RNSW_Oct 21_Col_W

www.racingnsw.com.au 17 PEOPLE WHILE PREPARING HER TEAM FOR THE BATHURST CUP MEETING LAST MONTH, LOCAL TRAINER WANDA INGS REFLECTED ON THE PATH TRAVELLED FROM THE NZ NORTH ISLAND TO HER PRESENT LOCATION AT BATHURST WORDS: COL HODGES PICTURES: JANIAN MCMILLAN B orn at the village Te Kuiti, south of Hamilton in the Waikato, Wanda’s father was a butcher and her mother a grocery shop owner and they later moved to Auckland. “I was mad keen about horses and from about twelve years of age I would rush from school to be around the Barney Meyer stables at Avondale, then the main track in Auckland,” Wanda recalled. “Barney Meyer was a wonderful horseman who bred Group One winners and any kids who showed interest he would take around the studs to see champion sires like Zamazaam and Sovereign Edition. “From an early age he taught me how to ride in a racing pad and he was such a wonderful mentor as to caring properly for horses that all these years later I still follow many of the ways he did things,” Wanda explained. A close associate of Barney Meyer was the great trainer Syd Brown who first ventured to Australia for the 1969 Melbourne Spring Carnival with three horses and won the Cox Plate and VRC Derby with the champion Daryl’s Joy, the One Thousand Guineas with Woodcourt Inn and the Caulfield Stakes with Hamua. Syd Brown later won the AJC Derby with Classic Mission, the Stradbroke Handicap and Epsom Handicap with Triton and finished second with Stormy Seas in the Caulfield Cup. Before taking on a training career, Wanda Ings rode in races known as Bracelets for female riders, as women were barred from obtaining a jockey licence. In some of those races Wanda rode against Linda Jones who became a trail blazer being the first female to receive a jockey’s licence in NZ, as a 25-year-old in 1977, the first female to ride a Derby winner, Holy Toledo Wellington Derby 1979 and the first female to win in Australia against male jockeys, Pay the Purple at Doomben 1979. Linda Jones In 1990 was inducted into the NZ Racing Hall of Fame. Wanda Ings also was a trail blazer, believed to be the youngest, at 21 years, to be granted a trainer’s licence in NZ after moving to Rotorua. The venture was a success with numerous winners for her stable, however, the lure of much higher Wanda Ings with the Tulloch Cup trophy won by Pop Power at Bathurst Bathurst suits Ings down to the ground »