Ken Casellas | Photo: PACEPIX
Few trainers are as busy as the hard-working Coolup horseman Hayden Reeves, who had 18 starters, eleven at Gloucester Park on Friday night and all seven runners in a 2560m stand at Northam on Saturday night, for two winners, three seconds and three thirds.
Most of his team enjoy a diet of constant racing, with Recover Lover, Del Bocavista Bay, Mega Mach and Riche Reactor competing at both meetings.
Recover Lover was the star of the team, winning the $21,000 Thank You TAB Radio and Tim Walker Pace over 1730m at Gloucester Park before almost exactly 24 hours later at Northam, finishing second to Del Bocavista Bay.
Those two wins and six placings took the record for Reeves in 2025 to 34 wins, 97 placings and stakes of $392,481, putting him in seventh place in the State’s trainers’ premiership table. The 43-year-old Reeves now has prepared 370 winners, with many of them cast-offs from other stables.
He outlaid $4000 about six months ago to purchase six-year-old mare Recover Lover after having raced her on lease for the previous twelve months. The mare now has earned $93,584 from nine wins and 25 placings from 86 starts for Reeves.
Recover Lover’s win on Friday night took her career record to 93 starts for eleven wins, 27 placings and $105,858 in prizemoney. Her second at Northam netted another $1569.
The WA-bred Recover Lover is by Rock N Roll Heaven and is the fourth foal out of champion race mare Bettor Cover Lover, who raced 39 times for 19 wins, 14 placings and $1,026,427.
Bettor Cover Lover’s main victories included three Group 1 feature events in New Zealand as a two-year-old in 2010, the 2011 and 2012 Queen Of Hearts at Alexandra Park and the Group 1 Breeders Stakes at Addington in February 2013, as well as the Group 1 Victoria Oaks at Melton in April 2011.
Recover Lover was a $9.40 chance from barrier two in Friday night’s event in which Minor Catastrophe was the $3.40 favourite from barrier four.
Minor Catastrophe set the pace, with Stuart McDonald enjoying a perfect trail with Recover Lover behind the leader. Minor Catastrophe began to weaken over the final stages and Recover Lover dashed to the front with 50m to travel and won by 2m from Minor Catastrophe.
“I knew if I got a gap late Recover Lover would go pretty close,” said reinsman Stuart McDonald. “The gap came in time, and we got there.”