Grit, not grass, for Billy Kimber
Garrick Knight - Raceform • March 28th, 2025 12:30 PM • 4 min read
Amanda Tomlinson had to make one of the most difficult admissions for any mother recently.
Her daughter was right, and she was wrong.
Daughter in this case is driver Sheree Tomlinson and the issue at hand is the family’s maiden trotter, Billy Kimber.
After two slashing runs on the grit at Ashburton and Addington in February, Tomlinson and her training partner father, Ken Ford, took Billy Kimber to the two-day West Coast meeting earlier this month.
That was against the advice of Sheree, who had been driving the homebred son of Imperial Count in some of his races.
“Sheree had been at me and at me that he can’t cop the grass after a few failures on it earlier in the campaign,” Amanda Tomlinson told RaceForm.
“But I would not believe her and we took him back to the Coast. After Reefton on the second day, I said ‘hands up, you might be right!’”
Billy Kimber galloped and took no part at Westport and was then beaten 18 lengths at Reefton, barely able to keep up.
He heads back to the all-weather this Sunday at Rangiora in the $11,000 The Brook Hotel Trot for maidens.
Sheree Tomlinson’s opinion was only further franked when Billy Kimber won a trial at Addington before the races last Wednesday.
“He went super, but he can do that. He has got a bit of speed but he’s just a bit of a dummy.”
Tomlinson and Ford bred Billy Kimber’s dam and granddam, so they know a bit about the family traits.
“A few of them can be like that; dumb and a slow learner,” says Tomlinson, who believes Billy Kimber just needs racing and miles in his legs but as he gets that, he has the ability to win multiple races.
“I personally believe he does but Sheree may have a different opinion! He’s got a funny way of trotting, too.
“At Blenheim, Blair Orange said he looks like he’s sore but that’s just him; his back legs look like he’s riding a bicycle.”
Despite that ability, Tomlinson says you couldn’t play poker with Billy Kimber and there isn’t huge confidence this week.
“I wouldn’t trust him. He can win, but I wouldn’t be putting the house on him.”
The stable also has Popnrock in at Rangiora and he’s not dissimilar to his stablemate.
“He’s just as cunning but he doesn’t have the speed of Billy Kimber.
Tomlinson’s brother Clint Ford – best known as the owner and driver or Marcoola – part-owns Popnrock and does some of the work with him.
“Clinton believes the half-hopples are slowing him down, but if he doesn’t have them on he’ll probably gallop.
“Any little thing can make him break in his work at home, including a small fantail flying out of a puddle recently. He wears ‘everything’ on his head to try and combat it.
“I have to be very honest though and say that he hasn’t galloped in his work since his last run, so maybe he’s turning the corner.”
On Friday night, the stable will take classy trotting mare Judy J into Addington.
Last year she competed in The Ascent slot race and the New Zealand Trotting Oaks, but she hasn’t won in 13 starts, dating back to October.
She has placed in three of her last five starts though – all at Addington – and Tomlinson says it’s just a matter of attitude with her.
“If Jude wants to do it, Jude will do it. She’s very strong-willed and you have to work with her, not against her, even on something as simple as loading her on the float.
“We’ve changed some gear and put her on the unruly, but really it’s just a matter of how she feels on the night.”
Tomlinson said the stable’s exciting three-year-old trotter, recent debut winner Rogue Hero, has gone for a spell.
“He didn’t get paid up for anything by his breeders, so after he lost the plot last week we made the call to put him aside.”
Rogue Hero is the first and to date only winner sired by former stable star Marcoola.
Photograph at the top of the page: Mother-daughter combination Amanda and Sheree Tomlinson.
Photo Credit: RaceForm
