Far from a champion on the track, to being crowned a state champion off the track - it's been quite the ride for standardbred Duzzy Feelgood.
The Graham Dwyer-trained pacer had eight starts across Albion Park, Marburg and Redcliffe last year, failing to place on all eight occasions.
The two-year-old was then retired and landed at the North Maclean base of Queensland Off-The-Track Acknowledged Retrainer Amanda Chant.
With Chant relocating to Tasmania earlier this year, she concluded her tenure as a QOTT Acknowledged Retrainer and rehomed the remaining horses in her care.
It was from there that Duzzy Feelgood piqued the interest of Marilyn Stocks.
“My showhorse was a standardbred as well, but he has to be a paddock horse now due to a staph infection in the fetlock,” Marilyn said.
“I thought I might just take a bit of stand back for a bit and then saw “Dezzy” on Facebook.
“When I first inquired about him, Amanda told me that he was sore and that was part of the reason he retired from racing.
“She said since he had been at North Maclean he was not showing any more signs of soreness – so I decided to go over and take a look at him and bring him home.”
That was back in May of this year and to say the former pacer is exceeding expectations in his career after racing is an understatement.
Marilyn took Dezzy to his first competition at the Standardbred Association of Queensland State Hacking and Harness Championships at Gatton in September.
In his maiden show, he won three classes and was crowned overall state champion in two of them.
“I hadn’t had him for a great deal of time but the results have been huge with him – to be honest he’s an absolute dude to handle,” Marilyn said.
“I walk into the yard, he follows you like a puppy dog - I’ve got him doing a bit of basic liberty work, but he is just following you around and you just give him a bit of a click and he’ll come to you.
“The State Championships was his first show, and he had a couple of little baby brain moments but otherwise he performed well above expectations.
“He looked beautiful, he performed well and after he realised what was being asked of him, he went, ‘oh ok, that’s what you want.’”
Marilyn admits she had previously underestimated the versatility of standardbreds.
Now thanks to Dezzy, she has become a convert to the breed, with three on her property at Brightview.
“These horses are just amazing - all my life I’ve been around every other breed, except for standardbreds, and I got the first one and I was just thinking, ‘wow I’ve been really overlooking this breed,’ and now I’ve got three of them sitting in my backyard,” Marilyn said with a laugh.
“They’re just so adaptable, and Dezzy is not under saddle at the moment because he’s only just been shown in the three-year-old classes now.
“But the movement that he shows, if he can hold that under saddle - he’s going to excel.
“This breed is so overlooked - you tend to go towards stock horses, quarter horses, even the thoroughbreds for that matter but the breed itself, if you actually give them a chance they are just so willing and wanting to do everything they can to please.
“Overall they’re just a beautiful horse.”
Marilyn paid homage to the QOTT Program for assisting with Dezzy’s transition into life after racing.
“Amanda’s been fantastic, so I still remain in contact with her and I actually had her give some information to the trainer the other day to give him an update on how Dezzy is doing, and he sent me a video of when he was starting out pacing,” Marilyn said.
“The Queensland Off-The-Track team have been amazing as well; they’ve sent so many things out for him.
“I haven’t utilised the Subsidised Lessons yet, but that will happen when he comes under saddle.”
Click here to find out more about the QOTT Program.
