Eastern states owner Paul Demicoli has had a dream weekend in WA harness racing, with two winners in just three days.
Crowded Reactor kicked off celebrations with a win first up for his new stable, Hayden Reeves, after toughing it wide for the last half of the race to win with ease at Wagin on Friday night.
The seven-year-old made his way to WA from South Australia in May 2022, winning five races there, before getting on the truck to head to the stables of Nigel Johns, who trains Demicoli's horses here in the west.
With the horse more suited to regional racing, the decision was just a few weeks ago to send to Hayden Reeves, proving fruitful for the pair with a win first up.
"I love the chestnut, he's a trier. If you put him in the race, he tries."
Grand Majestic Bells NZ brought up her first career win on Monday at Pinjarra, with the four-year-old unplaced at her three starts prior.
Having just her fourth start in a race, she began out wide from the front marker in the standing start over the 2116m trip, stepping well for trainer/driver Nigel Johns, with the pair pressing forward to settle in the breeze for the entire trip, to win untouched by 3.7m in 2:04:8.
Demicoli purchased the then three-year-old as an unraced youngster after watching and following her track workouts.
"I heard a whisper that she was for sale, and I bought her from the breeder/owner/breaker, Katie Cox."
"I looked at her track work outs, she was un-raced, but there was something there that I liked, we chased the sale up and got her, so we bought her as an unraced horse."
Plenty of time has been spent working on the mare's manners, with Grand Majestic Bells NZ coming to Johns very well educated but finding it difficult to handle the pressure of racing against seasoned horse, Johns has spent many months working with her, opting to start her right out of the draw in standing starts to help with her confidence.
"Nigel just spent a lot of time with her at home, educating her, he's great at that, he's a really good horseman."
Demicoli currently has three trotters with Johns: Dark Secret, Aldebaran Sundown and Grand Majestic Bells NZ.
"I'm very blessed with the horses that I have that they're earning money and we place them well,"
Demicoli has what some would call 'beginners' luck', purchasing a share in his first galloper late last year, that horse turned out to be Goldman, who is trained by Gai Waterhouse and Adrian Bott, who won the $500,000 Lexus Roy Higgins, winning a golden ticket into this years $7.5million Melbourne Cup.
