Gwenda Johnstone delivers at Echuca

Mar 7, 2021

YOU know it’s a big day at the races when local trainer Gwenda Johnstone agrees to a live interview on racing.com — and then backs it up with the print media.

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Johnstone is famous for bolting faster than Usain when a TV camera or news journalist comes after her for a few words about her horses — leaving husband Mick to field all the media.

Except when she happens to have bred (and still own a slice of) the winner of the $35,000 Mackenzie Family Shadoways Sprint over 1000 m — the race she calls her own and which is named in honour of her famous Group 1 winner.

In 2008 Shadoways won the Goodwood over 1200 m, the blue-ribbon sprint in South Australian racing. The gelding also had a second in the Group 1 Salinger Stakes at Flemington in 2016 as well as two fourths in the Group 1 Manikato Stakes in 2006 and 2008 and a fourth in the Group 1 Oakleigh Plate in 2007.

As gun Swan Hill hoop Harry Coffey brought her horse back to scale, Johnstone was pumping the air in triumph, shouting out to fellow trainers and locals and, for the first time in her career, was almost told to shut up.

With an ear-to-ear grin like a split watermelon she praised the seemingly ageless Pravro after the eight-year-old gelding staged a classic come-from-behind win to hand her trainer her third Shadoways.

“We’ve known for weeks he was well and truly set for this,” Johnstone said.

“Only a week ago you could have got 40/1 for him, but you couldn’t have found that by today,” she said.

“He’s had a couple of good trials and we have been telling anyone and everyone he was really good to go.”

Pravro jumped at 13/2 and, while not the favourite, was clearly weighed down by the expectations of a big crowd of backers.

When he surged to the lead there must have been some pretty happy punters around as the Lonhro son made his own space in the straight before running away to win by more than two lengths.

But none of the them was as happy as Johnstone.

She posed for photos, chatted to punters, accepted an invitation to the committee room for a celebratory drink and simply kept answering any question any journo posed.

Everybody was grinning, but not as much as Johnstone.

And for the first time in living memory, it was Mick who did the runner at Echuca — and he had a huge grin on his face too as he disappeared around the corner.