away, it was the same week. He just missed me having my first starter.”

In Dowling’s later years as a conditioner, he had success with a galloper named The Robber who won on eight occasions.

Dowling followed his father into the sport as he was a jockey in the 1940s.

Pomerenke’s father rode all his own trackwork until his health didn’t let him anymore. 

The lone Tara trainer rides all her own trackwork just as her dad did. 

“I know every blade of grass or little divot around the track,” she said with a laugh about the local Tara track

“We have been there for many, many years.”

Pomerenke’s maiden winner came with a galloper named Pretty Song who is a daughter of Your Song.

After winning once and placing on several other occasions, Pretty Song was retired following a suspensory injury.

Almost the same script has been followed with Palawa Kani.

Pomerenke and her husband Scott purchased the six-year-old mare online because of her father Your Song. 

“I am a bit of a fan of them,” she said.

“I did not think we would be able to get her because we didn’t want to pay a fortune for her. She has paid her way so far.”

Like Pretty Song, Palawa Kani suffered a suspensory injury in late September of 2023 following one of the best runs of her career where she finished third behind the talented Liquor of Tony Gollan’s in a city midweek race at Ipswich.

She was off the racing scene for more than a year with the injury as Pomerenke nursed her back to full health. 

“I was devastated because Pretty Song had done the same injury, just a lot worse,” she said.

“I was determined to get her back, doing everything right by the horse.

“It was only a slight strain, so we did all the rehab stuff.

“It was icing every morning on her and when she did come back into work, it was lots of slow work and she was nearly in work for three months before she had an official jump-out.

“When they have injuries like that, you are on tenterhooks.”

At her seventh run back since the long injury lay-off, the bay mare repaid the stable with a much-deserved victory in a Benchmark 60 Handicap over 860 metres.

“She is always competitive and honest,” the trainer said.

“She just seems to be starting to hit her straps, I think.

“She ran well in an Open Handicap in the bush at the start prior, so we knew she was going well.”