Dani Hill. Photo by Walter Bulgya
The inspiring Dani Hill led a female domination of the big Southern Cross finals’ night at Globe Derby.
Hill, who is back and firing after a series of major back operations, set the tone by driving three of the first four winners - Honeybun, Bay Jim Major and Elusive - on SA’s second biggest night of the year.
Lisa Ryan drove Aintsobad to a tough win in race two, while evergreen veteran Gaita Pullicino chimed in with the easiest win of the night aboard Brighton to give the females five of the eight winners on the card.
The female flavour ran even deeper with Brighton being trained by champion Victorian, Emma Stewart.
Brighton continued Stewart’s remarkable dominance of the Southern Cross 2YO fillies’ final, having won it seven of the past 14 years.
Brighton, bred and owned by SA’s Mark Carey, zoomed clear to win by 21m in a sizzling 1min54.9sec mile rate for 1800m and will now be set for the Group 1 NSW Oaks.
But the story of the night was triumph over adversity of the 40-year-old Hill, who boasts over 2300 career wins and seven SA driving premierships.
Several nasty race falls and resultant back injuries forced Hill out of the sulky and into probable retirement.
The last hope was major reconstructive back surgery in June last year, including a spacer, screws, rods and bone grafts to her L5 disc.
“I was in so much pain and just couldn’t go on the way I was,” Hill said. “I had the operation last June and it was a pretty big procedure on my back.
“My L5 has a spacer and screws on the front, which they went through my stomach to do and the back side has rods. I also had bone grafts as well.
“The operation has been a tremendous success…I feel like I have better movement now than I did before I even damaged my back.
“It’s great to be back driving, but above all, it’s great to have some quality of life again.
“With all the race falls and operations I’ve had, it evens out to being more than one surgery a year for the past 14 years.”
Hill’s brother, Wayne, SA’s current leading driver, teamed with the tough and exciting Reoffender to win the 2YO Trotters’ final.
Earlier in the night, Michael Smith teamed with Victorian trainers Shane and Jason McNaulty to win the 2YO Pacing colts and geldings final with Zenario.
Port Pirie trainer-driver, Dale Afford, came with a well-timed run to snatch victory in the last of the eight features on three-year-old trotting filly, Can Adel Succeed.
* Adam Hamilton is a paid contributor writing on harness racing for News Corp.
