Punters Info<\/a><\/p>\nBy Jonny Turner\u00a0<\/p>\n
Matthew Williamson remembers the good old days, but he wouldn\u2019t go back.<\/p>\n
Not that long ago the preparing for a meeting like Sunday\u2019s Ascot Park trots was relatively easy given for the most part he had to simply show up and drive.<\/p>\n
In recent seasons that has all changed with his move into full-time training which has seen him quickly ascend to being Otago\u2019s leading trainer on wins.<\/p>\n
Williamson\u2019s rise is evident in him lining up a sizeable team of seven runners on Sunday, among his 12 starters for the week.<\/p>\n
\u201cI still love the driving but training our own team has been great.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThings have grown a lot faster than we expected but it has been great and we have had a lot of owners come on board and support us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Williamson\u2019s day at Invercargill starts with first starter Heartfelt in Race 3, the Waikiwi Tavern Mobile Pace (12.38pm).<\/p>\n
\u201cHeartfelt has trialled well, she has still got a bit to learn and she will be better for having a start at the races.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBut she\u2019s got the ability to be quite competitive.\u201d<\/p>\n
Next up, Williamson partners Geraldine Clowers while stable junior driver Hayden Douglas drives the favourite Blarney Stone.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey have both made mistakes recently, so manners are definitely key with them.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIf Blarney Stone brought his manners he would be one of the horses to beat.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cGeraldine Clowers got it wrong last start but has trialled well since, over the short distance she\u2019s a place chance if she does things right.\u201d<\/p>\n
Williamson has another two-pronged attack at Ascot Park with Just A Gem and Porcupine Creek.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust A Gem\u2019s trials have been good and she\u2019s trained on well since after a bit of a freshen up.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cShe should be a place chance.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cPorcupine Creek ran well first up and seems to have improved off that run, so she\u2019s an each-way chance.\u201d<\/p>\n
The evergreen veteran Mr Cash Man represents the Williamson barn in Sunday\u2019s highest rated mobile event.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn ratings it’s not the best race for him, but with that he does draw well and he does like a faster tempo.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s probably an outside place chance as it does look harder for him on paper.\u201d<\/p>\n
Our Pinocchio is down on his best form and will attempt to turn that around when he ventures south.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is quite a suitable race for him, he should get a much better chance to get into it compared to the bigger fields he\u2019s been racing.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe is good enough to be competitive but we are hopeful rather than confident because he has been disappointing lately.\u201d<\/p>\n
Williamson rates Haley Jaccka as the best hope among his outside drives on Sunday.<\/p>\n
The mare reverts back to standing start racing after producing excellent mobile form recently.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"17 May 2026 , Punters Info By Jonny Turner\u00a0 Matthew Williamson remembers the good old days, but he…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":58095,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[111,139,69,213],"class_list":["post-432336","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432336","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=432336"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/432336\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58095"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=432336"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=432336"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=432336"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}