Nonconformist a dream come true for breeder Danielle Henwood
The Group 2-winning five-year-old resumes in the P B Lawrence Stakes today and is on course for a crack at the Caulfield Cup
Owner Danielle Henwood struggled to sell shares in Nonconformist (Rebel Raider), a horse she and her mother bred, and now the horse that nobody wanted is on a genuine path towards the Caulfield Cup (Gr 1, 2400m) this spring.
Already a Group 2 winner of the Alister Clark Stakes (2040m) at Moonee Valley in 2020, the five-year-old gelding resumes in the P.B. Lawrence Stakes (Gr 2, 1400m) at Caulfield today.
“I could never in a million years ever imagine that I would have a horse half as capable as this guy and to be able to share it with mum is particularly nice,” Henwood said.
“It’s incredible, you never think that Group races are going to be in your vision, especially when it’s a home-bred, but in saying that you dream about having horses in Group races and he’s kicking off in a Group 2 at the start of his preparation which is extraordinary.
“He’s beyond any expectation that I could have possibly had of him.”
Nonconformist’s dam is Good Thinking (Hold That Tiger), a mare that Henwood’s father Daryl passed on to her after he decided to leave the breeding game.
“The mare we had was no superstar but she was handy enough, but dad threw all his toys out the cot and decided to sell most of his mares and I asked ‘what are you doing with this mare?’ and he said ‘you can have it’,” recalled Hendwood.
At the time, Good Thinking was residing at respected horsewoman Sally Watkins’ farm ‘Willaroon’ at Benalla in Victoria and, out of pure convenience, Henwood decided to send her to a stallion that was standing at Wyndholm Park just down the road in the shape of VRC (Gr 1, 2500m) and South Australian Derby (Gr 1, 2500m) winner Rebel Raider (Reset).
The resultant foal was Nonconformist but, when it came time to start getting him ready for the racetrack and share some of the costs, nobody wanted to get involved.
“Mum and I tried to syndicate him and it was diabolical. Nobody wanted a share in a horse that was a stayer. Mum and I retained 80 per cent and a first time owner took a share and a cousin of mine took the other 10 per cent.
“Dad swears and curses whenever the horse goes to the races because he didn’t want anything to do with it,” she laughed.
It didn’t take long for the horse to show some ability on the race track and he broke through for his first win in a maiden over 1600 metres at Pakenham in January 2020.
The following month he stepped up at Caulfield and won again, suddenly going from being unwanted to in demand, with strong interest coming in from the Asian market.
“You can rest assured that everyone was interested in the horse as an overseas prospect after his first preparation but money can’t buy the experience of watching your horse win,” Henwood said.
It doesn’t matter whether it’s Flemington or the middle of the bush, it’s an incredible feeling especially when you have bred them yourself.”
Now the Caulfield Cup is on the agenda for the horse and Henwood is more than pleased she resisted the temptation to sell and is enjoying every single step of the fairytale journey.
Nonconformist’s sire and dam have both passed on with Good Thinking producing only one more foal after him. Sadly, she died just three months after giving birth to the colt after suffering a severe bout of colic.
That horse, now a three-year-old, is a son of Master Of Design (Redoute’s Choice) and, like his older half-brother, is also in work with trainer Grahame Begg.
According to Henwood he’s showing positive progress in his training.
“He’s coming along relatively slowly. Nonconformist is more like a Kenyan marathon runner this guy is like a rugby full back,” she said.
“We hope to get him to the jump-outs this prep.”
Henwood is still pinching herself that the give-away mare Good Thinking has left her with two handy horses.
“These two horses mean the world to me and they have been a shining light during these times in the world,” she reflected.
Today, Nonconformist will carry the Henwood family’s racing colours (black with gold maltese cross) at Caulfield and she says just making it that far is more than enough.
“We have raced a lot of horses without a whole lot of success. It’s not all about winning races at Flemington, for us it’s a fair bit of fun taking them to country races. The satisfaction of just winning a race is more than enough,” she said.