Dressage arena success music to the ears of new owner

By Andrew Smith

He is the talented former harness racehorse who was named after a famous composer – and who is now singing a new tune in retirement with great success.

Amadeus enjoyed an 82-start career across the tracks of Albion Park, Redcliffe and Marburg before being retired in July 2024.

Trained and owned by horseman Trent Dawson, the seven-year-old posted 14 wins and 13 minor placings, racing as Yep Got Chooks throughout his racing life.

But while his strike rate on the track was nothing to write home about, Amadeus has enjoyed a flying start to his new career in the dressage arena.

The gelding brought home three champion rugs from his first three dressage competitions for new owner Jenny Holloway.

Holloway explained how Amadeus came to be in her care, as well as the inspiration behind his renaming, after spending a year under the guidance of Queensland Off-The-Track Acknowledged Retrainer Giuditta Crisci.

“I went and had a ride on ‘Chook’ and thought he had the best walk I've ever had on a horse and I was very impressed with that,” Holloway said.

“He trotted and never paced, Ditta has done a marvellous job on him.

“I got him last November, and I worked him over summer, and he slowed his trot down, just got him to relax a bit, and I got a trot that you could rise and sit to.

“Just getting him to do a circle was very interesting - in a round yard, not a problem, but out in the open, he wasn't sure where to go.

“He's now coming back to earth, and he's starting to work again how we were before.

“I think I was thinking of Beethoven or something, and I went, oh, Amadeus is a nice, sweet, musical sort of a name.”

After a few months of work, the Beachmere-based horsewoman thought she would test the waters by taking Amadeus to the Standardbred Association Queensland’s Dressage Extravaganza at Marburg in April.

Entering with low expectations and uncertain about how the former pacer would handle the new environment, Holloway said she was pleasantly surprised once they entered the arena.

“I was there an hour and a half early, and just walked him so he could have a good look around on a relaxed rein, and then we had a bit of a trot, and I thought, ‘Yep, I think we’re okay to be able to get in the ring,’” Holloway said.

“He did two dressage tests, and he got unbelievable scores - he got 78 per cent in his first outing which is huge, and the other one was 69 per cent, and even that I was wrapped with.

“He won both the open prep section and the standardbred prep section and took out the rug, the garland and the trophy.

“It blew me away for his first outing - I wasn't expecting that at all, I just thought, if you just go in and just bop around, I'll be happy.”

Following on from those surprising results, Amadeus then went on to win prep tests in the Burpengary Pony Club and Zone 26 Pony Club’s dressage competitions.

When asked what the secret to their success had been, Holloway paid tribute to Crisci’s retraining as invaluable in bringing the former harness racer up to speed.

“By hook or by crook, I was getting something that Ditta had done the base work on - I've seen a few of her horses, and have been following Ditta for a while, and the work that she does is just brilliant,” Holloway said.

“She has done an amazing job with this fellow, and the groundwork and the basics that he came to me with have made my life so much easier.

“I'm 70 years old, I didn't have the year or two spare to get a horse off the track to do all the base work to get them going.

“I'm retired, he gets worked most days and he doesn't get worked for long, but it’s just enough.

“I don't have many years left in my riding, so that was my main reason for going to Ditta and I thought I want something that can walk, trot and canter, and I can work on it from there.”

As for the future, Holloway is keen to keep getting Amadeus used to being comfortable in the competition arena.

But she already has a big goal in mind for the duo in the not-too-distant future.

“My aim is that I will probably retire myself and him after he wins the Standardbred State Championships Track to Hack Open Class,” Holloway said.

“All I really wanted to do this year was get him out anywhere and everywhere, but the weather's been against us for the last couple of months.

“We've done a cross-country training day, we've done the Zone 26 Pony Club camp - anything that's on except for a sporting day, I will take him to, just for an outing.

“We have started jumping, and I had him jumping 30 centimetres in the Pony Club Masters in August.

“He's a big horse with long legs, but we'll just trot around 30 centimetres, and that'll do him for that comp.”

Here’s hoping Amadeus can keep on hitting the high notes in his new career.