Mood far from despondent after surprising State Championships success

Cover photo: Teichmann Photography

By Andrew Smith

Neither horse nor rider had ever competed at the State Championships, but for Marrissa Jones and Despondent, the trip to the Standardbred Association Queensland’s annual event provided plenty of first-up success.

The Queensland Off-The-Track (QOTT) Acknowledged Retrainer and the former harness racehorse were among 30 competitors at September’s State Hacking and Harness Championships at Gatton, which were sponsored by the QOTT Program.

The pair took out the Senior Rider Class and Overall Champion Rider at this year’s event, as well as placing second in the Ridden Hack Class.

It was the first time at such an event for Despondent since he retired from harness racing earlier this year following a 207-start career that netted 20 wins.

Being the pacer’s maiden competition, Jones said she had not been expecting to take home any accolades from the two-day event.

“I just thought we'll get him out and give him a nice, relaxing, comforting environment because there was a lot of green, off-the-track standardbreds there as well,” Jones said.

“From the get-go, he was so relaxed and so easy - everything we’d worked on at home, he gave me out there.

“In our rider classes, it was a free workout so I thought I'll give him a little bit of a challenge and it was something we haven't worked on, turning on the haunches.

“It was the first time asking him some difficult questions, and he just gave me everything and did his best, so that was awesome.

“I literally could not fault his behaviour all weekend, especially being in such a new environment with other horses working around him, I was really proud of that.

The horse Jones calls “Desi” around her Jimboomba property had been formerly trained by Graham Dwyer throughout his racing career.

In a full circle moment, Graham’s wife and Despondent’s racing owner Martine (Marty) was on hand to witness the former pacer take to his post-racing life at Gatton with ease.

Jones said the Kingslodge Pacing Stables stalwart was already looking ahead to next year’s event to give more horses valuable exposure away from the racetrack.

“Marty was so happy to see so many different horses, especially some that she had either trained, or trained their relatives,” Jones said.

“So getting to see them out and about was really good for her as well and I think it's encouraged her to look into some sponsorship for these sorts of events.

“I think we'll definitely be back next year and I've spoken to Marty about some of the horses that are in race work, because there weren’t many mares or fillies there in the classes.

“She's got a couple that are quite chunky and look pretty good even in race work, so we're going to take a whole truckload next year and just give them a bit of exposure.

“Whether they do well or not, that doesn't matter - it’d just be a nice day out for them.”

The 28-year-old currently has nine horses in work, with Despondent and Madeakillin the two QOTT standardbreds in her care.

Coming from a background in dressage, Jones said she even surprised herself with her exceptional results from the State Championships.

“This was my first year - I thought there was a few others from that same trainer, so I thought I'll take him, and Marty will be able to see what he’s like out,” she said.

“The whole community is quite welcoming so I thought it'd be a nice one just to take him to.

“And I did feel a little bit bad, because I'm not a ‘showy’ and he was not presented as nicely as some of the other horses there.

“We've not asked him to go out and do dressage tests or anything like that just yet - so for him to go out and compete and just give me a really nice feel throughout the weekend was so good.”

The annual State Hacking and Harness Championships included a variety of led, ridden and harness classes, with competitors ranging from rookies to seasoned professionals.

Jones commended the event for being another incredible opportunity to showcase the versatility of standardbreds.

“The horses that were there were presented immaculately, and they just looked incredible - you could tell that all the owners have put in a lot of work to make sure that they're conditioned well and well-exposed,” Jones said.

“It was really good to see horses that did well in the led classes on the Saturday in show condition, to then go on and be good at jumping and barrel racing, and all the same horses doing all different types of things.

“Often you can get a horse that's only good at one discipline, whereas the standardbred will just try anything - as long as you're asking fairly, they'll give anything a go.”

Click here to read more about the QOTT Event Sponsorship Program.