ROGER MILNE WINS WAYNE WILSON MEDAL

By Graham Potter | Friday, September 9, 2011

Roger Milne is the inaugural winner of the Wayne Wilson medal.

The Toowoomba based trainer swept away the award courtesy of his outstanding effort in setting up and overseeing Captain Sonador’s superb win in the Group 1 Epsom Handicap at Randwick back in October.

Part of Milne's prize was an all expenses paid trip to the Cox Plate donated by Ambassador Travel.

Ray Stevens was the guest speaker at the event.

Milne outgunned eleven other contenders to take out the medal, an award initiated by the Trainers’ Association.

Monthly winners for the 2010/2011 season were selected by Wayne Wilson and then the names of those winners and their particular achievements were passed on to seven judges who delivered the final outcome.

The medal is an award with a difference in that the voting criteria laid down for the judges focused solely on the individual performance for which each contender had been nominated. It had nothing to do with anything else that occurred during the racing season or any overall performance.

Milne was the only trainer listed to secure a Group 1 victory.

The final field that lined up for the 2010/2011 Wayne Wilson medal was:

August winner: Trevor Thomas for his effort getting Jedi Starfighter to win at huge odds at Doomben. Thomas has a small team of horses based at Caloundra and together with his wife Kerry caught all the punters napping at 200-1.

September winner: Nineteen-year-old Ben Currie from Toowoomba scored his fifth win in seven starts with Rothera. Currie, who mixes his training with studying journalism, has a team of twelve in training.

October winner: Roger Milne for winning the Group 1 Epsom Handicap at Randwick with Captain Sonador. Milne is based at Westbrook's Bahram Stud Training Centre on the outskirts of Toowoomba where he currently has a team of 14 horses.

November winner: Norm Hilton for winning the Group 3 Chatham Stakes where Poor Judge upset the locals by winning at Flemington on Derby Day. Hilton, who has been in the industry for over 20 years, is stabled the course at Clifford Park and has a team of about 20 in work.

December winner: Ben Ahrens for winning the Group 3 Summer Cup at Randwick on Boxing Day with his 5yo gelding Spechenka. Ahrens had Spechenka spot on for the 2400m against the best stayers going around. Ben trains a team of 14 from his family owned property "Epsom Lodge" at Beaudesert.

January winner: Tony Gollan for winning the Magic Millions Sprint at the Gold Coast with his classy sprinter Temple of Boom. Gollan has thirty-eight horses in work. He is based at Westbrook's Bahram Stud Training centre on the outskirts of Toowoomba.

February winner: Darryl Hansen for Essington’s win in race-record time in the Falvelon Quality Handicap at Eagle Farm. Hansen and his team of 25 horses based at Caloundra.

March winner: Pat Sexton with his stable star Lucky Leak. This five year-old won four starts in a row culminating in the Weetwood Handicap victory. Sexton is based on track at Toowoomba where he has 20 horses in work.

April winner: Michael Jacobs with his ill-fated son off Dubai Destination, Al Mazaya. After winning his last four starts in a row it was devastating for Jacobs and his connections to lose the home-bred 4yr old who had won them over $200,000 from his 9 career wins.

May winner: Robert Heathcote. On BTC Cup Day when all focus was on Black Caviar and the host of interstate invaders, the leading local trainer had success with Humma in the Group 3 Chairman's Hcp and Fillydelphia in the Group 3 Rough Habit Plate.

June winner: John Manzelmann. Rocket to Glory won his fourth race in ten starts when he landed the QTIS 600 2yo race in Rockhampton on 25th June. This followed his win in the Parry Nissan 2yo race in Townsville earlier in the month.

July winner: John Dann. John trained a winning metropolitan double at Eagle Farm with Chandra and Tea Tattle on July 23rd. With a small team of only four horses based at Westbrook this exciting city double followed a winning double in Rockhampton in June.

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