Eugowra owned filly, Read About Lexy has been one of the quiet achievers of the 2014 racing season but in the eyes of her owner, Lex Crosby, she is a superstar.
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The daughter of Sportswriter and Lexys Laughing certainly made harness racing followers stand up and take notice when she not only took out the $50,000 Pepper Tree Farm NSW Breeders Challenge “Blue” Final at Tabcorp Park Menangle on July 12, but also claimed the Australian record for two year old fillies when she posted a 1.54.6 mile rating.
Read About Lexy is just knee high to a grasshopper but that doesn’t stop her in any way and she now has a reputation of rattling home in her races, something she did in brilliant fashion when she took out the group two feature at headquarters.
Starting a short priced $2.50 favourite, Read About Lexy’s trainer, driver, Bernie Hewitt allowed her to drop to the tail of the field at barrier rise, a smart move as the leaders carved out a sizzling 25.9 second first quarter.
Hewitt was able to grab a nice trail three wide at the 600 metre mark, making up valuable ground before dashing past the leaders over the concluding stages to score by 10-and-a-quarter metres.
The $30,000 winner’s cheque boosted the bonny filly’s earnings to over $60,000 from four wins and five placings.
The only time she has missed a placing was in the Group 1 Breeders Challenge Final when she finished a creditable fifth.
Read About Lexy only started racing back in February and recorded her first win at Penrith.
She just missed out on gaining a start in the Bathurst Gold Tiara and showed how unlucky she was by coming from last on the home turn to take out the Tiara Consolation, with a time that was just three tenths of a second slower than the final winner, Makes Every Scents who had beaten her in the qualifier.
Then she came out and beat the same filly in the Breeders Challenge heat at Young on May 23, rating a slashing 1.58.
A third placing in the Tatlow Stakes for 2yo Fillies at Melton (Victoria) last Saturday night behind New Zealand filly, Katy Perry popped another $5,000 into Lex Crosby’s pocket and it was enough for him and Bernie Hewitt to decide that their stable star had done enough this term so she is now enjoying a well-earned rest at Crosby’s property.
So what about Lex Crosby, how did he come to be involved in harness racing?
The 61-year-old livestock buyer has had a very interesting life and harness racing has been very much a part of it.
Lex’s father Jim who was a dairy farmer at North Rocks got into the sport back in 1955 and Lex and his nine older siblings were all interested in the sport growing up.
“We were regulars at Menangle in the early years as we could attend the midweek meetings out there, having a break between milkings”, Lex said.
Jim raced horses with the late Greg Sarina, the most notable being Brown Snake and the smart mare Big Sister who descended from his first mare Winsome Like.
Read About Lexy is a descendant of Big Sister and in fact is the eighth generation of the breed that Jim Crosby kicked off with.
“Two of my brothers had a crack at driving in races,” he said.
“Russ drove Rapid Flow in a race at Fairfield one day and had a fall, I don’t think he drove again. Brother Andy drove a daughter of Rapid Flow namely Flowing In, the mother of Big Sister who won races”, Lex recalls.
“When dad died, mum continued breeding pacers and I had drifted off to the galloping industry. After mum’s passing I felt that I wanted to keep the family breed going so I continued breeding from Big Sister,” Lex said.
Lex’s time as a galloping trainer spans more than 40 years.
But he had a break from that sport for 28 years and only recently returned to the fold, winning his first race this time around at the idyllic setting of Bedgerebong with a smart neddy named Red Letters.
Red Letters has since won the Cobar Cup and the Orange Picnic Cup while another smart galloper in Lex’s care is the former Sydney trained mare, Dukes Lass who recently won two on the trot.
Crosby’s record this time around is imposing, having saddled up 21 runners for nine wins.
And if you think Lex has been idle in between that, think again.
After leaving Agnes Banks in Sydney, Lex has lived in Cowra and Wagga before his move to Eugowra 18 years ago where he purchased two properties, around 2000 acres in total.
These moves were prompted by his “day job” as a buyer of sheep and cattle for exporting to countries like Japan, Korea and Turkey.
Lex has made a vast number of trips overseas as part of his profession with well-known local company, Lachley Meats being one of his associations.
Travelling all over the countryside must surely take up most of Lex’s time but not to be denied, Lex also has another string to his bow, that being his president’s role of the highly successful Eugowra Harness Racing Club.
Lex took over around the time that the Equine Influenza outbreak engulfed the racing industry and he has been at the helm ever since.
He admits that leading a club that conducts two meetings a year is a lot easier than neighbouring clubs such as Parkes and Dubbo.
“I’m not sure how they do it to be honest”, Lex said.
“I know how much hard work is done by volunteers here at Eugowra for our two day carnival so to have to do that all year round must be a real challenge.”
Lex enjoys being part of the Canola Cup and was involved with the concept before he was at the helm.
The club came up with the novel idea of raising steers for sale and Lex assisted with the sale of the cattle which raised the funds that catapulted the Canola Cup Series to being the richest series for novice pacers in Australia.
And as they say, the rest is history -it seems now that everyone wants a piece of the Eugowra action.
As for Read About Lexy, she is enjoying a well-earned rest and some loving pats from her owner.
Lex’s wife Sally says that since Read About Lexy arrived home on Monday, her husband has spent all of his spare time by his talented filly’s side giving her the royal treatment.
She will now have three months off before returning to Bernie and Cath Hewitt’s Georges Plains stable to prepare for her three-year-old campaign where she will hopefully shape up for races such as the Bathurst Gold Bracelet, Breeders Challenge and the various Oaks classics.