FORMER Inglewood man Dick Leech has claimed the biggest win of his thoroughbred racing career.
Leech moved to the Northern Territory and established a concrete pumping business before venturing into horse training.
He has just trained Write Your Name to the $110,000 Alice Springs Cup (2000 metres) at Pioneer Park. Write Your Name had hardly raced beyond 1400 metres until last month’s cup but hit the front at the top of the home straight.
“I had trotters in Victoria with my father Norm and when I moved to the Territory there was obviously no trotters, so I bought a couple of thoroughbreds and that got me away from pumping concrete,” Leech said.
He is based in Darwin at the Fannie Bay racecourse but has also recently established a permanent base in Alice Springs at Pioneer Park, with the satellite stable providing the opportunity to offer variety to his horses as well as target the regular meetings in the Red Centre.
“We always do Alice for the carnival but we have set up a pre-training stable in Alice now as well where we will do a lot of pre-training and then bring them to Darwin,” he said.
“It is good country for the horses in Alice. They love the country and you have got more facilities to work them. You can work them in the Todd River, at the pool and the track at Pioneer Park. 
“You don’t have to be on the track every day whereas in Darwin you have fewer options,” said the successful Northern Territory trainer.
Write Your Name started the Alice Springs Cup the bookies’ favourite.