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By Greg Prichard

There is a long time between drinks and then there’s the gap between when Cecilia Reid last trained a winner to when she won with Singapura at the Taree race meeting on Monday.

Her last win had been with Little Wonder at Port Macquarie on Oct 10, 2020, so you can imagine how excited the 67-year-old was when jockey Jeff Penza drove Singapura home to win the Glass 24/7 Class 1 And Maiden Plate over 1600m.

The six-year-old gelding, which had previously won just the one race from 28 starts, naturally started at a bit of odds - $19 - and Reid grabbed a piece of that as well.

Singapura (Grant Buckley) heads out when previously trained at Warwick Farm. Image by Bradley Photographers

“I only had a little bit on him,” she said. “I thought he was a bit of a chance because he goes alright in the wet - it was a wet track the only other time he’d won.

“I’d been working him for a 2000-metre race but they kept getting washed out and then they just suddenly put this meeting on because there had been so many washouts and I saw the mile and I thought: ‘I’ll chuck him in that’.

“I thought he’d race well because when I didn’t get that 2000-metre race I backed him off in his work a bit and freshened him up.

“It was great to get the win - really exciting. A bit of jumping up and down when he hit the lead and hung on. The owner, Greg Andison, wasn’t there, but I’ve spoken to him since and he was very happy.”

Reid is Singapura’s fifth trainer. The horse had previously raced around the provincials and in Sydney.

“I’ve only had him for a few months and that was my fourth start with him,” she said.

“Greg has had horses with me before. He bought him when he came up for sale and gave him to me to have a go with him. I don’t know what the horse cost him, but he’s probably a bargain now that he’s won a race.”

Reid has a long history in racing dating back to when she rode in some of the first women-only races that provided the starting point for women jockeys to eventually compete with men and do it with tremendous success.

“I always rode,” she said. “When we had the women jockeys’ races I enjoyed riding in those. After that things changed and females could be apprenticed, but I was very light and considered too light to ride in races.

“Even now I probably only weigh about 36 kilos. And I’m not tall, which probably stops me from getting horses to train. One guy said to me once: ‘How can you lead these horses around?’ I lead them around like I’ve always done.

“I’ve always rode trackwork and I rode my own horses in work until about four years ago. I’ve trained since I was about 20. It’s always been a small stable, but I didn’t plan it that way.

"I just didn’t get the opportunity to get horses. I’d have more if I could get them. There’s only two in the stable at the moment. Krakka Ling is the other one.

“My stables are on the course at Taree. I’ve got eight boxes and at the moment another trainer, Ross Stitt, is sharing with me.

"Ross was going to retire, but he’s still going at this stage. I wasn’t using all of the boxes, so I let him have the spare ones.”

Reid works nights for a contract cleaning business to supplement her income: “I’m a full-time trainer, but I need the other job and working nights fits in,” she said.

“We clean businesses and stuff like that. I get a bit of sleep after I finish and then I get up and go to the track.”

Reid said she would look for another race in the next few weeks for Singapura now that he has got that winning feeling again.

“That’s the hard part, finding the right races for a staying horse like him,” she said. “His other win was over 2300 metres at Newcastle and you don’t get a lot of staying races.

"We’ve had that many races put off, it makes it hard, but I’m looking into it.”