Ken Casellas | Photo: Hamilton Content Creators
Jan Milentis, a 70-year-old hobby trainer from Wooroloo, with a family background steeped in harness racing, celebrated her first metropolitan-class success when Adda Spoilt Major gave a powerful performance to win the Australian Pacing Gold Pace at Gloucester Park on Friday night.
Her father Ron Culleton was a prominent trainer-reinsman more than a half-century ago, her aunty Clem Robinson was one of a very few female trainers in the 1950s and 60s when she won several city races with Sea Island, and her late husband John, a motor mechanic, enjoyed many wins as a hobby trainer with Crystal Tears, Invincible, Aldebaran Swannee, Constant Whispers and others.
Jan helped her husband with his pacers for many years, and after he died in the winter of 2021, she gained a licence to train in her own right.
“I’ve had good teachers — my Dad and my aunty, and I worked with Mike Reed and Kevin Keys,” she said. “I’ve listened and learnt. One of the last things John said to me was not to give up the horses; you have got to do something.
“We trained pacers ever since we got married about 50 years ago, and we started training at Osborne Park and then at Upper Swan.
“Not long ago my son Chris and his partner, who were living in Gidgegannup and were involved with eventing horses, were looking for a bigger property, and we found a suitable place in Wooroloo where Chris built a 520m training track.
“One part of the track goes up a hill, and Adda Spoilt Major, who works free-legged, has to sprint up the hill — and this certainly helps his strength.”
Indeed, Adda Spoilt Major, a $16.60 chance, showed plenty of toughness on Friday night when he started from the outside of the back line, raced wide early and then in the breeze outside the pacemaker Steam Punk before finishing strongly to beat Joey James ($5.50) and Arden Velocity ($4.60).
Adda Spoilt Major is the only horse Mrs Milentis has in work, and his victory on Friday night was her fourth training success from 49 starters. She races the Rich And Spoilt gelding in partnership with Peter Johnson, and the six-year-old has now had 53 starts for seven wins, 18 placings and $65,753.