While preparing her team for the Bathurst Cup meeting this Sunday local trainer Wanda Ings reflected on the path travelled from the New Zealand's North Island to her present location at Bathurst.
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Born at the village Te Kuiti, south of Hamilton in Waikato, Ings'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 12 years of age I would rush from school to be around the Barney Meyer stables at Avondale, then the main track in Auckland," Ings recalled.
"Barney was a wonderful horseman who bred Group 1 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."
Before taking on a training career, 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 jockeys licence in New Zealand as a 25 year old in 1977.
Ings also was a trail blazer, believed to be the youngest, at 21 years old, to be granted a trainers licence in New Zealand after moving to Rotorua.
The venture was a success, with numerous winners for the her stable, however the lure of much higher prizemoney in Australia proved tempting and initially in 1987 and again shortly after brought clients' horses over from New Zealand.
Making a permanent move, Ings was the foreman for Rosehill trainer Barry Lockwood and then a trainer at Canterbury and Newcastle.
When a client purchased a property at Pitt Town, Wanda moved to nearby Hawkesbury and with her first runners at the Provincial track had a winning double with Brothers and Capital Cee.
Of all her many winners, Wanda Ings regards Two Towers as the favourite, attributing that horse as being "responsible for our survival " in the racing industry.
During a 55 start career, Two Towers earned $199,500 prize money and at 18 years of age lives in contented retirement at Bathurst with the Ings family.
In August 2019, Wanda Ings moved to Bathurst and now has 24 horses in work at the Tyers Park Racecourse.
"Initial doubts about whether it was a backward step moving to the country after being a city and provincial trainer have been completely unfounded," Ings said.
"The Bathurst Club has been great to deal with, the horses love the environment, there are races to suit all classes of horses at tracks that are not too far away and there is great atmosphere and fun still to be had at race meetings in the country areas.
"When our 17-year-old trackwork rider Will Stanley at his first race ride won the Maiden Handicap on our horse Dot The Eye at Bedgerabong Picnics he received a great reception and a bit later when he won the Bedgerabong Picnic Cup on the Bryan Dixon, Gilgandra-trained Song One the crowd cheered like he had just won the Melbourne Cup."
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